50. 1422 г. августа 8. Его же грамота тверскому епископу Илие, с разрешением рукополагать ставленников из соседних местностей вдовствующей новгородской епархии

This as yet unpublished letter is published according to two lists found in the August book of the Makarievsky Menyas-Chets (Assumption sp. - main - l. 1533–1534 vol. Synod. sp. l. 767 vol.–769). Blessing of Photius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus', in the Holy Spirit to the son and colleague of our humility, Bishop Elijah of Tver. Look, now there is no bishop of Veliky Novgorod without a bishop, and Orthodox Christianity needs to be without priests, and there is no one to supply them there. Formerly, as I am, I came to the most holy Russian metropolis with a letter from the holy patriarch and the all holy ecumenical council, and the ambassadors of the holy king and the holy patriarch and the holy council were sent to them with ecumenical letters about church antiquity, and they had them, so that the church antiquities - the call sign ships - would be released to the church of God and to me, the saint, according to the ancient times of the metropolis of Kyiv and all Rus': and they have not let go of antiquity. And then Vladyka Ivan was with me and I wanted to send that old church thing to 2110, but I didn’t send it. And then they sent Simeon to me, and after that Euthymius, and I made both of them rulers, and those rulers also wanted to send the old church to me. And all those Novgorod ambassadors gave their word that they were old enough to give up to the Church of God and to me. Yes, just as those rulers did not give up the antiquities of the church: so those Novgorodians did not give up the antiquities of God to this day. And that church of God is widowed, and Christians have no shepherd. And now that you ordered me with my boyar with Ivan with Ilyich with Surma, so that you ordain to the priesthood from that archdiocese those who come to you, Novgorod, from the Bezhitsky Verkh and from Volok, deacons to deacons and deacons to the priesthood: and our humility, for the present need of the time about this and for neglect of this Great Novgorod, gives free rein to your love of God, as you liturgize the churches of your bishopric, and from those two authorities who come to you, according to the rules and with torture and with all kinds of spiritual testing, let you place the worthy and reverent into the great priesthood of God. But you did not accept or appoint Novgorod bishops from other authorities, as I myself told you before, and now I am writing, observing my rank according to the rules. And those proteges from those two authorities would come to you, who would come to you with their spiritual fathers, who, the father of that spiritual son, from his youth, knows his life and bodily purity and everything he has done, from the greatest thing to the least; and from six witnesses from the priests from the same ones who know that 2111 life and dignity to the great priesthood of God, taking a letter with their signatures and with their seals, let him bring it to you, who will entrust it: therefore the proteges and everyone has that he is in every possible way spiritually and physically worthy to be appointed to that great priesthood. All those seven priests who arrived had to worry about that dignity; but for the need of the present for the sake of the time and for the removal of that place and Christian souls, I have ordered 2112 so that the spiritual father of whose protege alone would come, taking a letter with their signatures and seals: they would argue and have everything about him in that he is neither a thief, nor a robber, nor a fornicator, nor a predator, nor a slave, nor of other evil deeds, that Divine 2113 and sacred rules prohibit all such things; but in everything he would be virtuous and meek and humble, and would maintain bodily purity from his very kinship until his union with his married wife from the Church of God by the law of God. And whoever, knowing his own unworthiness, dares to do such a great thing, as if he were berating himself badly, or that spiritual father and those six witness priests, knowing that the thing prohibiting him from holding the priesthood, so that the division will cover it, even if it gets damaged, and when that thing of his is exposed, and he himself will be deprived of his rank, then his spiritual father and those priests - his witnesses, his guarantors, will be deprived of the priesthood. And you would have tortured that spiritual father whose protégé had already been given to him about the dignity he was given, and even that very one who wanted to enter the priesthood, with all kinds of spiritual testing, according to the divine and sacred rules, torturing him, according to the above, about all his purity and dignity: you would have guarded about this your soul and your dignity, for this - and torture about this future on the day of the great judgment. And you would not ordain the young in any way, but according to the rules at the age of those who have come and are reverent, but with all sorts of testing, and for no reason: God’s priesthood is not for sale, nor can it be bought. And you would look at this, knowing and torturing firmly, according to the divine and sacred rules, to whom Christian souls should be entrusted worthy. And if you had letters of guarantee for those supplied to you, then you would find out about those supplied to whom what kind of thing is found, and you will be responsible for your rank. And for this reason, this letter of our humility was quickly given, for the approval of that, in Moscow, on the 8th day of August, in the summer of 6930, indictment. 2114 So in both lists; but it seems that it needs to be read and corrected. In both lists, the letter is accompanied by the following critical extract from the Helmsman (see interpretation on 25 of the right khalk. sob.): “Some of the metropolitans, not caring about the shepherds entrusted to them, decided on the bishops existing under them, after the death of the bishop, they do not want to soon install something else. The rule commands: if a bishop has not died within three months, after the death of a bishop, another bishop should be installed; if some misfortune is great and recent, continue the time; If the church remains widowed for more than three months without a bishop, except for some great need, the metropolitan will accept the prohibition; the care and construction of all the widowed churches, meanwhile, he holds the icon, the whole church estate is preserved by the one who wants to be installed as a bishop.” You might be interested in: