Why did Saint Basil go naked when he lived. Saint blessed Basil, fool for Christ's sake, Moscow miracle worker - saints - history - catalog of articles - unconditional love. Infantile teenager or denouncer of untruth
People who embarked on such a difficult path seemed crazy, ignored all the benefits, meekly destroyed the hail of endless barbs, disrespectful treatment, various punishments.
Speaking allegorically, they tried to find a way to human hearts and souls, spread ideas kindness and compassion, denounced foolishness and prejudice.
Not all people managed to pacify the grains of pride, not to take into account bodily needs, to become nobler than others in spirit. One of these - Blessed Basil- a glorious and revered holy fool.
Birth and youth
The course of his being is amazing (from the start). December 1469(according to other sources - 1464). Stepping onto the church porch serf Anna(Epiphany Cathedral in the village of Yelokhovo). She came to pray for an easy delivery.
The sounds of her prayer were heard by the Virgin Mary. In the same place, Anna had a boy, they named him Vasily (named Vasily Nagoy). A crystal soul and an open heart is what he came into the world with.
His father and mother are from serfs. They were pious, honored Christ, founded their existence according to his commandments. From childhood, they instilled in their son a courteous and reverent attitude towards God. Vasily grew up, and, wishing a good better son, his father and mother decided to attach him to shoe business.
Work as an apprentice
The young disciple stood out for his diligence and humility. His master would never understand how an unusual person Was Vasily, if not for one unexpected incident.
A trader stepped into the doorway. A man approached a shoemaker with a request to sell him good boots that would last for many years. Vasily, shedding tears, said that a man does not need boots, since he will die tomorrow and it happened exactly as Basil said.
Road to Moscow
Because of this incident, Vasily decided to say goodbye to the shoe business and put his life on the thorny path of stupidity. Until his death, he lived without any expenses uninsured from mockery and insults, having only an invisible guardian - faith and unshakable love for the Lord.
He left his parents and went to the capital. At first, people with amazement and taunts perceived the wonderful naked guy. But soon the townspeople recognized him as a man of God, for Christ's sake a fool.
What was he like
Saint Basil (also known as Basil the Blessed, Basil the Fool, Wonderworker of Moscow or Blessed Basil of Moscow, a fool for Christ) - Russian Orthodox saint, known as the "holy fool" or "holy fool" of Jesus Christ. He was officially canonized about in 1580.
St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is named after the saint. Initially an apprentice shoemaker in Moscow, he took eccentric Lifestyle, but helping those in need. It is believed that he had the gift of clairvoyance.
He lived on Red Square itself, when this place served as the main market in Moscow. One day St. Basil threw away the baker's bread, and the man had to confess that he was adding lime to the flour. In 1547 Saint Basil came to the central cathedral in Moscow and began to pray tearfully.
The next day, the Great Moscow Fire broke out, and it started in the church exactly where the saint prayed.
They also talk about other miracles of St. Basil. Once a merchant consulted with him: the church vaults, which he erected, collapsed for three unknown reasons. The holy fool advised him to find a poor man (Ivan in Kyiv).
Following the recommendations, the merchant found a lad in a poor house (he was finishing an empty cradle). The merchant asked what that meant. The poor man explained that in this way he decided to show respect to his mother. The unfortunate "architect" understood why the Miracle Worker sent him here.
In fact, even earlier, he kicked his mother out of the house. Not regretting what he had done, he wanted to praise the Almighty for the built temple. The creator refused to accept the gift from the man who was not a good soul. Blessed Vasily helped this man: he repented, reconciled with his mother, and she forgave him.
holy elder remained naked and dragged heavy chains behind him. He reproached Ivan the Terrible for not paying attention to the church, and especially for his cruel treatment of the innocent.
Presented to the Lord
When Basil the Blessed died ( August 2, 1552 or 1557), Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow served at his funeral with many members of the clergy. Ivan the Terrible himself behaved like a friend of the Wonderworker and carried his coffin to the cemetery.
The elder is buried in St. Basil's Cathedral (in Moscow), which was commissioned for construction by Ivan IV (in memory of the capture of the Kazan Khanate). The cathedral is also famous as the "Cathedral of the Intercession Holy Mother of God that is on the Moat." In 1588, Fyodor Ivanovich added a chapel on the eastern side over the grave of St. Basil.
