The Diocese of Novgorod (russian: Новгородская епархия) is one of the oldest offices in the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
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, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
. The medieval archbishops of Novgorod were among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and culture and their successors (as bishops, archbishops, or metropolitans) have continued to play significant roles in Russian history up to the present day. They patronized a significant number of churches in and around the city, (several of which can still be seen today), and their artistic and architectural embellishments influenced later Russian art and architecture; they also patronized chronicle-writing, a crucial source on medieval Russian history.
The Republican period
The office of bishop of Novgorod was created around the time of the
Christianization of Rus'
Christianization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise.2C -ize .28-isation.2C -ization.29, or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of ...
(988), although the chronicles give conflicting dates for its establishment ranging anywhere from 989 to 992. The first bishop,
Ioakim Korsunianin
Joachim of Korsun (russian: Иоаким Корсунянин) was the first bishop of Novgorod the Great (). His surname suggests he probably came from the Byzantine town of Cherson (Korsun) on the Crimean Peninsula and, according to the chronicl ...
(ca. 989-1030), built the first (wooden)
Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (also called St. Sofia's) "with thirteen tops" around the time of his arrival in Novgorod. That cathedral burned in 1045, and the current, stone, cathedral, the oldest building still in use in Russia today, was built between 1045 and 1050 by Prince
Vladimir Iaroslavich. It was consecrated by Bishop
Luka Zhidiata (1035–1060) on the Feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross
In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. Unlike Good Friday, which is dedicated to the passion of Christ and the crucifixion, these ...
, September 14, 1052 (an eleventh-century fresco just inside the south door depicts Sts.
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
and his mother
Helena who found the
True Cross
The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, althoug ...
in the fourth century).
The office remained a bishopric until it 1165 when Metropolitan Kirill raised
Ilya
Ilya, Iliya, Ilia, Ilja, or Ilija (russian: Илья́, Il'ja, , or russian: Илия́, Ilija, ; uk, Ілля́, Illia, ; be, Ілья́, Iĺja ) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Eliahu), meaning "My God is Yahu/Jah." ...
to the archiepiscopal dignity. Formally, though the status of the Novgorodian church remained unchanged and was still part of the Province of Kiev. While a number of archbishoprics in the Orthodox Church were
autocephalous
Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern Ort ...
, answerable to the regional patriarch rather than the local metropolitan, Novgorod's was merely a titular archbishopric and always remained subordinate to the Province of Kiev and later Moscow. Indeed, in letters from the Patriarch of Constantinople, it was always referred to as a bishopric, and there are a number of letters reminding sometimes recalcitrant archbishops of their subservience to the Russian metropolitan. Around 1400, the archbishops began referring to themselves as "Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov." In 1156, Bishop Arkadii (1156–1165) was elected by the
veche
Veche ( rus, вече, véče, ˈvʲet͡ɕe; pl, wiec; uk, ві́че, víče, ; be, ве́ча, viéča, ; cu, вѣще, věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.
In Novgorod and in Pskov, where the veche acquired gre ...
(public assembly) because the metropolitan throne in Kiev was vacant at that time. Over the next several centuries, a process of local election either by the veche, by the local clergy, or by the drawing of lots developed. It was last used in the election of Archbishop Sergei in 1483, the first Muscovite archbishop of Novgorod. This local election gave the archbishops considerable autonomy in church matters, although they were consecrated by the local metropolitan and maintained ties to the Russian church throughout this period.
While some Russian chronicles refer to all Novgorodian prelates as archbishops, the office was not formally raised to the archiepiscopal status until 1165. There is evidence, however, that suggests that Nifont (r. 1130-1156) held the archiepiscopal title personally even before that. An
antimins
The antimins (from the Greek , ''Antimension'': "instead of the table"), is one of the most important furnishings of the altar in many Eastern Christian liturgical traditions. It is a rectangular piece of cloth of either linen or silk, typically ...
(embroidered communion cloth) from the St. Nicholas Cathedral on the Market bears an inscription referring to Nifont as archbishop. After the creation of the archiepiscopate, Martirii appears to have been the only one (before the creation of the metropolitanate in 1589) not to have been an archbishop, as none of his seals found in archaeological excavations speak of him as anything other than "bishop."
![Novgorod COA (Novgorod Governorate) (1781)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Novgorod_COA_%28Novgorod_Governorate%29_%281781%29.png)
Politically the archbishop of Novgorod grew in power during Novgorod's period of independence, traditionally 1136 to 1478, until just before the Mongol Invasion (1237–1240) and then fell into decline until about the archiepiscopate of
Vasilii Kalika
Vasilii Kalika (russian: Василий Калика) was Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov from 1330 to 1352. He is in large part responsible for reinvigorating the office after it had fallen into decline to some extent following the M ...
