| St. Jonah, Met. Moscow |
Jonah (Odnoushev)
(+ 1461), Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia, wonderworker, saint Commemorated March 31, May 27 for the transfer of relics, June 15, in the Cathedrals of the Moscow Saints, Vladimir, Kiev, Lipetsk, Moscow and Ryazan Saints
Born near Soligalich [1] in a pious Christian family. The father of the future Saint was called Theodore.
In the 12th year he became a monk in Galich, then moved to the Moscow Simonov Monastery. Here he was a strict guardian of monastic rules, for which he was persecuted.
One day Saint Photius of Moscow visited the Simonov Monastery and, after a prayer service, having given a blessing to the archimandrite and the brethren, he wished to bless the monks who performed obedience in the monastic work. When he arrived at the bakery, he saw the monk Jonah, who had fallen asleep from much labor, and the right hand of the tired monk was bent in a blessing gesture. Saint Photius asked not to wake him, blessed the sleeping monk and prophetically predicted to those present that this monk would be a great saint of the Russian Church and would guide many on the path of salvation.
Bishop of Ryazan and Murom
In 1437 he was installed as bishop of Ryazan and Murom.
St. Jonah was elected successor to Metropolitan. Photius. Fearing that the patriarch would reject this candidate, the Grand Duke arranged his election with special solemnity, inviting all bishops, representatives of the white clergy, monasticism, boyars and zemstvo people to participate in the election. But Bishop Jonah, who was named metropolitan at the end of 1432, was unable to go to Constantinople for consecration for quite a long time. Apparently, the figure of Met. Gerasima, due to the inconsistency of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (and partly corruption), adorned with the title of “All Rus',” demanded that Moscow fight and remove him from the path of its candidate for “All Rus'.” And undoubtedly another great obstacle was a series of troubles on the Moscow grand-ducal table. Yuri Dmitrievich continued to quarrel with Vasily Vasilyevich and in 1433-34 he twice defeated him and took the great reign. Only with the death of Yuri in 1434 did Prince Vasily firmly sit on the great reign. Now, at the end of 1436 or the beginning of 1436, Jonah goes to Constantinople. But excessive slowness was the reason that Jonah did not receive the metropolis, since before his arrival (in the middle of 1436), the Greeks installed their own outstanding candidate, Isidore, who was extremely necessary for them, to the Russian metropolis.
Life of a Saint
The approximate date of birth of the metropolitan is 1390. Jonah was born in the village of Odnoushevo, not far from the city of Galich, which belongs to the Kostroma land. His father's name was Fedor. The parents of the future saint were deeply religious people and raised their son in accordance with all Christian commandments.
At the age of 12, the boy decided to devote himself to the undivided service of the Lord. During this period, he became a monk in the Galich Annunciation Monastery. Later, the young man became a novice at the Moscow Simonov Monastery, where, in addition to performing monastic duties, he served as a baker.
One day, tired Jonah fell asleep right in the bakery, making a gesture of blessing with his hand. He was seen by Moscow Metropolitan Photius, who visited the Simonov Monastery that day. He ordered not to wake up the young monk and not to punish him in any way. In addition, Photius made a prediction that in the future Jonah would become a great saint of the Russian Church and would help many people to be saved.
The prophecy of the current metropolitan was destined to come true. A few years later, Jonah, who had distinguished himself during his years of monasticism by his strict observance of Orthodox canons, was appointed Bishop of Murom and Ryazan.
Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'
When Isidore was deposed after accepting the union, Jonah was consecrated metropolitan of Moscow on December 15 (1448) by a council of Russian saints in Moscow [2]. For the first time since Metropolitan Clement, the Metropolitan of Moscow was installed by a council of Russian bishops.
Having thus encroached, from their point of view, on the rights of the patriarch, the Russians were very concerned about the expectation of some unpleasant complications and consequences of their act. There was a party among the Russians themselves that did not recognize the legality of the appointment of Metropolitan Jonah.
It is known about the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk that he was tempted by the appointment of Metropolitan Jonah, and did not allow him to be called metropolitan in his monastery and to carry out his decrees. Summoned to Moscow on this matter, he spoke to the Metropolitan “unsmoothly and inappropriately, as it befits to speak smoothly and befittingly of great power,”
why mit. Jonah beat him with his rod and put him in chains in prison for repentance. A certain boyar Vasily Kutuz also did not recognize the archpastoral authority of St. Jonah did not want to accept his blessing.
