Saint Basil or Vasily (known also as Vasily Blazhenny, Basil Fool for Christ, Basil the Blessed, Wonderworker of Moscow, or Blessed Basil of Moscow, Fool for Christ) is a Russian Orthodox saint of known as ‘yurodivy’ or ‘holy fool for Christ’. He was formally canonised around 1580.
He was born to serfs in December of 1468 or 1469 in Yelokhovo, near Moscow (now in Moscow). It’s believed, he was born on the portico of the local church where his mother prayed for easy birth. He is thought to have died in 1552 or 1557.
St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is named after the saint. Originally an apprentice shoemaker in Moscow, he adopted an eccentric lifestyle of shoplifting and giving to the poor to shame the miserly and help those in need. He is thought to have had the gift of clairvoyance. Once a man came to the shoemaker asking for good boots that would last him for years. Basil laughed and said the man did not need the boots as he would die tomorrow, and it happened just as Basil said.
He lived on the Red square itself when it was serving as Moscow’s prime market place. Once St. Basil threw about breads of a baker, and the man had to confess he added lime to flour. In 1547 St. Basil came to a cathedral in the center of Moscow and started praying in tears. Next day the Great Fire of Moscow happened, and it started in the church where the saint prayed.
He went naked and weighed himself down with chains. He rebuked Ivan the Terrible for not paying attention in church, and especially for his violent behaviour towards the innocent.
When he died on August 2, 1552 or 1557, St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, served his funeral with many clergy. Ivan the Terrible himself acted as pallbearer and carried his coffin to the cemetery. He is buried in St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, which was commissioned by Ivan IV to commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan. The cathedral is also known as “The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moa”. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ.
Many Catholics who are middle-class and wealthy have never encountered a poor person. Socialism has destroyed charity in Europe as well, and only those who are holy can see the reality of the poor. But, there is another class of poor; those in penury.
Penury is described as "a state of extreme poverty or destitution; "their indigence appalled him"; "a general state of need exists among the homeless" indigence, pauperism, pauperization, need impoverishment, poorness, poverty - the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions mendicancy, mendicity, beggary - the state of being a beggar or mendicant; "they were reduced mendicancy"http://www.thefreedictionary.com/penury
The nuns I stayed with are greatly in need as are many orders. Oddly, orders do not help each other-that is, the rich orders do not necessarily help the poor ones. Some do.
But, the real poor are those without families or a network of people to want to help them. There is too much judgement about the poor and those in penury. Those who are alone are invisible.
Catholics are not good about helping in England. There are three people I know who have open hearts for the poor. One is in London, one in Kent and one in Walsingham. They are spiritual people, seeing with the eyes of Christ. The Irish have fallen into the greed of the Celtic Tiger era and few want to face the real poor. They want socialism and even Marxism. The days of charity have passed.
Judgement abounds, especially with regard to those who are mentally ill and have no safety nets.
This is true in every country where I have lived. Malta is better than most and there are shelters in large cities run by businessmen, not the Church.
The Church has become so middle class in most places that those who are poor are not seen. People think poverty is like the measles. If they get too close, they shall catch it.
Christ was very clear on the poor, being always with us and always needing. That is our job. I live on very little. Still, when I can, I get a sandwich and orange juice for the man who sits outside Sainsbury's and begs. Why not? He is always grateful. He is hungry, cold and wet. I am not going to judge him. That is not my job. He needs to be fed. That is my job.
He is Christ. But, Christ is increasingly invisible, not seen, by those who think all must be deserved.
The undeserving poor is a Victorian invention; even the term is Victorian.
The undeserving includes me, you, all of us, who have been saved by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, who have been given sanctifying grace in the sacraments. Do not judge..help. You may be surprised someday.
Many years ago,a nun who helped me come back to the Faith, said to be like the foxes in their holes was not to be like Christ. Christ's words are not understood as reality. People think these words are poetry. Poverty is not poetic. It is hard and demeaning. It is a way to perfection. It makes one humble as one is constantly insulted. This is a great joy. Why, I do not understand, but it is. One can identify with God Himself, Who left the throne of the universe to walk in a miserable dusty, dry country for our sake. Do you understand that Christ allowed Himself to be dirty, to smell bad, to have dirty, unwashed hair, to wear very old clothes, to look like an indigent person? He did this for three years. But, He calls some to live like this by choice, and some not by choice.
Those who cannot understand Vasily, do not understand me. I am not a miracle worker. I do not wear chains. But, I choose the hard way. And have for many years. Why is it that the Russians recognized Vasily? Why is it that those in power listened to him? Innocence, purity of heart, clarity of vision, not being held back by vested interested. Vasily was truly free. This is what I desire. To be free in order for God to love me totally, with nothing in the way, no impediments to His Love entering my small heart.
Freedom has a great price.
Matthew 8:19
19 καὶ προσελθὼν εἷς γραμματεὺς εἶπεν αὐτῷ, διδάσκαλε, ἀκολουθήσω σοι ὅπου ἐὰν ἀπέρχῃ. 20 καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν καὶ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνώσεις, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν κλίνῃ. 21 ἕτερος δὲ τῶν μαθητῶν εἶπεν αὐτῷ, κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθεῖν καὶ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου. 22 ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτῷ, ἀκολούθει μοι, καὶ ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάψαι τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς.
19 Et accedens unus scriba, ait illi : Magister, sequar te, quocumque ieris. 20 Et dicit ei Jesus : Vulpes foveas habent, et volucres cæli nidos; Filius autem hominis non habet ubi caput reclinet. 21 Alius autem de discipulis ejus ait illi : Domine, permitte me primum ire, et sepelire patrem meum. 22 Jesus autem ait illi : Sequere me, et dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos.
19 And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow you wherever you shall go. 20 And Jesus said to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head. 21 And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.
The invisible.....