Stefan Yavorsky (russian: Стефа́н Яво́рский, uk, Стефа́н Яво́рський), born Simeon Ivanovich Yavorsky (russian: Симеон Иванович Яворский) (1658
[Most sources (including th]
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
give a death date of , but the olde
Brockhaus and Efron
has ), was an
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
and statesman in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and the first president of the
Most Holy Synod
The Most Holy Governing Synod (russian: Святѣйшій Правительствующій Сѵнодъ, Святейший Правительствующий Синод) was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church betwee ...
.
Biography
Yavorsky was born in
Yavoriv
Yavoriv ( uk, Яворів, ; pl, Jaworów; yi, יאַוואָראָוו , translit=Yavorov; german: Jaworiw) is a city in the Lviv region of western Ukraine which is around 15 kilometers from the Polish border. It is the administrative centre o ...
,
Ruthenian Voivodeship
The Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: ''Palatinatus russiae'', Polish: ''Województwo ruskie'', Ukrainian: ''Руське воєводство'', romanized: ''Ruske voievodstvo''), also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown of ...
(near
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
).
[Stefan Yavorsky, Great Soviet Encyclopedia]
He enrolled in the
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy around 1673 and completed its course of study; in 1684 he traveled to Poland to continue his education, at which point he was compelled to join the
Uniate church
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...
, as was common for Kievan students who wanted to study in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
; he took the Uniate name Stanislav (russian: Станислав). He spent five years abroad, studying philosophy in
Lvov
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...
and
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
and theology in
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
and
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, where he completed his education. In 1689 he returned to Kiev, broke from the Uniate church and returned to Eastern Orthodoxy. He took monastic vows under the name Stefan and settled at the Kiev Academy as a preacher and professor, being appointed prefect of the institution
and in 1697
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 Nikolaevsky monastery (russian: Пустынно-Николаевский монастырь). He also began to preach, which soon made him well known in Kiev. At the beginning of 1700 he visited Moscow on church business, and when the
boyar
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...
Aleksei Shein
Aleksei Semyonovich Shein (Алексей Семенович Шеин in Russian, 1662 – February 12, 1700) was a Russian commander and statesman, the first Russian Generalissimo (1696), boyar, great-grandson of Mikhail Shein.
Shein origina ...
died in February
Patriarch Adrian
Patriarch Adrian (; born Andrey, Андрей; 2 October 1638 – 16 October 1700) was the last pre-revolutionary Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
According to historian Alexander Avdeyev, the future Patriarch Adrian was born in the last da ...
commissioned him to give the eulogy, which attracted the attention of Peter I, who was so pleased he had Yavorsky remain in Moscow and ordered a position to be found for him, as a result of which he was made
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
of
Ryazan
Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census ...
[ and ]Murom
Murom ( rus, Муром, p=ˈmurəm; Old Norse: ''Moramar'') is a historical city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of the Oka River. Population:
History
In the 9th century AD, the city marked the easternmost settle ...
in April. When Adrian himself died in October, Yavorsky was appointed locum tenens
A locum, or locum tenens, is a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another; the term is especially used for physicians or clergy. For example, a ''locum tenens physician'' is a physician who works in the place of the regular physician. ...
of the patriarchal see. "Thus in the course of seven months Iavorsky ascended from the humble position of father superior to the highest office in the entire church. Iavorsky had never desired such an appointment and even attempted to avoid it, but Peter was unyielding ecausethe prelate was not a progressive or a reformer, but he was an authoritative figure with a European education, of which there were still few in Russia".
Yavorsky's life now changed dramatically. He lived in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Ryazan, returning to Ukraine only rarely and with the express permission of the tsar. As the head of the church, he had to deal with the struggles between the various factions in the church, and he was expected to uphold Peter's reforms. At first he did so, but eventually the reforms restricted the rights of the church that he began to oppose them, and in 1712 a sermon of his, calling the Tsarevich Alexei
Grand Duke Alexei Petrovich of Russia (28 February 1690 – 26 June 1718) was a Russian Tsarevich. He was born in Moscow, the son of Tsar Peter I and his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina. Alexei despised his father and repeatedly thwarted Peter's p ...
"Russia's only hope" and hinting at criticism of the tsar's personal life, so angered Peter that he forbade Yavorsky to preach in public. Yavorsky directed a commission on correcting the translation of the Bible and wrote ''The Rock of Faith'' (russian: Камень веры), a huge treatise on dogma that "was sharply anti-Protestant in spirit" and whose publication Peter forbade (it was published in 1728 under Peter II). In 1721 he was made first president of the newly erected Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox C ...
,[ but the real power was held by its vice president, Peter's close collaborator ]Theophan 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 ...
. When Yavorsky died in the following year,[ Prokopovich took his place as president; shortly before his death, suspected of being involved in a publication that accused Peter of being the ]Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
, he was interrogated in his home by members of the Synod and Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, and "it is possible that only his death saved Iavorsky from punishment".
Literary activity
Yavorsky was one of the most educated figures in the Russian church of his day, and throughout his life "he aspired to a quiet life of independent literary activity rather than a great career". Around 1685 he published his panegyric ''Hercules post Atlantem'', dedicated to Varlaam Yasinsky, archimandrite of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra or Kyivo-Pechers’ka Lavra ( uk, Києво-Печерська лавра, translit=Kyievo-Pecherska lavra, russian: Киево-Печерская лавра), also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Mon ...
; it was "a complex rhetorical construction of Latin prose with poems in Latin and Polish". In 1690 he published two more panegyrics to Yasinsky, ''Arctos coeli'' (Constellation of the heavens) and ''Pełnia nieubywającej chwały'' (Abundance of unlessening glory), confirming his reputation as a poet. After he became hegumen of the Nikolaevsky monastery, his sermon ''Vinograd Khristov'' (The vineyard of Christ) was published in 1698. Soon after he became head of the Russian church, he presided over the trial of Grigory Talitsky, who had proclaimed Peter the Antichrist, and his refutation of Talitsky, ''Znameniya prishestviya Antikhristova i konchiny veka'' (Signs of the arrival of the Antichrist and the end of the age), was published in 1703 and reprinted many times during the eighteenth century.
See also
* List of Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow
Notes
References
Sources
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yavorsky, Stephen
1658 births
1722 deaths
People from Yavoriv
People from Ruthenian Voivodeship
Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Catholicism
Ruthenian nobility of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Russian Orthodox bishops of Kyiv
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy alumni
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy faculty
18th-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops
Most Holy Synod