The Russians waited with apprehension to see how the Constantinople authorities, who did not even bother to inform them of the accomplished fact, would respond to the appointment of Metropolitan Jonah. However, the circumstances developed so favorably for the Russians that Constantinople had to, without objection, tacitly acknowledge the correctness of the appointment of Metropolitan Jonah. The latter was installed at the very end of 1448, and at the beginning of 1449 in Constantinople, instead of the deceased organizer of the Florentine Union, Emperor John Palaiologos, his brother Constantine XI ascended the throne, who declared himself a supporter of Orthodoxy. The Orthodox emperor, of course, could not interrogate and blame the Russians for appointing a metropolitan for themselves independently of the Uniate patriarch. Therefore, when Constantine formally restored Orthodoxy in 1451, expelling Patriarch Gregory Mamma, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Vasilyevich in July 1452 prepared a report to send to the emperor, justifying the independent installation of Metropolitan Jonah and with a proposal to restore harmony and alliance with the Church of Constantinople. Having congratulated the emperor on his accession to the ancestral throne “to strengthen the entire Orthodox Christianity of the Greek powers and the dominions of the Russian land,” the Grand Duke sets out to him in order the entire matter of Metropolitans Isidore and Jonah. There is one interesting detail here, as if given incidentally, which, obviously, was considered an argument in favor of the home appointment of Metropolitan Jonah. According to the assurance of the Grand Duke, the Patriarch blessed Jonah for the metropolis on his first trip to Constantinople, when Isidore was appointed to Rus' before him. Then the patriarch allegedly said to Jonah: “What should we do? You didn’t have time to come to us, and we installed someone else in that most holy metropolis and cannot change what we have done; Isidore is already listed as a Russian Metropolitan. You, Jonah, go to your table in the Ryazan bishopric, and whatever the will of God arranges for Isidore - whether he dies, or otherwise, what happens to him, then you will be a metropolitan in Rus' after him.”
Having outlined the history of Metropolitan. Isidora, the Grand Duke speaks of his long-term concerns and ardent desires to legally establish the throne of the Russian Metropolis with the knowledge and consent of Constantinople. But various serious obstacles prevented him from implementing them; firstly, “in the pious powers (Greek) in the Church of God there was discord (i.e., union)”; secondly, the roads to Constantinople were extremely difficult by robbers and robbers; thirdly, the Russian government was too preoccupied with political misfortunes - the invasion of the Hagarians and internecine warfare with Prince Dmitry Shemyaka. In view of all these reasons, the prince writes,
“having looked into the divine and sacred rules of St. Apostle and St. God-bearing father, for the sake of finding those who do not harrow, but command, bishops install a great saint, metropolitan. And according to God's will, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and according to the divine and sacred rule, having gathered our land of saints and rulers, we installed that sacred father of ours, Jonah, Bishop of Ryazan, by those our holy fathers, Russian rulers, to the most holy Russian metropolis, to Kyiv and all of Rus' as metropolitan. And we ask your holy kingdom, do not slander this against us, for we have created this impudence without dishonoring your great dominion; but I did this for a great need, and not with arrogance or insolence. And we ourselves, in all piety, according to our ancient Orthodoxy, will remain until the end of time. And our Russian church - from the Holy Church of God, the Wisdom of God, Saint Sophia of Tsarigrad, demands and seeks blessings, obeys it in everything according to ancient piety, and that our father, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus', Cyrus Jonah, therefore in every possible way demands from him blessings and unification , the development of the current newly emerged disagreements.”
In conclusion, the Grand Duke asks the emperor to express his blessing to Metropolitan Jonah and stipulates that he would write about this to the patriarch, but he does not know whether there is one in Constantinople.
From the above message it is obvious that the Russians, when installing Metropolitan. Jonas were the most modest revolutionaries, i.e. violating this time, in view of the Patriarch's Uniate status, his established right to consecrate Russian metropolitans, they have not yet matured to the point of deciding to take advantage of this opportunity to win autocephaly for themselves once and for all.