Basil the Blessed, the most famous of the holy fools with whom Rus' abounded, was born in 1468 in the village of Yelokhovo, not far from Moscow, into the family of pious peasants Jacob and Anna.
From childhood, he led an ascetic life, constantly prayed, and even then the first sprouts of Divine grace became visible in him. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. One day a merchant came into the shop and ordered a lot of new boots. Sixteen-year-old Vasily laughed at him. When the customer left, the owner began to ask the young man about the reasons for his behavior. Vasily replied that it was strange to order as many boots as would be enough for many years, because this person should die the next day. His prediction came true. After that, Vasily did not want to stay with the owner anymore, or return to his parents, and went to Moscow.
Lost in the noisy city crowd, he chose the ascetic path of feigned madness in order to partake as fully as possible of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, completely refusing respect from people. Having no permanent home or even a place to lay his head, he lived almost naked on the streets and in public places, spending his nights in prayer on the church porch. Among the crowd, he kept his silence as strictly as hermits in the desert; forced to speak, he pretended to be tongue-tied. Having no close people, renouncing the world and its attachments, he showed great sympathy for the unfortunate, sick and oppressed. He often visited prisoners imprisoned for drunkenness in order to turn them to correction.
In an era when fear and oppression reigned in society, the life of St. Basil served as a living reproach to the unrighteous boyars and a consolation for the destitute. Almost all of his actions had a prophetic meaning. For example, the blessed one many times threw stones at the corners of houses where pious people lived, and when he passed by dwellings whose owners were slumped in sins, he kissed the corners of the walls. When asked about the reasons for such strange behavior, Vasily answered that in houses where holiness reigns there is no place for demons, and therefore, seeing them from the outside, he drove them away with stones. On the contrary, kissing the corners of wicked houses, he greeted the angels who remained outside, unable to enter inside. In the market, he knocked over the stalls of dishonest merchants. Once, having received money from the king, he, contrary to his custom, did not distribute it to the poor, but gave it to a well-dressed merchant, who, having lost his fortune, did not dare to beg and was dying of hunger.
In 1521, when the Tatar army of Mehmet Giray threatened Moscow, Saint Basil, shedding abundant tears, prayed for his homeland in front of the gates of the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. Suddenly, a terrible noise was heard in the church, a flame broke out, and a voice from the Vladimir icon Mother of God announced that She was leaving Moscow because of the sins of its inhabitants. The saint intensified his prayers, and the terrible phenomenon disappeared. Mehmet Giray, who had already set the city suburbs on fire, was driven back from the city by the army that came to the rescue and fled beyond the borders of Rus'.
Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible loved Blessed Basil and treated him with great reverence, just like the holy Metropolitan Macarius. One day the saint, invited to the palace for a royal feast, poured wine out of the window three times. When the tsar angrily asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was putting out the fire in Novgorod. A little later, messengers brought news of a great fire that had actually taken place in Novgorod. The fire, however, did not flare up, because a certain strange-looking man walked naked through the streets and sprinkled the burning houses. Seeing Basil, the messengers recognized in him the man of God who extinguished the flame.
On another occasion, in 1547, the saint began to weep bitterly in front of the temple of the Vozdvizhensky Monastery, in the place where, after some time, a great fire began, devastating Moscow. Shortly after this disaster, when the king was present at Divine Liturgy, blessed, standing in the corner, carefully looked at him. After the liturgy, he said to the king: "You were not in the temple, but in another place." The king began to protest, but Vasily repeated: “You are not telling the truth. I saw how in your thoughts you went to Sparrow Hills to build yourself a new palace there. From that moment on, the king began to fear the saint and respect him even more. But this respect did not prevent him from showing cruelty, which became a byword.
Saint Basil also appeared to people on a ship in distress and saved them from death. He performed many more miracles during the 62 years of his feat of foolishness.
At the age of 88, the saint fell ill. Upon learning of this, the king, along with his family, immediately hurried to him to ask for his prayers. On his deathbed, Basil spoke prophecies about the future of the kingdom, then his face lit up, because he saw a host of angels who had come to receive his soul. Having come to rapture, he reposed in joy on August 2, 1557.
