History knows several cult personalities who are namesakes by name, employed in the same field of activity, and, nevertheless, radically changed the course of history in different ways.
Patriarch Filaret, whose years of life coincided with a period of major social upheaval, is one of the most controversial figures in Russian history, whose actions and historical significance for the whole of Russia are hard to evaluate impartially. Nevertheless, this man significantly changed the course of political and social events, first of all, acting in the interests of his family, and ensuring the Romanov dynasty a firm position on the throne.
Throughout his life, Patriarch Filaret Romanov - in the world Fyodor Nikitovich - experienced constant career and status ups, and subsequent falls. Being a non-religious person, but by chance taking the post of Metropolitan, he continuously maintained contact with the highest Moscow clergy, creating for himself a righteous and honorable image corresponding to the status of the Third Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. This talented, powerful, ambitious man could not help but remain in the annals of history.
His namesake by monastic name, self-proclaimed as a result of the split of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Kiev Filaret, in the world Mikhail Denisenko, is known to the uninitiated person as an ardent supporter of Ukrainian self-identification. The main result of the activities of Patriarch Filaret is the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and public support for hostilities in southeastern Ukraine. He publicly expressed his negative attitude towards Putin after the annexation of Crimea. Patriarch Filaret, Ukraine, in the opinion of which should be independent and autonomous, is also known for its harsh statements to other officials.
Be that as it may, but advocating the independence of Ukraine, Filaret defends the interests, first of all, of the majority of the citizens of this country, therefore there is no search for sacred truths in this text, but there is a set of facts that make it possible to get the most out of the rich life of this spiritual leader.
Patriarch Filaret Romanov: family tree and family
The life of the clergyman was not easy. The biography of Patriarch Filaret is notable for the fact that he was the nephew of Anastasia Zakharyina-Yurieva - the first wife of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Thus, the Romanov clan joined the dynasty of Russian tsars. The clan of Anastasia Zakharyina (they are also the Yurievs, Koshkins) has been in the service of Moscow sovereigns since the 14th century. The importance of this family in the rule of the country increased after 1584, when Ivan the Terrible left the boyar Nikita Romanovich, the brother of the deceased Anastasia, whose good glory became the basis of the popularity of the Romanov family with his young son Theodore.
Relations Godunov and Romanovs were not hostile. On the contrary, at the wedding to the kingdom, Boris gave the Romanovs many privileges, however, this could not mitigate the growing struggle for the royal throne.
Youth and youth
Fedor Nikitovich Romanov was born in 1553. Possessing a secular practical mindset, Fyodor Nikitovich never sought to occupy any priestly rank. In his youth, he was one of the most famous Moscow dandies.
Having received an excellent education, perfectly combining love of books and love of secular attire, Fyodor Nikitovich even learned the Latin language, resorting to the help of specially written Latin books for him. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he was an inquisitive, handsome, dexterous and friendly young man.
Metropolitan of Rostov
Being one of Boris Godunov ’s main rivals , Fyodor Nikitovich, along with the other Romanovs and many other boyar families, was subjected to tsarist disgrace in 1600. The beginning of this process was a false denunciation. Fyodor was forcibly tonsured a monk and exiled to the north of the principality, to the Anthony Monastery of Sia, located 90 kilometers from Kholmogor. In former times, monastic tonsure was one of the means of depriving a person of political power. Along with obtaining a new name, Filaret Romanov also received the sympathy and support of his compatriots as a tsar’s descendant and legal king of Russia sent into exile.
In the monastery, the future metropolitan was under the strictest supervision - the bailiffs suppressed any of his independent actions, while constantly complaining to Moscow of his sharp temper. But most of all, Filaret Romanov yearned for his family.
On June 30, 1605, after a coup d'etat, Filaret was returned to Moscow with honors as a relative of the alleged Tsar False Dmitry, and in 1606 he became Metropolitan of Rostov. After the overthrow of the impostor in 1606, Filaret, being in Moscow, was sent to Uglich for the body of Tsarevich Dmitry Ioannovich at the direction of the new Tsar Vasily Ivanovich. While Filaret was in Uglich, Shuisky promoted to the post of patriarch of the Moscow Kazan Metropolitan Germogen, and Fedor Ivanovich went to the department dedicated to his protectorate in Rostov the Great, where he stayed until 1608.
