Athanasius, Metropolitan of Moscow
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Metropolitan | |
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| Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia | |
| Church | Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus' from March 1564 to May 1566. He was the eleventh metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.
Early lifeIn 1530s–1540s, Athanasius served as a priest in Moscow Kremlin and became Ivan the Terrible's personal confessor. Athanasius accompanied the tsar during his military campaign against Kazan in 1552 and held a service during the laying of the foundation stone of the Annunciation Cathedral in that city. He was known as a writer and icon painter.
Athanasius participated in the church The Belligerent Church ("Церковь воинствующая"). Also, he wrote the Life of Daniel of Pereyaslavl (Житие Даниила Переяславского; 1556–1562) and (supposedly) the Book of Generations (Степенная книга; between 1560 and 1563). In 1562, Athanasius was admitted to the Chudov Monastery. In 1564, he was elected Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, replacing the deceased Metropolitan Macarius. It was Metropolitan Athanasius to whom Ivan the Terrible would address his message on the introduction of the oprichnina in 1565. Athanasius would often talk to the tsar and express his concern about the disgraced.
Officially, Metropolitan Athanasius left his post due to a "grave sickness", but some Russian historians believe that it was his rejection of oprichnina that would cost him his post. Athanasius moved to the Chudov Monastery and lived there until his death.  |