The whole city was then filled with fragrance, and many people gathered for his funeral. The king and his sons carried him on their shoulders to the church, where the metropolitan and the bishops were waiting for them. On the grave of the blessed one, which became a source of healing for the faithful not only from Moscow, but also from other regions, a church was built in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God, in memory of the capture of Kazan. Later, the temple received the nickname of St. Basil's Cathedral among the people.
Miracles associated with the saint did not stop. And in 1588, under Metropolitan Saint Job, Basil the Blessed was canonized. On this day, 120 sick people were healed at the relics of the saint.
Basil the Blessed is revered as the patron saint of Moscow.
Compiled by Hieromonk Macarius of Simonopetra,
adapted Russian translation - Sretensky Monastery Publishing House
Basil the Blessed (1469-1552) - a saint of the Orthodox Church and the famous Moscow holy fool. He is also called Vasily Naga. This man was born in the village of Yelokhovo near Moscow. The mother gave birth to a child right on the porch of the local church when she came to pray for safe delivery. When the boy was 10 years old, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Kitay-gorod. It was there, in the shoe shop, that Vasily's visionary gift first manifested itself.
Basil the Blessed canonized as a saint
Once a townsman came to the shoemaker and ordered to sew boots for him. When the customer left, Vasily told the owner that this order did not need to be fulfilled. The shoemaker was very surprised and asked the boy why he should not sew boots for a man who had just departed. To which the boy replied: “He asked to sew boots in 5 days, and he himself will die tomorrow.”
And indeed, the words of the teenager were confirmed, and a rumor spread around Moscow about the appearance of a clairvoyant. Soon Vasily left the shoe shop and became a holy fool. And in severe cold, and in heat, and in the rain, he walked in one shirt and barefoot. He wore iron chains, slept where necessary. Sometimes he descended into the Moscow dungeons and prayed in pitch darkness for many hours. At the end of the prayer, a mysterious light appeared and visions from the future arose.
Basil the Blessed often spent the night in the Kitai-Gorod Tower near the Varvarsky Gates. Already during his lifetime and for many years after the death of the blessed one, this place was called Vasilyevsky meadow.
In 1525, the Crimean Khan Mahmud Giray suddenly appeared near the Oka with a large army. His detachments began to devastate Kolomna places. They reached the village of Ostrov, near Moscow, and burned the monastery of St. Nicholas on Ugresh. A few days before, Vasily Nagoi had come at night to the western gates of the Assumption Cathedral and prayed for a long time. Then he began to walk around Moscow, warning people about a big trouble.
The famous Moscow holy fool was not at all afraid of Ivan the Terrible
The famous Moscow holy fool was one of the few who was not at all afraid of Ivan the Terrible. He publicly reproached the cruel king for unrighteous actions. Once the sovereign invited the holy fool to his table. Three times they brought wine to the blessed one, and he splashed it on the floor three times.
This behavior angered Ivan the Terrible. If someone did not accept a treat from the king, then he insulted him. But the holy fool explained to the sovereign, who frowned: “By pouring out this drink, I extinguished a great fire in Veliky Novgorod.” And indeed, after 2 days in Moscow it became known that a fire broke out in Novgorod, but people quickly coped with it.
Shortly before the death of Basil the Blessed, Ivan the Terrible came to him with his sons John and Fedor. The king asked to pray for them. At that time, nothing foreshadowed a quarrel between the sovereign and the heir to the throne, John. But the holy fool did not prophesy this. He only said that not John, but the youngest son Fedor, would become the king of the Russian land.
Vasily Nagoy helps a woman
The famous holy fool died on August 2, 1552 at the age of 83. Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself and the boyars closest to him took part in the funeral. The burial was performed by Metropolitan Macarius. In 1588 on local cathedral Vasily Nagoy was canonized as a saint. At about the same time, another church was added to the 9 churches of the Pokrovsky Cathedral - St. Basil's. The popular veneration of the Moscow holy fool was so great that the temple received another name - St. Basil's Cathedral.
When Tsar Fedor ascended the throne, he prayed for days in this temple for the sins of his father. This is what Vasily the Blessed, who appeared in dreams to the young sovereign, commanded to do. It was necessary to atone for sins in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, since it was in this place that thousands of people were executed by order of Ivan the Terrible.