Tushino events
Due to the dislike of the population for Shuisky, and the appearance on the political scene of a new impostor, the rebel military forces approached Moscow itself. The Moscow Patriarch urgently sent letters to the state in which he ordered archpastors to pray for Tsar Vasily and described the course of events. Patriarch Filaret, whose brief biography was already full of life-changing facts, spoke about global state upheavals, the Bolotnikov uprising, and the gangs of the "Tushino thief", from whom he, remaining faithful to the tsar, subsequently suffered himself. In 1608, the troops of False Dmitry II captured Rostov, ravaged the city, and Patriarch Filaret was captured and mocked to the Tushino camp.
In Tushino, the impostor and his people began to honor Fedor with the appropriate honors and gave the title of Filaret, Patriarch of Moscow. There is no doubt that Fedor Nikitovich himself did not value this position at all - in Tushin he was vomited and held by force. The letters that came to us from 1608 - 1610 do not give the right to assert that Filaret (the Moscow patriarch) had anything to do with church and political affairs - on the contrary, Germogen, the legitimate Moscow patriarch, considered him a victim of the situation.
In March 1610, after the collapse of the Tushino camp, Filaret was captured by the Poles and taken to the Joseph Volokolamsky Monastery, but soon escaped from there with the support of the detachment of Grigory Voluyev, and, returning to Moscow, was in the same honor with the Moscow diocese.
Dual power
In September 1610, Filaret, as well as Prince Golitsyn, as part of the "great embassy", moved from Moscow near Smolensk to meet with King Sigismund, after which he sent ambassadors to Poland as prisoners of war. Filaret spent eight years in captivity, and was exchanged in 1619, and then immediately transferred to Moscow, where his own elected son Mikhail Fedorovich was already sitting on the throne in order to take the deserted place of the Moscow patriarch. On June 24, in 1619, in the Assumption Cathedral, he was called to the dignity “Filaret, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia”. Now Filaret, called the imperial title "The Great Sovereign," began to control the church and the state equally.
Thus, dual power was established in Moscow for a period of 14 years, in which only the tsar and the Zemsky Sobor had the highest government authority, and the letters of the patriarch’s father to the sovereign disclose the full power of the patriarch’s influence in the conduct of public affairs, and in full describe the activities of Patriarch Filaret .
Historians know the conciliar verdict of 1619, about "how to arrange the land", which was created by the report "articles" of the patriarch. It correctly assessed the uneven material and property status of the population in different parts of the kingdom, so measures such as:
- proper arrangement of service from estates;
- compilation of accurate cadastral inventories of lands and on their basis the achievement of the correctness of taxation;
- notifying both the cash resources of the treasury and its future resources to determine income and expenses;
- taking effective measures to eradicate administrative offenses that impede the establishment of state and social order in the country.
All these introductions pursued a single goal - to increase government funds in the most easy and correct way for the population.
Fedor Nikitovich also patronized book printing, and also edited ancient Russian texts for errors.
Church Administration Reforms
The events of the life of the patriarch polished from him a political businessman and a subtle diplomat. Interests in strengthening the dynastic power stimulated him to devote all his strength to managing the affairs of the state, in which he was a capable and tactful leader. But, being deprived of a theological education, he was especially restrained and cautious in church affairs. In this area, Filaret cared for the protection of law and the main danger looked out for the Polish-Lithuanian border. For the rest, he followed the immediate needs of the church and never took steps forward. Thus, the political activity of Filaret was more fruitful and more active than the church. From 1619 to 1633, state power was strengthened under him, and the Romanov dynasty gained support among the general public, and this is the historical merit of Fyodor Nikitovich.
On all matters related to religion and church structure, he preferred to consult with the Moscow clergy, which earned him considerable fame among her.
