Theodosius | |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia | |
 Miniature from theIllustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible | |
| Church | Russian Orthodox Church |
| See | Moscow |
| Installed | 1461 |
| Term ended | 1464 |
| Predecessor | Jonah |
| Successor | Philip I |
| Personal details | |
| Died | (1475-10-15)15 October 1475 |
Theodosius Byvaltsev (Russian:Феодосий Бывальцев; died 1475) wasMetropolitan of Moscow and all Rus', theprimate of theRussian Orthodox Church, from 1461 to 1464. He was the second metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of theEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.
In 1454, when Theodosius was stillarchimandrite of the Moscow Kremlin'sChudov Monastery, he was promoted to the office of Archbishop ofRostov. After the death of MetropolitanJonah in 1461, Theodosius became Metropolitan of Moscow in early May 1461.[1]
Theodosius's appointment marked a new period of actual independence of theRussian Orthodox Church from thepatriarch of Constantinople. He was the first metropolitan appointed by the grand prince after thefall of Constantinople to the Turks (in 1453), although his predecessor,Jonah, is considered the first independent metropolitan, as he was appointed in 1448 without the approval of the patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius' appointment was, however, eventually blessed by Philippi, Metropolitan of Caesarea, on behalf of the patriarch of Constantinople in April 1464.[2]
Since his first days as a metropolitan, Theodosius sought to eradicate unscrupulousness among thepriests and educating theclergy in his province. Theodosius's attempts at reshaping the clergy failed. When he started sifting through the priests anddefrocking those unfit for preaching, many parishes were left without priests. Ordinary people had nothing against their priests, therefore, they started to voice their discontent and damn the metropolitan.
Theodosius also had to contend with a metropolitanate in Lithuania which threatened to take the western eparchies of the Province of Moscow, most notablyNovgorod the Great, and was suspected of Latinizing, in which case these western regions would not only be lost to the Moscow metropolitan, but would go over to Catholicism and be lost to Orthodoxy altogether.[3] The metropolitans of Lithuania had been opposed for several decades, going back at least to the tenure ofPhotius in Moscow, and would continue after Theodosius' tenure.
Theodosius resigned the metropolitan office and retired to Chudov Monastery, where he had previously been archimandrite, after only 3 years. He later transferred to theTroitse-Sergiyeva Lavra north of Moscow where he died in 1475. He is buried in the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.[4]
"Феодосий, митрополит московский" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.| Preceded by | Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia 1461–1464 | Succeeded by |