The above message was written, but was not sent to its intended destination. Emperor Constantine XI, pressed by Sultan Mohammed II, who was besieging Constantinople, in despair again threw himself into the arms of the union and in the same 1452 began negotiations with the pope. Having learned about this, the Grand Duke of Moscow did not consider it necessary to send the prepared act to him, and the question of the mutual relations of the Russian and Greek churches again remained unclear for some, however short, time. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople was captured by the Turks. Although after this the Orthodox patriarchs were restored there again, they found themselves in a situation on which the Russian people could not come to terms with their dependence. Therefore, the fall of Constantinople served as a major impetus for them to establish their actual independence from the patriarchs.
Subordination of the dioceses of Lithuania and Galicia
The Russian dioceses of the Lithuanian state did not immediately fall under the authority of the metropolitans. Ions. Only in the next 1449 Met. Jonah, taking advantage of the peace treaty between Casimir and Moscow, obtained from the ruler of Lithuania the right to actually govern the Lithuanian-Russian dioceses. To exhort the Orthodox population of these dioceses to submit to the metropolitan installed in Moscow, Jonah wrote special messages, of which two have survived to us: 1) to all princes and lords and boyars and governors and governors and the entire Lithuanian-Galician people and 2) to Kyiv Prince Alexander Vladimirovich. The consent of the population, apparently, was obtained, and Casimir, with a letter of 1451, confirmed Jonah’s right to “the capital of the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus', as was the first according to the rules and customs of Russian Christianity.”
By this act, the dioceses of Lithuania were subordinated to the Moscow Metropolitan, but the dioceses of Galicia were left outside his sphere of influence. With the division of Lithuania and Poland at that time, Casimir IV in Poland did not have the fullness of state power as in Lithuania, and had to largely submit to the will of the Polish people. Galicia belonged to its own Poland, as its conquered part, and there the king listened more to the voice of the Latin clergy and was guided by narrow national interests. That is why Casimir left Jonah’s special petitions to subordinate the Galician dioceses to him without consequences.
Defense of Moscow from the Nogai Tatars
In 1451, the Grand Duke, leaving Moscow to gather troops against the Nogais, entrusted the security of the capital to Metropolitan Jonah and the boyars. According to modern evidence, when the Nogais who attacked Moscow set fire to its suburbs, St. Jonah, defending the Kremlin, made a religious procession along its walls amid the smoke and heat from the flames - and the wind that was driving the flames towards the Kremlin suddenly died down.
Seeing the elderly monk Anthony, a monk of the Chudov Monastery, who was distinguished by a virtuous life, Saint Jonah said: “My son and brother Anthony! Pray to the merciful God and the Most Pure Mother of God for the deliverance of the city and all Orthodox Christians.” The humble Anthony replied: “Great saint! We thank God and His Most Pure Mother: She heard your prayers and begged Her Son, the city and all Orthodox Christians will be saved through your prayers. The enemies will soon be defeated. Only I alone am destined by the Lord to be killed by enemies.” As soon as the elder said this, an enemy arrow pierced him. Elder Anthony’s prediction came true; on July 2, the feast of the placement of the Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos, confusion occurred in the ranks of the Tatars, and they fled in unknown fear and horror. Saint Jonah soon built a temple in his courtyard in honor of the position of the Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos in memory of the deliverance of Moscow from its enemies.
The most famous miracles
The saint united in himself all the gospel virtues, for which he received from the Lord the gift of prophecy and healing. Through the prayers of the current metropolitan, the recovery of incurable patients and other inexplicable phenomena occurred.
Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, helped get rid of the lingering illness of the daughter of the Grand Duchess, who was already on the verge of death. The righteous man did not lay on hands or give any drugs. When healing people, he relied only on the support of the Creator and the power of prayer.
Those who did not believe in divine help received severe punishment. As the legend tells, one day a certain man doubted miraculous healings and began to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. This man tried to prove that the illnesses of those healed ended on their own, without influence from above. Jonah humbly asked him not to doubt and trust the Lord, but the man continued to mock. By this he aroused the righteous anger of the Metropolitan, who exclaimed: “Let your wicked tongue be numb. You will die instead of the patient.” After these words, the impudent man immediately lost the power of speech, fell to the ground and died.