In dreams, the holy fool warned Fyodor Ioannovich, constantly saying: "If the murdered do not forgive, then the temple will go into the ground." It is not known today whether the son atoned for the sins of his father. But experts note that the deformation of St. Basil's Cathedral is gradually taking place. The reason lies in the numerous dungeons, voids, cellars, wells under the cathedral itself and around it. Indeed, under the center of Moscow there is a huge underground city in several tiers.
Underground works, urban transport, high level gas pollution and other negative factors of the modern capital. And the memory of the miracle worker is alive to this day. True believers celebrate it on the day of the death of St. Basil the Blessed on August 2. This is what Patriarch Job decided back in 1588.
Alexey Starikov
Blessed Vasily Blajenniy Career: SaintBirth: Russia, 15.8.1552
The Church of the Intercession on the Moat, which adorns Red Square, was called St. Basil's Cathedral. This is true, since a special Vasilyevsky chapel, connected to the Pokrovsky Cathedral, was built just above the silver-plated casket, studded with pearls and precious stones. It is here that the relics of the saint, who reposed on August 2, are buried (on this day, the 15th according to the new style, Russian Orthodox Church marks his memory) presumably in 1552. How did the holy fool Vasily deserve such love from Muscovites?
The biographical information about St. Basil the Blessed that has come down to our time is extremely scarce and is largely saturated with the aroma of a legend. It is believed that the future saint was born around 1464 in the village of Yelokhovo near Moscow (at the moment it is, in fact, the middle of the capital). Father Jacob and mother Anna, as a boy, gave him as an apprentice to a shoemaker, and already at this early time, as the life tells, the gift of foolishness erupted in him. Vasily first of all laughed at the merchant who ordered boots from his owner, and then burst into tears about the imminent death that awaited him. The prediction soon came true. Thus, those around him were convinced that the thin, unprepossessing teenager, which the future ascetic was at that time, was endowed with the ability to foresee human fate. The heavens directly gave a sign of what his destiny was, and from the age of 16 Vasily chose a field for his whole life, leaving his parental building and starting a wandering existence.
For over seven decades, the same man performed the heroic act of foolishness, deserving, moreover, the veneration of Metropolitan Macarius. Like all the beggars of that era, he did not have any permanent shelter, he lived mostly on the streets, only rarely agreeing to spend the night in the houses of elderly lonely old women, and went almost naked. It is no coincidence that initially he was nicknamed Vasily Nagoy.
As befits the holy fool, he continuously committed deeds that caused a loud social resonance, insane from the point of view of worldly morality, but imbued with deep philosophical sense, in the spirit of the well-known sayings of the Apostle Paul from his First Epistle to the Corinthians: God chose the unwise of the world to shame the wise; We are foolish for Christ, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are in glory, and we are in dishonor.
What was so unusual that Vasily Nagoy allowed himself?
He can constantly reveal the Devil in any form and pursues him everywhere.
FIRST of all, that same holy fool often behaves in the market like an unbridled pogromist destroying bread, kvass and other good-quality goods, because they belong to unscrupulous merchants who rack up extortionate prices. In the houses of seemingly virtuous townspeople, he throws stones and, moreover, kisses the corners of dwellings in which blasphemy is committed, that is, all kinds of indecency. The life of the saint makes it clear that if the former have a crowd of demons outside, eager to please the monastery, then the latter have angels crying inside
The tsar gives gold to Vasily the Nagoy; he does not distribute it, as one should expect, to the poor, but gives the entire amount to the merchant in clean clothes, the one who has lost his fortune, but does not dare to bother with alms. The tsar gives him a goblet of wine, he pours it out the window, in order, as it turns out, to put out a fire that raged over a pile of versts in distant Novgorod. Finally, the holy fool decides, moreover, to smash the miraculous image of the Mother of God in the church at the Barbarian Gates; it turns out that on this board, under the holy image, a demon is drawn. He can always reveal the Devil in any form and pursues him everywhere, writes about Basil the only historian of the church. So he recognized him as a beggar, the one who collected money in bulk from people, sending temporary happiness as a reward for alms. It is not difficult to think that in the reprisal against the beggar-demon, perpetrated by the Blessed, there is morality, directed as a sharp point against the boundless selfishness, masked by ostentatious piety: You gather Christian souls with happiness, you catch them in an avaricious disposition.
