The return of the disgraced patriarch – Moskovskaya Pravda

On the evening of August 17, 1681, returning from a 15-year exile to the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery, Patriarch Nikon died at the crossing over the Kotorosl River (near Yaroslavl).

Behind all the persecution of Patriarch Nikon, as Metropolitan John (Snychev) emphasizes in the book “Russian Symphony”, was “the boyars, who managed to involve the tsar (Alexei Mikhailovich. – S.I.), which sought to “significantly increase the influence of the state in church life, while at the same time reducing the influence of the Church on secular power.”

Initially, the relationship of Patriarch Nikon with the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (when he ascended the throne, he was 16 years old) was friendly, he was, as they said then, a “sob” (i.e., special) friend of the tsar. As Metropolitan John writes, the sovereign merits of the primate were great and undoubted:

“He played almost a decisive role in the annexation of Little Russia, blessed the tsar for the war with Poland for the reunification of Russian lands. Going on a campaign in 1654, Alexei left Nikon as the ruler of the state, despite the obvious discontent of the well-born boyars. Upon his return from the war, the tsar, met by the patriarch in Vyazma, with joy at a meeting, awarded Nikon with the title of “great sovereign.”

However, after 4 years, due to intrigues on the part of the boyars and the clergy, the situation began to change: the tsar began to cancel some orders of the patriarch, began to appoint priests and abbots without the consent of Nikon. Finally, in the summer of 1658, an open break occurred.

“The Tsar’s Majesty is angry with you,” Prince Yuri Romodanovsky, the Tsar’s envoy, announced to His Holiness. “You neglected the royal majesty, and you write as a great sovereign, and we have one great sovereign – the king.”

As a protest on the morning of July 10, 1658, after the celebration of the liturgy, Nikon announced that he was leaving the patriarchal chair, placed the staff to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, and retired to the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery.

“There were cases in Russia before that hierarchs left the throne, but such a public departure (and the preservation of the patriarchal title without managing affairs) did not happen. Nikon became, as it were, a living reproach for those who turned the tsar against the primate,” writes John.

Time passed, and the position of the Russian Church, deprived of legal government, became unbearable. Finally, in 1666, Russian pastors gathered in Moscow for a cathedral, and Patriarch Paisios of Alexandria and Macarius of Antioch, specially invited on this occasion by the tsar, arrived, having authority from the rest of the Orthodox patriarchs to decide the fate of Nikon.

As reported in the book of the historian Nikolai Kostomarov “Russian history in the biographies of its main figures”, the deposition of Patriarch Nikon took place on December 12, 1666 at the third meeting of the Council, which was held in the Church of the Annunciation of the Chudov Monastery. On December 13, crowds of people began to gather to see how the deposed patriarch was being taken. But, in order to avoid temptation, the people were told that Nikon would be taken through the Spassky Gate along Sretenka, and people rushed to Kitay-Gorod, and Nikon was taken through the opposite gate.

By decision of the cathedral court, monk Nikon was first exiled to the Ferapontov Belozersky Monastery, and after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676, he was transferred under stricter supervision to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

As Nikolai Kostomarov writes, at the court of the young Fyodor Alekseevich, an intercessor appeared for Nikon – the sister of the late Tsar Tatyana Mikhailovna:

“She has long respected Nikon. For his part, Fedor’s teacher, Simeon of Polotsk, also worked for the deposed patriarch. The tsar eased Nikon’s position, did not order him to be embarrassed, and offered the patriarch to transfer the exile to the Resurrection Monastery. For their part, the monks of the Resurrection Monastery filed a petition to the tsar and begged them to return Nikon “as a shepherd to the flock, as a helmsman to the ship, as the head to the body.”

However, this return was prevented by Patriarch Joachim, who told the king that “the deed was not done by us, but by the great council and the will of the most holy ecumenical patriarchs; without communicating with them, we cannot do this.

“The king, repeating such a request several times, assembled a cathedral; but the council, led by Patriarch Joachim, did not fulfill the desire of the king. The tsar only wrote a comforting message to Nikon. Thus time passed; Finally, the Archimandrite of Kirill informed Joachim that Nikon was ill, accepted the schema and was close to death, and asked permission: how and where to bury Nikon? Then the tsar again begged the patriarch and the cathedral to take pity on the sharpener and, at least before his death, please him with freedom. This time, the patriarch and the consecrated cathedral blessed the tsar to return Nikon from imprisonment, ”according to the book of Nikolai Kostomarov.

This was already in 1681. After blessing the cathedral, the tsar immediately sent deacon Chepelev to bring Nikon to the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery. By this time, Nikon was barely moving from illness and old age. He was brought to the banks of the Sheksna, put in a plow and sailed, at his request, to Yaroslavl. Everywhere along the shore people flocked, asking for blessings from Nikon. He was accompanied by Archimandrite Nikita of Kirillov. On the morning of August 16, they reached the Tolga Monastery near Yaroslavl. As Nikolai Kostomarov writes, on August 17, people came from the city and sat down to meet Nikon on the banks of the Kotorosl River, where a plow entered from the Volga:

“The crowd rushed into the water and dragged the plow to the shore. Nikon was completely exhausted and could no longer say anything. People kissed his hands and feet. The day turned to evening; began to evangelize for Vespers. Nikon at this time cheered up a little, looked around him and began to straighten his hair, beard, clothes, as if preparing to go. Archimandrite Nikita realized that his last hour was coming and began to read the last hour. Nikon stretched out on the bed, folded his arms on his chest and died.

The clerk hurried to Moscow to announce the death of the former patriarch. He met the royal carriage sent for Nikon. The tsar ordered Nikon’s body to be brought to the Resurrection Monastery, where the disgraced patriarch was buried.

Sergei Ishkov.

Illustrations: Portrait of Patriarch Nikon with the clergy, 1660-1665; Death of Patriarch Nikon (engraving, 1870s) – source: wikipedia.org; tomb of the founder of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Patriarch Nikon of Moscow – source: palomnic.org