There is a well-known story about how the miracle worker saved Moscow from destruction, and protected its inhabitants from imminent death. In 1451, Tatar tribes invaded Rus' and besieged the capital. To save his people, Jonah and other clergy made a religious procession and asked God for liberation from the conquerors. The elder was confident that soon the Mother of God herself would show her heavenly help. And so it happened: when the Feast of the Laying of the Venerable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos arrived, the Tatars left Moscow, persecuted by an invisible force.
Possessing a prophetic gift, Jonah saw that in the future the Russian Church would have to endure tragic events. The righteous man often spoke about this to everyone who came to him for spiritual conversations, implying the persecution of the Orthodox faith and its champions in the 20th century.
Demise
Died 31 March 1461
During his life and work, two major events took place in the Russian metropolis, which, in turn, divide the history of the highest administrative management of the Russian Church in the first half of the Moscow period under review into two more halves.
One of the events of a quantitative nature is the reduction of the external limits of the Russian Church through the separation from it of the Lithuanian-Galician part, which since then has begun to live its own special life, under peculiar political and cultural conditions.
The other is of a qualitative nature: this is the beginning of the actual (although not formally approved) autocephaly of the Russian Church. The installation of Metropolitan Jonah himself in Moscow occurred without the intention on the part of the Russians to permanently leave the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople. In the present case, the Russians showed an excessively scrupulous canonical conscientiousness and did not dare to do what they not only rightfully could, but, under the circumstances of that time, even had to do, i.e. openly proclaim their metropolitans independent of the Uniate patriarchs. But such an intention and determination finally took shape during the lifetime of Metropolitan. Jonah, although the Patriarchs of Constantinople at that time had already become Orthodox again. St. Jonah himself blessed, through a special letter placed on the throne in the Assumption Cathedral, to be his successor to the Rostov Archbishop Theodosius.
The death of the saint and posthumous miracles
At an old age, Jonah of Moscow became seriously ill. He was struck by an ulcer on his leg, which began to spread and weakened his entire body. Despite his illness, the Metropolitan did not lose his fortitude, continued to constantly attend church and attend all services.
Preparing for his upcoming death, Jonah blessed the ruling prince of Moscow, his descendants and the entire Russian people. The saint left this world with prayer on his lips on March 31, 1461. The body of the righteous man was buried with honors due to his rank. The remains were buried in the cathedral church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary opposite the previously buried Metropolitans Cyprian and Photius.
In the spring of 1472, construction work was carried out on the territory of the temple. During the improvement of the building, the relics of Jonah were found in an incorruptible state. Along with them, the untouched remains of other metropolitans were discovered - Photius, Theognostus, Cyprian.
After the discovery of the relics of Saint Jonah, a cathedral funeral service was held. It was attended by many Orthodox Christians, among whom was a seven-year-old boy, Simeon. He was the son of a local priest and had a serious illness from birth.
During the service at the sacred remains of the Metropolitan, an amazing event occurred, which was witnessed by everyone around. Paralyzed Simeon was praying at an open shrine with relics when he suddenly felt an unusual strength in his legs. Soon he managed to get up and walk on his own. For the healing that had occurred, his father and other people began to glorify God and Saint Jonah.
Information has also been preserved about other miracles that occurred several centuries after the death of the Moscow Metropolitan. When, during the war with Napoleon, the French entered the capital and began looting churches, they did not dare to touch the saint’s silver shrine and the candlestick with it. The reason for this was Jonah who appeared to them, whose hand was raised in a menacing gesture.
The establishment of local veneration of the miracle worker occurred back in the 16th century. During the same period, Pachomius the Serb created a service for the church glorification of the saint. In 1547, under Metropolitan Macarius, the righteous man was officially canonized.
Reverence
During his lifetime, he was credited with the gift of performing miracles. His biographers tell of many miracles at his relics.
In 1472, the relics of the holy Metropolitan Jonah were found incorrupt and placed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin (the celebration of the transfer of the holy relics takes place on May 27). Church-wide glorification of the saint by the Russian Church followed at the Moscow Council in 1547, when a special memory was established for him. In 1596, Saint Job of Moscow established the celebration of Saint Jonah in the Council of other Moscow saints, on October 5.
