49. Патриарх Филарет

Patriarch Filaret, in the world Theodore, was the son of the boyar Nikita Romanovich Yuryev-Zakharyin, the brother of Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible. Tsar Boris, suspecting the Romanovs of treason, ordered him to be forcibly tonsured a monk and sent him into captivity in the Anthony-Siysky Monastery near Kholmogory. False Dmitry I summoned him, as if his relative, from captivity, and Philaret was granted the metropolis of Rostov. At the same time, the nun Marfa, his former wife (in the world Ksenia Ivanovna), and his son Mikhail from the Belozersk monastery were summoned from the Zaonezhsky churchyard and settled in Kostroma. Metropolitan Philaret showed a remarkable example of fortitude and pastoral love during the rebel attack on Rostov under the second impostor. Most of its inhabitants retired to Yaroslavl; The Metropolitan remained in Rostov and celebrated the liturgy, preparing for martyrdom along with the other remaining residents. The rebels broke down the church doors, burst into the cathedral and killed many people, grabbed the metropolitan and the barefoot man, in a tattered Polish dress and a Tatar hat, and took him to the camp of the Tushino thief. Two years later it was recaptured from the rebels by Skopin-Shuisky’s detachment. When negotiations began in Moscow with the Poles about the election of Vladislav to the kingdom, Metropolitan Philaret and Prince Golitsyn were sent to Sigismund near Smolensk as great ambassadors from the patriarch, boyars and people. Here they insistently demanded from Sigismund that not he, but his son Vladislav reign in Moscow, and not otherwise than by accepting Orthodoxy, and did not yield to the king even when a letter was sent to them from the boyars from Moscow to rely on his will in everything, relying on the fact that the letter did not have the patriarchal signature. The irritated Sigismund, contrary to accepted rules, sent the great ambassadors to Poland, and here they were kept in captivity for about 8 years. When Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov was elected to the throne, the Poles, having the sovereign’s father in captivity, hoped for great concessions from the Russians in their favor. But the valiant Filaret wrote to his son so that for his sake he would not yield a single inch of Russian land to the Poles. After the Peace of Deulino, concluded in 1618, Filaret, together with other captives, returned to Russia and then, in June 1619, he was solemnly installed as patriarch by the Jerusalem Patriarch Theophan. Filaret served as patriarch for 14 years, until 1633. He established the first diocese in Siberia and established a patriarchal Greek-Latin school in the Chudov Monastery. Everything that was beneficial for Russia in the first half of the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich, such as the final reconciliation with Poland, Sweden and the Tatars, the taming of internal rebellions, the restoration of devastated cities, the increase in state revenues and military forces, was accomplished with the direct and active participation of Filaret. The patriarch was not only an adviser, but also a co-ruler of the king. His name was written in documents along with the royal name 74; Reports were made to both and foreign ambassadors introduced themselves. At the court of the patriarch, the same orders and the same staff were established as the tsar: boyars, okolnichy, tiuns, attorneys, boyar children, clerks, clerks, etc. Patriarchal orders were established: judicial, church affairs, state and palace, in each order sat the patriarchal boyar with a clerk and clerks, decided cases and made reports to the patriarch. In general, the power and significance of the patriarch under Filaret reached unprecedented strength and significance. Filaret Nikitich's successors, Patriarchs Joasaph I (1634–1640) and Joseph (1642–1652), due to their personal qualities, could not have the importance that he enjoyed. In the code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and especially in the establishment of the monastic order, significant restrictions were placed on patriarchal power and the rights of the clergy. But once again, in all the splendor of state greatness, the patriarchal power appears in the person of Filaret’s third successor, the famous Patriarch Nikon. - In the decrees they wrote: “The Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich of All Russia and his father, the Great Sovereign, His Holiness Patriarch Filaret Nikitich of Moscow and All Russia, indicated.” You might be interested in: