Nifont was
Archbishop of Novgorod
The Diocese of Novgorod (russian: Новгородская епархия) is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. The medieval archbishops of Novgorod were among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and cul ...
from 1130 to 1156, the first prelate of Novgorod the Great to hold that title, though it appears the title was held personally and did not extend to the office until 1165. During his tenure, the prince of Novgorod was first dismissed and "shown the road," beginning Novgorod's period of independence in 1136 which was to last until 1478.
Nifont was the first Novgorodian bishop to carry out extensive building projects. He built the Church of the Assumption in the Marketplace (the current building is a fifteenth-century reconstruction carried out under the auspices of Archbishop Gennady). He was also the patron of the Church of the Transfiguration in the
Mirozhsky Monastery
Mirozhsky Monastery is a 12th-century Russian Orthodox monastery complex in Pskov, Russia, famous for its frescoes, located in the Christ's Transfiguration Cathedral. The name of the monastery is derived from the name of the Mirozha River, sin ...
in
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 ...
, said to have been built in a Greek style according to Nifont's tastes; twelfth-century frescoes were recently uncovered there.
[T. V. Shulakova, ''Pskovskii Spaso-Mirozhskii Monastyr'' (Moscow, 1991); Simon Franklin, ''Writing, Society, and Culture in Early Rus, ca. 950-1300'',(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 235.]
In the first year of his tenure, Nifont appointed
Anthony of Rome the
hegumen
Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen ( el, ἡγούμενος, trans. ), is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called a hegumenia ...
of the
Antoniev Monastery
The Antoniev Monastery ("St Anthony's Monastery", russian: Антониев монастырь) rivalled the Yuriev Monastery as the most important monastery of medieval Novgorod the Great. It stands along the right bank of the Volkhov River north ...
, which Anthony himself founded before 1108.
References
{{Reflist
Archbishops and Metropolitans of Novgorod
12th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops