50. Патриарх Никон

Nikon, in holy baptism Nikita, was born in 1605 in the village of Veldemanovo (within the current Makaryevsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province) and was the son of a peasant. Having lost his mother early, he suffered a lot of grief from his evil stepmother. However, he managed to learn to read and write, and reading spiritual books aroused in him a desire for monasticism. At the age of twelve he secretly went to the monastery of St. Macarius of Zheltovodsk. Here the youth Nikita surprised the brethren with the strength of his character and spiritual exploits. After some time, however, his relatives convinced him to return to the world and get married. Skilled in reading and understanding church books, he took the place of a clerk at one rural church, and then was promoted to priest. At the request of Moscow merchants, who knew him back in the Makaryev Monastery, he was transferred to Moscow. Priest Nikita had children, but after 10 years of married life they all died. Then he convinced his wife to go to a monastery, and he himself retired to the Anzersky monastery on the White Sea (near the Solovetsky Monastery) and accepted monasticism with the name Nikon. In this monastery he did not find the strictness of hermitage that he was looking for, and moved to the Kozheezersk hermitage, where he was soon appointed abbot. Due to the needs of the monastery, he arrived in Moscow, where Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich saw him. Fiery zeal for the good of the Church and the Fatherland, a strong and open character, a bright mind, extensive knowledge, strict rules of life, and finally, Nikon’s majestic appearance struck the Tsar, who fell in love with him as a friend and, in order to bring him closer to himself, transferred him to the Novospassky Monastery. Treasuring the king’s favor, Nikon tirelessly tried to expand his education by reading spiritual books and started an extensive library. He spent Friday of every week in the Tsar's palace: here together they considered the petitions of widows, orphans and the unfortunate, and on the way back Nikon announced the Tsar's favors. Then for about three years he was metropolitan in Novgorod with special authority from the tsar to oversee the entire administration and free, at his discretion, prisoners from prison. In Novgorod, Nikon introduced the best singing in churches, leisurely and intelligible reading, established a printing house, four almshouses, and during the famine he fed the poor every day in his yard. Once there was an uprising in Novgorod: the rebels wanted to kill the royal governor, Prince Khilkov, and he came running to seek protection from the bishop. Nikon fearlessly went out to the rebels. At first he meekly admonished them, then he began to threaten them with the curse and judgment of God. Then stones rained down on him, and the mob beat him half to death. With great difficulty, he got up, but did not go home, but, after serving the liturgy in the St. Sophia Cathedral, from there he went with a procession of the cross to that part of the city where the riot was greatest. Struck by his firmness, the rebels humbled themselves and asked Nikon for forgiveness and intercession with the king. Not remembering his offense, Nikon asked the king for mercy for them. Prudent meekness in punishment finally humbled the disobedient. The Tsar thanked Nikon for his selfless service and became even more attached to him. Upon the death of Patriarch Joseph, the Tsar offered the throne of Patriarch Nikon. Knowing the envy and enmity of the boyars, Nikon refused him for a long time. Finally, in the Assumption Cathedral, in front of all the people, the Tsar began to ask Nikon with tears to accept the patriarchate. Then Nikon, turning to the Tsar and the boyars, asked them: “Will he be revered as an archpastor and father and will he be allowed to build a Church?” Everyone said that “they will and will give,” and Nikon accepted the patriarchate on June 25, 1652. In the first five years of his reign, Nikon had the closest friendship with the tsar. Without the patriarch, as in the time of Filaret, not a single state matter was resolved, and the state affairs of that time bear the stamp of Nikon’s genius. We mainly owe him the annexation of Little Russia. When a war with Poland broke out over this annexation and the tsar went on a campaign, then the administration of the state was entrusted to Nikon. The royal boyars came to him every day in the morning with reports and could not accomplish any important business without him. Nikon showed especially energetic activity on the occasion of the pestilence that broke out in Russia. He sent letters about precautions against infection and preserved the royal family. For these services, the tsar honored Nikon with the title of great sovereign. This title was even higher for Nikon than for Filaret: he bore it as the father of the king, this one as the patriarch. The power of the patriarch was already completely equated with royal power. The monastic order under Nikon had no meaning. The Code was supplemented by new laws from the Helmsman's Book, favorable to church authority. Using the influence of the king, Nikon built his famous monasteries: Iversky, Krestny and founded the New Jerusalem. But at this height of position, Patriarch Nikon aroused many enemies against himself. Leading the life of a strict ascetic and wholeheartedly devoted to duty, he was very exacting towards others. He especially irritated the boyars. At that time, foreign customs began to penetrate into Russia, and Nikon condemned them without any hesitation. Soon a strong party of boyars Streshnevs, Miloslavskys, Morozovs, Odoevskys and other adherents of Western novelty formed against the patriarch. At the same time, the patriarch aroused strong hatred for himself on the part of adherents of imaginary antiquity by correcting liturgical books and church rituals. You might be interested in: