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 Disaster
befell the Kievan State in 1237 with the onslaught of the Mongols, who
ruled until 1480, and during this period only the Church kept alive national
consciousness, much as was later done by the Greek Church under the Turkish
yoke. The primary See of the Russian Church was moved from Kiev to Moscow
by St. Peter, Metropolitan of Kiev (1326 - commemorated December 21),
and henceforth ceased to be the city of the chief Hierarch.
Three important Saints shone in this period: St. Alexander Nevsky, Prince
of Novgorod (1263 - commemorated August 30 and November 23), who preserved
the political structure of his Principality (alone unharmed by the Mongols
in their invasion) against the Swedes, Germans and Lithuanians; St. Sergius
of Radonezh (1392 - commemorated September 25 and July 5), founder of
the famous Trinity - St. Sergius Monastery at Zagorsk near Moscow, (from
which Monks spread out through all of Northern Russia), probably one of
Russia's greatest national figures (as was St. Sava in Serbia); and St.
Stephen, Bishop of Perm (1396 - commemorated April 26) who, in a sense,
was the first of the long line of missionarys who were eventually to come
to Russian America.
After the Council of Florence in 1440, Constantinople had accepted union
with the Roman Catholic Church and Russia could not accept a Metropolitan
from there. Finally, in 1448, a council of Russian Bishops elected their
own Metropolitan and from this date the Russian Church has reckoned her
independence. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks and from this date
the Russian Church remained the sole free branch of Orthodoxy. Men began
to see Moscow as the Third Rome, and the Grand Duke of' Moscow assumed
the titles of the Byzantine Emperors - Autocrat and Tsar - the earthly
protector of Orthodoxy. Accordingly, with the rising power of Russia,
in 1589, the head of the Russian Church was raised to the rank of Patriarch
(the first being Patriarch Job), ranking fifth after Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch and Jerusalem. |