Through the prayers of the sinful Basil
From the life of the saint, we learn that Tsar Ivan the Terrible, together with his wife Tsarina Anastasia, visited him shortly before the death of the Blessed One and received a blessing. However, the legends paint the foolish Basil as an irreconcilable fighter against the royal despotism, denouncing her cruelty, tyranny, commitment to luxury. For example, during the Divine Liturgy in the temple, Vasily reproaches the Terrible for the fact that his thoughts were not at the service, but on the Sparrow Hills, where the newly-made highest palace was being built. Although the temple is full of people, the holy fool says, turning to the king, that there was no one at the liturgy, but only three: the paramount metropolitan, the second right-believing queen, and the third he, the sinful Basil.
The holy fool's predictions concerned not only individuals, but at times were of a national nature, affecting the fate of many compatriots. So it was in the early summer of 1521, when Vasily prayed incessantly for the salvation of Moscow from the Tatar invasion. A few weeks passed, and the Crimean Khan Mohammed Giray really approached the walls of the Russian capital and stood in the field. However, he did not take the city and went back to the steppe. Muscovites considered this curiosity the result of the intercession of St. Basil the Blessed. But at times the naked sage felt a near impotence to change the course of events. On June 23, 1547, 5 months after the wedding of Ivan Vasilyevich (who had not yet received the sad nickname the Terrible), Vasily came to the Vozdvizhensky Monastery and prayed in front of the icons on his knees for a single day, then wept heavily in the temple. The next day, a terrible glow engulfed all of Moscow. Half the city burned out, covering the royal mansions. A lot of other testimonies about the miraculous prophecies of the holy fool Vasily have been preserved.
The funeral of the Blessed in the 88th year of his life gathered a great crowd on Red Square, and Macarius himself, Metropolitan of Moscow, buried him in the presence of the tsar and the boyars. They buried the seer, famous throughout Rus', approximately the Church of the Holy Trinity, which stood on the moat, in the very place where, after the capture of Kazan, the architects Barma and Postnik, by order of the tsar, created a cathedral of such wondrous beauty that Rus' had not yet known.
Original taken from ykontakte in
Original taken from lat_elenka How did St. Basil the Blessed live and who was he?
On August 2, 1552, the most famous holy fool of Rus', St. Basil the Blessed Moscow miracle worker, died. His popularity was so great that for several centuries the name of the saint has been overgrown with new legends. 
Myth one: St. Basil the Blessed was a fool
The most common misconception concerning many holy fools in Rus'. It was born because of a misunderstanding of the very meaning of foolishness. Of course, there were the so-called blessed from birth, but the majority accepted foolishness, wandering consciously, as a feat in the name of Christ. As far as can be judged from the surviving traditions, this is exactly what St. Basil the Blessed was. In his youth, he studied shoemaking, but at the age of 16 he embarked on the path of asceticism. And until his death he did not change him. All his actions, which at first seemed like stupid antics of a city madman, had their own explanation and deep meaning. Here the holy fool walks along the shopping malls, and suddenly throws pies from the tray. Noise, hum! The merchants beat Vasily mercilessly, and he only thanks them. And then it turns out that cunning merchants mixed all sorts of filth into pies and rolls. Often they themselves confessed this, feeling shame before the holy fool who denounced them.
Foresight, wisdom, the ability to compare facts - these are the features that distinguished St. Basil the Blessed, but not the dementia that is sometimes attributed to the holy fool. His predictions, dressed in the form of parables, were not always clear, but more and more people were convinced of his wonderful visionary gift, and his fame went far beyond Moscow. Ivan the Terrible himself appreciated and was afraid of the ascetic, and he was not afraid to tell him the truth. Here the tsar invites the Blessed to his chambers for his namesake, treats him with wine. And the holy fool, one by one, pours three glasses out the window. To the anger of the king, he replies that in this way he extinguished the fire in Novgorod. Later, the messengers sent to check these words confirmed: at the very time when St. Basil the Blessed was in the boards, a person similar in appearance to him appeared in the burning city and helped to put out the fire. The great fire really took place in 1547.