(1330–1352). It then continued to grow in power into the early fifteenth century. During this time, the archbishops carried out a number of important political functions: they headed embassies to bring peace and ransom captives, they patronized civil (as opposed to ecclesiastical) construction projects such as
the Detinets
The Novgorod Detinets (russian: Новгородский детинец, Novgorodskiy detinets), also known as the Novgorod Kremlin (, ''Novgorodskiy kreml' ''), is a fortified complex (detinets) in Veliky Novgorod, Russia. It stands on the le ...
(Kremlin) in Novgorod, the fortress at
Orekhov (also known as Oreshek) that was rebuilt in stone by Vasilii Kalika in 1352, the city walls built around Novgorod in the 1330s, and so forth. They administered the ecclesiastical courts, which in Novgorod adjudicated cases that elsewhere in the Orthodox world were left to secular courts; they signed treaties on behalf of the city; they oversaw standards of weights and measures in the city marketplace; their vicars may have administered outlying districts, such as
Staraya Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga (russian: Ста́рая Ла́дога, p=ˈstarəjə ˈladəɡə, lit=Old Ladoga), known as Ladoga until 1704, is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near ...
; and they generally shared decision-making with the boyars who ran the city.
The Muscovite period
After the
Muscovite conquest in 1470–1478, the office fell somewhat into decline. The first three Muscovite archbishops were removed in disgrace, although the second one,
Gennady (1484–1504), successfully suppressed the
Judaizer Heresy (called the ''Zhidovstvuyuschiye'' in Russian) and compiled the first complete corpus of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
in Slavonic (the Gennady Bible, now housed in the
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum ( Russian: Государственный исторический музей, ''Gosudarstvenny istoricheskiy muzyey'') of Russia is a museum of Russian history
The history of Russia begins with the histories of ...
). His successor,
Serapion was removed from office after only three years and the see sat vacant for seventeen years (1509–1526).
The office revived somewhat under
Makarii (archbishop 1526-1542; Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' 1542-1563), who built a number of churches in the city, patronized the writing of saints' lives, and began a number of important literary works in Novgorod, which he completed in Moscow. Most notably among these are the ''Velikie Mineia Chet'ii'' (The
Great Menion Reader), a twelve volume series of saint's lives and prayers divide up by months; and the ''
Stepennaia Kniga
''The Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy'' (Степенная книга) was the first official work of historiography produced in the nascent Tsardom of Russia. It was commissioned by Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow from Ivan the Terribl ...
'' (''The Book of Degrees of Royal Genealogy''), a genealogy of the tsar and his ancestors linking them to the Romans.
![Metropolitan Macarius](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Metropolitan_Macarius.jpg)
Like the rest of Russia, the archiepiscopal office suffered hardship during the reign of Ivan the Terrible and the subsequent
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles (russian: Смутное время, ), or Smuta (russian: Смута), was a period of political crisis during the Tsardom of Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Fyodor I (Fyodor Ivanovich, the last of the Rurik dy ...
. Novgorod seems to have suffered more than most, as the
oprichniks killed many citizens in 1570 and looted the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom and other places in the city (
Massacre of Novgorod
The Massacre of Novgorod was an attack launched by Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible)'s ''oprichniki'' on the city of Novgorod, Russia in 1570. Although initially an act of vengeance against the perceived treason of the local Orthodox church, the massac ...
). At around the time of the massacre, Tsar
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
removed Archbishop Pimen from office and sent him to Aleksandrov where he was apparently tortured. Pimen died in 1572 under uncertain circumstances in the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Tula. His successor, Archbishop Leonid, was beheaded in Moscow on
Cathedral Square in the Kremlin on the orders of the Tsar in October 1575. Leonid's successor, Aleksandr, was elevated to the
metropolitan rank in 1589, becoming the "Metropolitan of Novgorod the Great and Velikie Luki". (
Pskov
Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...
became its own
eparchy
Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on th ...
in 1589, hence Pskov could no longer be part of the Novgorodian archbishop's title.)
During the Time of Troubles, Novgorod was occupied by the Swedes, and Novgorodian Metropolitan Isidor played a key role in negotiating the city's hand over to the Swedes in 1611 and in administering the city under Swedish occupation. The city was not returned to Russia until several years after the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty, and Tsar Mikhail is said to have distrusted Isidor for his role in the city under Swedish control.
The Imperial Period
The office remained a metropolitanate until 1720 when it was again reduced to an archiepiscopate. It was elevated to the metropolitan level again in 1762, and the title changed as the eparchy was included with
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and later Finland and Estonia. It was separated from St. Petersburg in 1892.
The new city of
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, when it was founded in late spring 1703, was initially in the Novgorodian Eparchy, and Metropolitan Iov consecrated the first wooden
Peter and Paul Cathedral in the
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s i ...
(the current cathedral is, of course, a later construction) in April 1704. Iov's vicar,
Feofan Prokopovich
Feofan/Theophan Prokopovich (18 June 168119 September 1736) was a Russian Imperial Orthodox theologian, writer, poet, mathematician, and philosopher of Ukrainian origin. Rector of the Academia Mohileana in Kiev (now Kyiv, Ukraine), and Archbisho ...
