Saint Jonah or Saint Jonas (''Иона'' in Russian) (died 1461), was the

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

of Kiev and All Rus' from 1448 to his death in 1461. Like his immediate predecessors, he permanently resided in Moscow, and was the last Moscow-based primate of the Russian Church to keep the traditional title with reference to Kiev. He was also the first Metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.

Biography

Since the late 1420s, Jonah had been living in the Simonov Monastery in Moscow and was close to Metropolitan Photius, who make him Bishop of Ryazan and Murom. After Photius's death in 1431, Grand Prince

Vasili II Vasily Vasiliyevich (russian: Василий Васильевич; 10 March 141527 March 1462), also known as Vasily II the Blind (Василий II Тёмный), was the Grand Prince of Moscow whose long reign (1425–1462) was plagued by the ...

nominated Jonas for the post of Metropolitan, but the Uniate Patriarch Joseph II chose Isidore to become the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'. After Isidore had been condemned and deposed by Vasily II and his bishops in Moscow in 1441, for his attempts to implement the decision on the Union of the Eastern and Western (Roman) Churches agreed upon at the Council of Florence-Ferrara, the metropolitan throne sat vacant for seven years. Jonah was elected by the bishops of the Moscow Rus' Metropolitan on 15 December 1448, without the consent of the

Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...

. While the failure to obtain the blessing from Constantinople was not intentional, this signified the beginning of the ''de facto'' independence (

autocephaly 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 O ...

) of the Moscow (North-Eastern) part of the Russian Church. He fought a losing battle attempting to prevent the loss of his South-Western province: in 1458, the Uniate Patriarch

Gregory Mammas Patriarch Gregory III, surnamed Mammis or Μammas (before ca. 1420 – 1459) was Ecumenical Patriarch within the Eastern Orthodox Church during the period 1443–1450. He was prominent in unsuccessful initiatives toward reunification with the Cat ...

of Constantinople appointed the Uniate bishop Gregory metropolitan of the newly established Uniate Kiev metropolitanate. The Patriarch gave the new Metropolitan the title of the Metropolitan of Kiev, Galich and All Rus'. The Polish-Lithuanian rulers, under whose domain Kiev then fell, supported Gregory. Jonah died on March 31, 1461 and was buried in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the

Moscow Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (R ...

. He was canonized by

Macarius Macarius is a Latinized form of the old Greek given name Makários (Μακάριος), meaning "happy, fortunate, blessed"; confer the Latin '' beatus'' and ''felix''. Ancient Greeks applied the epithet ''Makarios'' to the gods. In other languag ...

, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, at the

Moscow Council of 1547 Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million r ...

.Golubinskii, ''Istoriia russkoi tserkvi'', vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 515.

References

{{authority control Jonah of Moscow 15th-century Christian saints Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow Russian saints Miracle workers Year of birth unknown