Troparion of St. Jonah
We have embraced the yoke of the Lord from our youth, / and You have followed His footsteps with an irrevocable desire, / and have achieved a sanctified feat, / We have received sanctification for our flock and received gifts of miracles from God, / With faith, those who come to the race of your relics / You have given abundant healing to various ailments, / Our Father Jonah , Saint of Christ, / pray to Christ God to grant us great mercy.
Troparion for the Transfer of Relics
From your youth, having dedicated everything to yourself to the Lord, / in prayers, and labor, and in fasting, becoming an image of virtue, / from there God saw your good will, / he will establish you as a bishop and shepherd of His Church. / Likewise, even after your repose, your honorable body is intact and incorruptible, / Saint Jonah, / pray to Christ God to save our souls.
Proceedings
The “Cell Gospel” written by him and 38 teaching messages, which are among the best works of ancient Russian church teaching literature, have been preserved.
Of these, some are concerned with the welfare of the state and the order of internal government; others relate to the protection of Orthodoxy from Latinism and the fight against the aspirations of the false metropolitan Isidore; still others are addressed to private individuals and contain consolation for those who mourn and exhortations to a holy life. Thirty-five epistles of St. Jonah were published in the “Acts of History” and “Acts” of the Archaeogr. com. and expeditions. Saint Jonah drew up the order for the installation of bishops.
Used materials
- Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
- Life of St. Ions
- A.V. Kartashev. Essays on the history of the Russian Church. Volume 1
[1] According to days.ru - in Galich.
[2] After the flight of Metropolitan Isidore from Russia, Lithuanian Rus'... could still accept him again as its legal superior, which Isidore negotiated with her just before the installation of Jonah. Deciding on this order, Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich communicated with the Grand Duke of Lithuania and, together with the Polish King Casimir (1440-1492), and only after receiving his consent, he convened a council that ordained Jonah - A.V. Kartashev. Essays on the history of the Russian Church
Son of a patrimonial owner
According to the Life, Jonah came from the family of landowner Fyodor Odnoush, whose estate was located in the Galich lands. The exact time of birth of Saint Jonah is unknown. Presumably, this event occurred in the late 80s - early 90s of the 14th century. Not much can be said about the saint’s childhood years. The Life contains a rather etiquette for hagiography indication of his early - “from youth” - desire to serve Christ.
The saint received monastic tonsure “in one place from the monasteries in the Galich land,” from where after a short time he moved to Moscow “to the monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God on Simanovo.” Here he worked in a bakery. According to the Life, the saint took monastic vows at the age of twelve, but this indication may well reflect a common place characteristic of the lives of Russian ascetics. Interestingly, included in the Life of the Life is the prediction of Metropolitan Photius of Kyiv and All Rus' that the monk Jonah “will be a great saint in the countries of the land of Ruscia.”
During the years of Jonah's stay in the Simonov Monastery, a split of the brethren occurred there into supporters of the cenobitic and Kelliot principles of monastic life. Jonah, who was then “younger,” as the Monk Joseph of Volotsky testifies, took the side of the adherents of the cenobitic rule.
From the Simonov Monastery, Jonah is ordained as Bishop of Ryazan and Murom, but the date of his consecration is unknown. The spiritual charter of Saint Jonah indicates that he was made a ruler by the metropolitan “Lord and Father Cyrus Photius,” which means between April 22, 1410 and July 2, 1431. According to Russian canonical practice of the early 15th century, episcopal consecration could only be performed on a person who had reached the age of forty years.
According to a number of researchers, for some time after the accession to the throne of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily the Dark (February 1425), Jonah was still in the Simonov Monastery. From a number of documents it is known about a certain Jonah, Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery in the first half of the 15th century, and in the Suprasl Chronicle under 1426 it is mentioned that Metropolitan Photius sent Archimandrite Jonah from Moscow to Tver, and from which monastery is not indicated. The question is whether this information relates to the future metropolitan. If this is so, then the ordination of Jonah took place already in the last years of the life of Metropolitan Photius, after 1426.
It is noteworthy that the closest predecessor of Saint Jonah at the see of bishops of Ryazan and Murom, Bishop Sergius Azakov, also came from the Simonov Monastery. This monastery was one of several main spiritual centers of Rus', which most often supplied candidates for filling the highest positions in the Russian church hierarchy.