,
Feofan Prokopovich, who authored the Spiritual Regulations and helped set up the Holy Governing Synod, was later Archbishop of Novgorod.became one of
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
's key advisors on religion and helped establish the Spiritual Regulations and the
Holy Governing Synod
The Most Holy Governing Synod (russian: Святѣйшій Правительствующій Сѵнодъ, Святейший Правительствующий Синод) was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church betwee ...
(which governed the church from 1721 to 1917.) Prokopovich was named Archbishop of Novgorod in 1725, after Peter's death.
Archbishop Dmitry (r. 1757-1767), served as Catherine the Great's spiritual advisor for the first few years of her reign and crowned her Empress in 1762.
Soviet and Post-Soviet Period
The Novgorodian Eparchy was combined again with Leningrad after the re-legalization of the church in 1943. It was briefly separated in the 1950s and combined with Leningrad, again, in the 1960s. It was last separated in 1990, when it was recreated as a bishopric. It was raised to archiepiscopal level again in 1995. The current title is "Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Staraya Russa."
From 1922-1936, thirteen bishops of Novgorod were named by the
Living Church
Renovationism (russian: обновленчество; from 'renovation, renewal') – also called Renovated Church (обновленческая церковь) or by metonymy the Living Church (Живая Церковь) –, officially named ...
, or Renovationist Church, a movement (now deemed
schism
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
atic) that was sponsored by the Soviet authorities to split and thus weaken the Russian Church. The last of these, Veniamin Molchanov, was later Archbishop of Alma Ata, but nothing further is known of him after October 1936. He is thought to have been shot. The Renovationists fought with the patriarchal or main Orthodox Church before they were suppressed when the patriarchal church was legalized in 1943.
[For a list of the Novgorodian bishops of the Living Church, see http://www.hierarchy.religare.ru/h-orthod-obnoveparlp.html]
In the patriarchal church, Archbishop
Arsenius (Stadnitsky) was one of the candidates for Patriarch in the 1917 Moscow Council, when
Tikhon Tikhon (russian: Ти́хон, uk, Ти́хон, Ти́хін, pl, Tychon) is a Slavic male given name of Greek origin, related to Western European Tycho.
* Tikhon Bernstam (born 1979), American Internet entrepreneur
* Tikhon Chicherin (1869–1 ...
was elected. He, like many of the hierarchs of the church, suffered repeated arrest in the 1920s. He was exiled to Central Asia in 1926 and made Bishop of Tashkent in 1933, where he died in 1936. A plaque on the old bishop's palace in Novgorod commemorates him and there is a festival in his honor in Novgorod today. During his long, absentee tenure as Archbishop and Metropolitan of Novgorod, the eparchy was administered by a number of vicars, including
Alexius Simansky, who held the title of Archbishop of Khutyn. Alexius was briefly Metropolitan of Novgorod in 1933, and was succeeded by Venedikt, who was shot in 1937 either in Kazan or in Leningrad, although the sources conflict. After Venedict, Alexius was made Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod in 1943. He was one of the three bishops (of four still alive) who met with Stalin on September 4, 1943, a meeting which led to the re-legaliziation of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1945, Alexius was elected
Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus and served in that post (the longest-serving Moscow patriarch) until his death in 1970.
Patriarch Alexius II
Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, russian: link=no, Патриарх Алексий II; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger russian: link=no, Алексе́й Миха́йлович Ри́дигер; 23 February 1929 – 5 December ...
, the most recent Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus was Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod immediately before his election as Patriarch in 1990. As patriarch, Alexius II presided over the reestablishment of Novgorod as an eparchy independent of Leningrad/St. Petersburg and of the reconsecration of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom.
The current bishop is Metropolitan
Lev
Lev may refer to:
Common uses
*Bulgarian lev, the currency of Bulgaria
*an abbreviation for Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible and the Torah
People and fictional characters
*Lev (given name)
*Lev (surname)
Places
*Lev, Azerbaijan, a ...
. He was transferred from Tashkent in 1990 to be bishop of Novgorod and raised to archiepiscopal dignity in 1995, and to the metropolitan dignity in 2012. He has overseen the reopening of a number of churches in Novgorod and the eparchy, the return of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom to the Russian Orthodox Church, the opening of a seminary at the
Zverin Monastery just north of the old city walls on the left bank of the Volkhov River, the reestablishment of a library in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, and other activities in the aftermath of the Soviet persecution of the church. He has received several awards from the church and the Russian government for his activities.
See also
*
List of bishops and archbishops of Novgorod {{short description, None
This is a list of the Bishops and Archbishops of Novgorod the Great from the Christianization of Rus' in 988 to the establishment of the Metropolitanate in Novgorod in 1589.
Bishops of Novgorod 989–1163
* Ioakim Korsun ...
References
External links
Partial list of Archbishops of Novgorod the Great
{{Russian Orthodox Church
Eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church
*
D