Family and Children
Fedor Nikitovich married the daughter of a poor nobleman from Kostroma Ksenia Ivanovna Shestova. They had six children. After Boris Godunov disgraced Fyodor Nikitovich’s family, Ksenia Ivanovna was forcefully sheared as a nun under the name of Martha and sent to Zaonezhsky Toluvsky churchyard. Son Mikhail and daughter Tatyana, along with their aunts Nastasya and Martha Nikitichny, were taken to the village of Kliny, located in Yuryev district.
The Filaret Patriarch of All Russia immediately after returning home from Polish captivity and conducting a campaign to enthrone his son Michael, turned into a calculating and disgraced regent.
The death of Patriarch Filaret on October 1, 1633 put an end to dual power in the state and finally established the Romanov clan, who reigned until 1917, on the throne.
The historical significance of Filaret
Being regent of the young Tsar Mikhail and actually the ruler of the country, Patriarch Filaret signed state letters on his own behalf and also had the title of Great Sovereign.
Speaking of Patriarch Filaret, most historians speak of his patronage of printing. Since 1621, the clerks of the Posolsky Prikaz especially for the tsar began to manufacture the first Russian newspaper Vestovye Letters.
The patriarch understood the value and favored the development of the arms and metallurgical industries. Therefore, Andrei Vinius in 1632 received the permission of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to establish the first iron smelting, iron and steel and weapons plants near Tula in Russia.
Patriarch Filaret of Kiev: birth and family
This clergyman is from Ukraine. The Filaret Patriarch of Kiev, in the world Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko, was born into a mining family on January 1, 1929. The place of birth indicates the village of Blagodatnoye, located in the Amvrosievsky district of Donetsk region.
Despite the mandatory requirements of a vow of celibacy, according to media reports, Filaret publicly lived with his family - his wife Yevgenia Petrovna Rodionova, who died in 1998, and three children - daughters Vera and Lyubov, as well as son Andrei are mentioned.
Study, monastery and monasticism
Denisenko graduated from high school in 1946, and in 1948 - Odessa Theological Seminary and was admitted to the Moscow Theological Academy. In January 1950, being in his second year, he tonsured monks, taking the name Filaret. In the spring he received the rank of hierodeacon, and in 1952 he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk.
Occupied posts and titles
In 1952, Denisenko received his Ph.D. in theology and remained at the Moscow Theological Seminary to teach the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. At the same time, Filaret was acting dean of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Received the title of Associate Professor in March 1954.
In August 1956, Filaret, being abbot, became an inspector of the Saratov Theological Seminary, then - the Kiev Theological Seminary. He began managing the affairs of the Ukrainian exarchate in 1960, being in the rank of archimandrite.
In 1961, Denisenko was appointed rector of the courtyard of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alexandria under the Alexandrian Patriarchate.
In 1962, Filaret received the rank of bishop of Luga, vicar of the Leningrad diocese. At the same time, he was appointed manager of the Diocese of Riga; in the summer of 1962 - by the vicar of the Central European Exarchate; in November of that year, he became bishop of Vienna and Austria.
In 1964, Filaret received a vicar in the Moscow diocese and, as bishop of Dmitrov, became rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary.
A member of the Holy Synod elevated him to the rank of Archbishop of Kiev and Galitsky in 1966. In December of that year, Filaret became the head of the Kiev Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. At this time, as part of the delegations of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Exarchate, he repeatedly traveled abroad, participating in congresses, conferences and assemblies. In 1979, Filaret received the award in the form of the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and in 1988 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for active peacekeeping.
After the death of Pimen - Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia - in the spring of 1990, Filaret became locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne and one of the most likely candidates for the patriarchs, for the election of which a local council was convened. In June 1990, the Cathedral elected the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church - Metropolitan Alexy II. However, traditionally it was Filaret, the patriarch of Kiev and all Ukraine, who was considered the next most important bishop of the Russian Church and the most influential permanent member of the Holy Synod.
