Demetrius of Rostov | |
|---|---|
 Icon of St. Demetrius of Rostov, late 17th-century | |
| Hierarch | |
| Born | 11 December 1651 Makariv,Cossack Hetmanate |
| Died | 28 October 1709 Rostov,Tsardom of Russia |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Canonized | 22 April 1757 byRussian Orthodox Church |
| Feast | 21 September (Uncovering of Relics) 28 October (Repose) 23 May (Synaxis of All Saints of Rostov)[1] |
| Attributes | Vested as a bishop, right hand raised in blessing |
| Patronage | students and teachers;[2]Rostov-on-Don,[2]Rostov the Great,Votkinsk[3] |
Demetrius of Rostov (Russian:Димитрий Ростовский,romanized: Dimitry Rostovsky,Ukrainian:Димитрій Ростовський,romanized: Dymytrii Rostovskyi, secular nameDaniil Savvich Tuptalo,Russian:Даниил Саввич Туптало, orTuptalenko,Russian:Тупталенко, according to some sources; 11 December 1651 – 28 October 1709) was a leading opponent of theCaesaropapist reform of theRussian Orthodox church promoted byTheophan Prokopovich. He is representative of the strongCossack Baroque influence upon theRussian Orthodox Church at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Demetrius is sometimes credited as composer or compiler of the firstRussian opera, the lengthyRostov Mysteries of 1705, though the exact nature of this work, as well as its place in history, is open to debate.[4]
He is the author of several written works, out of which the most famous isThe Lives of Saints (Четьи-Минеи).[5] He was also involved in the creation of the forged documentSynodic act on the heretic of Armenia, the monk Martin, which was used against theOld Believers.[6]
He was born into aCossack family in 1651. Soon thereafter his family moved toKiev, and he entered theKievo-Mohyla Academy at the age of 11. On 9 July 1668 he took hisreligious vows at St. Cyril's Monastery in Kiev and was given the monastic name of Demetrius (afterSaint Demetrius ofThessalonika). After a brief period inChernigov, Demetrius went to venerate the Byzantine Slavic Christianshrines ofBelarus (at the time property of theByzantine Rite Belarusian and Ukrainian Catholic metropolitans of the Uniate churches), still located in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time. In 1678 he returned fromVilno toBaturyn and settled at the court of thehetmanIvan Samoylovych.
During the 1680s, Demetrius lived mostly at theKiev Pechersk Lavra, while hissermons against hard drinking and lax morals made his name known all overRussia. He was appointedhegumen (superior) of several majormonasteries ofUkraine, but concentrated his attention upon the ambitious project of integrating all the lives of Russiansaints into a single work, which he published asMonthly Readings (Четьи-минеи) orMenologion in 1684-1705. He also found time to study ecclesiastical history of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1701 Demetrius was appointedMetropolitan ofSiberia but, pleading ill health, preferred to stay inMoscow until he was invested with the archbishopric ofRostov. During his life in Russia, Demetrius opposed both theOld Believers' andPeter the Great's ecclesiastical policies, gradually drifting towards the party ofEudoxia Lopukhina andTsarevich Alexis. Shortly before his death he forgedThe synodic act on the heretic of Armenia, the monk Martin|a document to undermine the Old Believers by portraying them as adherents of heresy. He also made contributions to Russian education, opening a school and a small theatre in Rostov, where his own plays could be staged.
Demetrius was also active as a composer, although his musical education is undocumented aside from the standard music curriculum established by Feofan Prokopovich at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Many of hisPenitential Psalms achieved wide circulation, not only in Ukraine but in the Balkans too, and many have become an integral part of Ukrainian folk-song tradition through thekobzari, itinerant blind singers.
Demetrius is credited as composer or compiler of the first Russian opera, the six-hour-longRostov Mysteries of 1705. Though this has been staged, notably byBoris Pokrovsky'sMoscow Chamber Musical Theatre, in Moscow and at the Brighton Festival (1993), it may best be judged an oratorio on the lives of Russian saints. Its basis is the "Cheti-Minei" (Четьи-Минеи), published in four volumes in 1689, 1690, 1700 and 1705[7] — the same source that inspiredPushkin in 1825 to writeBoris Godunov.
Upon Demetrius' death, on 28 October 1709, his relics were placed at St. Jacob's Monastery, which his followers would rebuild as Demetrius' shrine. A fortress on theDon River was named after him; today it is known asRostov-on-the-Don.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)
