While Orthodox church leaders praised Ivan as the “unshakeable pillar, the immovable foundation of true Christianity, the holder of the reins of the Holy Church of God which is the throne
of all bishops and priests, the sage helmsman of the ship of this world,” believers throughout Russia saw him quite simply as an incarnation of the devil.
Some who opposed Ivan and his wickedness saw their becoming yurodivi (holy fools) the only option.
The yurodivi threw off all worldly possessions (sometimes including even their clothes) and became wanderers. A few, like a man called Vasily who lived on the streets of Moscow, puzzled everyone. Were they crazy? Or were they only putting into perspective how crazy society had become?
Vasily prayed in sun or snow on the streets. He shambled in and out of shops, taking things from the rich and giving them to the poor. Without fear he walked into Ivan’s palace and told him what was wrong with Russia. One day in Lent he brought the tsar a big piece of raw meat. Ivan was shocked. “I do not eat meat in Lent,” he protested. “Then why,” Vasily asked him, “do you drink the blood of men?”
No one else could have done this and gotten by. But Ivan feared the yurodivi. He suspected they were messengers sent from God, and ordered his men to leave them alone. When Vasily died, Ivan buried him beside the exotic multicoloured church he had built on Red Square in Moscow. People began to call it “Vasily’s church” and after the Orthodox canonised him it became officially St. Vasily’s (St. Basil’s), a name it has kept till today.
