Can the Church be Independent in an Orthodox State? (A Case Study from Muscovy)

September 29

This reflection is dedicated to the memory of St. Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev, who died on September 16/29, 1406. 

Grand Prince Basil I of Moscow, the restorer of the peace in the Russian Church (1389-1425) and his wife Sophia, a daughter of the Lituhanian Prince Vitovtus. Embroidery from the sakkos of St. Photios, Metropolitan of Kiev (d. 1431)

St. Daniel, Prince of Moscow, was the son of St. Alexander Nevsky. He was born in Vladimir in 1261 but buried in Moscow, thus signifying the transfer of power to this previously insignificant place. The son of St. Daniel, Prince Ivan (I) Kalita (lit. “Money Bag”), obtained from the Mongols a patent to be grand prince on the promise that he would collect all taxes owed by the Russians. Thus, he taxed the people twice, for both the Mongols and Moscow. Prince Ivan I was godfather to the future St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow. In 1352, St. Theognostos, Metropolitan of Moscow, a Byzantine hierarch, installed Alexis as Bishop of Vladimir; he had already worked as a part of his administration for fifteen years. Metropolitan Theognostos passed away the same year, and St. Alexis went to Constantinople with a Mongolian “passport” (letter of transit). He spent a year there and returned Metropolitan. When in 1359, Grand Prince Ivan II (Krasnyi) died, St. Alexis became a regent for his young son Dmitry (St. Dmitry Donskoi).

This situation, in which the metropolitan of Rus had become inseparable from Moscow politics, resembles the current situation in the Russian Church. St. Alexis continued to bear the title of Metropolitan of Kiev. In 1240, after the Mongol invasion, Kiev had been razed to the ground and became one city among many in the rising Lithuanian Principality. The strong Lithuanian leader Prince Algirdas (who was still a pagan) did not want his Orthodox subjects to have a church leader with such strong ties to a hostile power. Thus, Algirdas arranged in Constantinople for a relative of his, Roman, to be consecrated. Roman hailed from the old Tver Principality, which was competing for power with Moscow. In 1359, St. Alexis arrived in Kiev. It was the time of the war between Moscow and Lithuania. Algirdas demonstrated his disrespect, and it took Alexis one year to get back to Moscow out of Kiev. He clearly could not oversee the church in the Lithuanian lands from Moscow.