Patriarch Job of Moscow
Job (Russian: Iov) (real name: Ioann), also known as Job of Moscow (2nd quarter of the 16th century - June 19, 1607) was the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The word has mainly taken on specific ecclesiastical meanings. In particular, the highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above Major Archbishop and primate), and the Assyrian Church of the East are called patriarchs. The office and ecclesiastical conscription (comprising one or more provinces, though outside his own (arch) diocese he is often without enforceable jurisdiction, unlike the Pope, the Bishop of Rome) of such a patriarch is called a patriarchate. Historically, a Patriarch may often be the logical choice to act as Ethnarch, representing the community that is identified with his religious confession within a state or empire of a different creed (as Christians within the Ottoman Empire).
As a teenager, Ioann knew most of the biblical texts by heart and strove to become a monk. His father, however, insisted on his marriage. Once, Ioann asked his father's permission to see his confessor in the Uspensky Monastery in their native town of Staritsa (Tver Oblast). Upon his arrival, Ioann immediately took monastic vows and assumed the name of Job. He spent fifteen years in the cloister and finally became its abbot in 1566 with the help of Ivan the Terrible, who had made Staritsa his residence in times of the Oprichnina.
In 1571, Job was transferred to Moscow and appointed abbot of the Simonov Monastery. In 1575, he became the abbot of the Novospassky Monastery. In 1581, Job was appointed bishop of Kolomna.
He managed to draw attention of Boris Godunov by his talent for reading the longest of prayers by heart in a very expressive manner. During the reign of Feodor I (whose government was controlled by Boris Godunov), Job was appointed archbishop of Rostov and Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia in 1587.
Peter Geller painted Patriarch Job refusing to recognize False Dmitry I as Ivan IV's son.
Election
Realizing the
necessity of strengthening the ecclesiastic authority in Russia, Godunov managed
to persuade the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremias II to establish a patriarchate
in Russia. On January 26, 1589, Job was elected the first Patriarch of Moscow
and All Russia. He exercised his influence and played a major part in Boris Godunov's
ascending to the Russian throne.
Patriarchate
Job did not approve,
Godunov's proposal to open a university in Moscow with foreign professors because
he believed their influence and non-Orthodox faith would cause "heterodoxy"
and endanger the authority of the Russian Church. Under Job's supervision, the
Russians corrected books for divine service and prepared them for publishing.
He assisted in glorification of some of the Russian saints, ordering the celebration of the memory of Basil Fool for Christ in 1588, as well as that of Joseph Volotsky and others. Job also favored the construction of new cathedrals and monasteries and Christian missionary activities in the recently conquered Astrakhan Khanate and Siberia. After the mysterious death of tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich in 1591, Jove accepted the non-criminal version of his demise, supporting Boris Godunov every step of the way.
After the invasion of False Dmitriy I and sudden death of Boris Godunov on June 1, 1605, there was an uprising in Moscow.
Death
Job was known as a harsh critic of False Dmitriy I and he tried to persuade
the people of Moscow to remain loyal to the deceased tsar. The armed supporters
of the impostor burst into the Cathedral of the Dormition and a boyar named P.F.Basmanov
declared Job a traitor. Job was sent into exile to his monastery in Staritsa,
where he went completely blind and finally died a very sick man in 1607.
In 1652, Job's relics were transferred to the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Moscow Kremlin, where they remain to this day. Patriarch Job was glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1989.
Another Job of Eastern Europe.
Books that have been compared to Job
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