The holy fool could only pretend to be a fool, surprising and shocking the audience with his allegories. This is a conscious role, a game, a mask behind which lies a denouncer of human vices, revealing to people the truth about themselves, which they are afraid to admit.
Myth two: St. Basil the Blessed walked naked both in winter and in summer 
Vasily Nagoy - the second nickname of the holy fool. In his life, it is described that he walked without any clothes at any time of the year, and even a legend is given, how women laughed at his appearance, and immediately became blind. And the saint returned sight only to one merchant, who repented before him. However, another legend intersects with this legend. In it, the Blessed One accepts a fox coat as a gift and walks in it in the cold. When dashing people wanted to deceive him and asked him to cover his supposedly deceased comrade with a fur coat, the holy fool did just that. But as soon as the robbers took possession of the desired prey, they saw that the imaginary dead man really died.
The nakedness of the Blessed is rather a symbol of contempt for everything earthly, mortal on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. He was naked and barefoot, as he did not have any property, but as we see, he did not refuse alms. This way of life was accepted by the majority of Russian holy fools, but, of course, they did not go absolutely naked. A spacious linen shirt covered the body, often peeping through the holes, hence the concept of nudity.
Of course, no lifetime images of St. Basil the Blessed have been preserved, and on all the icons we see him naked. This iconographic image created another legend about the great ascetic.
Myth three: St. Basil the Blessed did not have a corner, and lived on the street
He was naked, barefoot, had no property and lived on the street. The homelessness of the holy fool complements his image of a holy wanderer. However, this fact can neither be denied nor confirmed for certain. And yet there is evidence that the holy fool still had a roof over his head. In the Piskarevskaya Chronicle we read: “in the belly of Blessed Vasily, his life was in Kulishki with a boyar widow named Stefanida Yurlova.” The latter is by no means a legendary person, a rich boyar family owned many lands. In one of the lists of the life of the saint, it is also mentioned that he reposed in the house of a certain widow. It is quite possible that we are talking about Yurlova. The fact that the holy fool lived in a rich house, however, is not a surprising fact and does not in the least contradict the mores and customs of that time. Wealthy widows used to look after the orphans and the poor, did generous alms and gave shelter to God's people.
Myth four: the temple was named after St. Basil the Blessed, because he played the fool near its walls under construction 
The further they move historical events, the more fables and conjectures they are overgrown with. Some believe that St. Basil the Blessed and Ivan the Terrible are one person (yes, yes! There are such people), and even the guides tell inconsistencies about the cathedral on Red Square. They say that it was built by Ivan the Terrible in honor of St. Basil the Blessed. Another option - the cathedral was built by Ivan the Terrible, and St. Basil the Blessed fooled near its walls, so the people called the temple in his honor. Both facts are historically incorrect. And they arose, most likely, because they buried this saint, who died in 1552 (there is evidence that in 1551) like no other holy fool in Rus'. The coffin was carried by the tsar himself with the boyars, and the holy fool was buried by Metropolitan Macarius.
The temple began to be built only in 1555 in honor of the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Its full name is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat or the Pokrovsky Cathedral. The connection with St. Basil the Blessed is as follows - the holy fool was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church in the Moat. And after death, the Blessed worked miracles, there is little evidence, but they talk about healings that took place at his grave. Therefore, in 1588 he was canonized. In the same year, at the behest of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, one of the chapels of the Pokrovsky Cathedral was dedicated to St. Basil the Blessed. But the popularity and veneration of the saint was so great that they soon forgot about the true name, and to this day the church on Vasilyevsky Spusk (also a direct connection with the name of the saint) is known throughout the world as St. Basil's Cathedral.
Fifth myth: Surikov portrayed St. Basil the Blessed among the characters in the painting "Boyar Morozova" 
It can also be argued that the traits of a great ascetic and exposer of unrighteous power were embodied in his blessed Nikolka, nicknamed the Iron Cap and Pushkin (drama "Boris Godunov"). It just so happens that the turning points Russian history they cannot do without the holy fools, who “are not afraid of mighty rulers. And they do not need a princely gift. Their prophetic language is truthful and free. And friendly with the will of heaven ”(A. S. Pushkin“ The Song of the Prophetic Oleg ”).
