On March 20, 2026, after a long illness, in the 78th year of his life, Mitred Archpriest Basil Mysak, cleric of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and rector of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, reposed in the Lord.
Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Temporary Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and Canada, expresses his deep condolences to the family, loved ones, spiritual children and parishioners of the departed. In agreement with the family of Fr. Basil and the Parish Council, the archpastor blessed the funeral service to be held on Friday evening, March 27, and the funeral Liturgy and burial on Saturday, March 28, at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Scranton.
On the evening of March 20, after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the acting Chancellor of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Hegumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov), served a panikhida for the newly reposed Archpriest Basil at St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York, attended by the clergy and parishioners of the cathedral.
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Archpriest Basil Mysak was born on October 2, 1948, in Passaic, New Jersey, into a family of devout Catholics. As Fr. Basil himself recalled, “after finishing parochial school and college, I entered the Congregation of Marian Fathers — a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church — to prepare for the priesthood of the Byzantine rite. I spent three years with the Marians; during that time I completed two years of college at Xaverian College in Silver Spring, Maryland. Having concluded after much prayer and reflection that a life bound by monastic vows was not my true calling, I left the congregation in the summer of 1969. It was at this time that I began attending services at Three Saints Church in Garfield, New Jersey. Wishing to come to know Orthodoxy more deeply, I began receiving instruction in the faith from the rector of the church, Priest Igor Burdikoff. After many months of study, prayer and deep reflection, guided by the Holy Spirit, I was received into the Orthodox faith on April 14, 1971, and the next day — Great Thursday — I received Holy Communion for the first time, to be strengthened in the faith. On March 3, 1973, I was married to Pamela Payson at Three Saints Church.”
On October 7, 1973, at Three Saints Church, Basil was tonsured a reader and subdeacon by Bishop Makary, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, and in December 1974 he was ordained a deacon in the same church.
On July 30, 1978, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Kliment, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, at St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York.
In 1984 he was elevated to the rank of archpriest by His Holiness Patriarch Pimen of Moscow and All Rus’, and in 1988 was awarded the right to wear the jeweled cross.
From 1978 to 1985 he was rector of Three Saints Church in Garfield, New Jersey, and from August 1 [1985] until the day of his repose, rector of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
In 2012 His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ awarded him the right to wear the miter, and on March 6, 2026, for the feast of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, the right to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with the Royal Doors open until the Cherubic Hymn.