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There are several Saint Basils in history. Saint Basil the Great lived in Cappadocia in Asia Minor in the 4th century. He was an important Christian theologian, but was not the saint after whom the Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin in Red Square was popularly named. That honor went to Saint Basil Fool for Christ. Basil Fool for Christ, sometimes referred to as Basil the Blessed, was born in 1468 and died in 1552, the year of Ivan the Terrible's victory over the Tartars in Kazan. Basil was something of an eccentric, popular with the masses as well as with Ivan. He is buried in a chapel on the eastern side of the cathedral and legend has it that Ivan personally carried the body into the chapel for burial.
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