Filaret as a spiritual leader of the UOC
During this period, with the support of Leonid Kravchuk, Filaret began active work aimed at the autonomy of the Ukrainian Church. The media talk about the beginning of their "friendly" relations during the period of Denisenko's work in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. With the declaration of independence of Ukraine in 1991, Kravchuk strongly encouraged the process of creating an autonomous church that has the basis of the canonical UOC - the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Uniates did not have the necessary support of the population to ensure their autonomy. It was understood that canonical autocephaly as an independent association of the UOC will incorporate all the Orthodox churches of Ukraine and reduce the level of interfaith contradictions.
In January 1992, Filaret gathered bishops to a meeting and, with the support of the now Ukrainian President Kravchuk, drew up an appeal to the patriarch, all bishops and the Holy Synod, in which he accused the ROC of deliberately delaying the process of a positive decision on the issue of autocephaly of the UOC. The ROC Council of Bishops already raised this issue in the spring of 1992 in the absence of Filaret. In response to the appeal by the Moscow patriarchy, Filaret was charged with using the autonomy granted as an instrument to strengthen his power in administering the Ukrainian Church, putting pressure on local priests to force them to support autocephaly. In the course of this debate, the Ukrainian patriarch Filaret was accused of immoral behavior and his gross miscalculations in management and was obliged to voluntarily resign as head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Filaret himself voluntarily gave the floor to the bishop that he would not obstruct the free choice of the Ukrainian church in the process of electing the new first hierarch, but after a while he refused to give up the post of Primate of the UOC. This was followed by his renunciation of the oath of bishops. Thus a religious schism arose, known in the history of Orthodoxy as “Filaret's”. Filaret himself justifies his initial promise by pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church, and therefore considers it forced.
In 1992, the Bishops' Council of the UOC was still able to dismiss Filaret from the post of First Hierarch of the UOC and the Kiev Department. He remained in the state, but did not have the right to worship, and in June of the same year the Judicial Act of the Council of Bishops for human vices, blackmail, dictatorship, oath-crime and public slander of the Council of Bishops, the commission of a church schism, as well as for holding in a state of prohibition Clergy, Filaret was cast down and deprived of all degrees of priesthood and rights relating to being in the clergy.
In June 1992, supporters of Filaret assembled the Unification Cathedral in Kiev. This marked the beginning of the creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) as a result of the unification of some representatives of the UOC relating to the Moscow Patriarchate and the UAOC. In 1995, Filaret took the post of patriarch.
February 19, 1997 the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated Philaret from the church for conducting schismatic activities during the inter-cathedral period.
Relations with Russia
Filaret took the place of the most likely candidate for the post of head of the Russian Orthodox Church, but not everyone was happy with his candidacy. Particular censure and indignation caused his impeccable moral appearance, ambition, demeanor, rudeness and worldly way of life.
During the election of the new patriarch, the struggle of the UOC for its autonomy greatly intensified. And even after the adoption by the ROC Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990 of a new provision and granting the Ukrainian exarchate more rights in self-government and the manifestation of national traditions in the church sphere, granting independence and autonomy in the administration of the UOC, and Filaret - the title of "Blessed Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine" - he did not stop fighting for the independence of the Ukrainian religious ideology, now - in the sphere of social and secular life.
Patriarch Filaret considers Russia the main aggressor in the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine, arguing that Russia, as an enemy of the Ukrainian people, is doomed to defeat.
The mutual appeals of Patriarch Kirill of All Russia and Patriarch Filaret of all Ukraine are widely known. In a letter to the Ukrainian bishop, the Moscow patriarch called for a balanced and methodical approach to the issue of continuing to support the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, and called for this difficult, alarming time to unite the whole Russian church against the dark side of the human person, performing universal Christian prayers. However, in his response to the Moscow patriarch, Filaret spoke extremely negatively about the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, in a sharp form speaking about the impossibility of unity of these churches, and the arrogant position of the Moscow patriarch in relation to the Kiev patriarchate.
Recently, in connection with the frequent trips of the Patriarch of All Russia Kirill to the church halls of Ukraine, Patriarch Filaret has maintained a cautious distance in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, rightly believing that he may be eliminated from the political arena.