Nikon (Russian: Ни́кон, Old Russian: Нїконъ), born Nikita Minin (Никита Минин; May 7, 1605 Valmanovo, Russia—August 17, 1681), was the seventh patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. This was one of the most important periods in the Church's history, as Nikon introduced many reforms which eventually led to a lasting schism known as Raskol. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 296 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (462 × 934 pixel, file size: 126 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Portrait of Patriarch Nikon. ... is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1605 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ... For other senses, see Patriarch (disambiguation). ... The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: ), also known as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs and primates of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ... The word schism (IPA: or ), from the Greek σχίσμα, skhísma (from σχίζω, skhízō, to tear, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization or a movement. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Rise to power

Son of a peasant farmer named Mina, he was born on the May 7, 1605 in the village of Valmanovo, 90 versts (96 km or 60 miles) from Nizhny Novgorod. Misery pursued the child from his cradle, and prematurely hardened a character not naturally soft; he ran away from home to save his life from an inhumane stepmother. But he gave promise betimes of the energy and thoroughness which were to distinguish him throughout life, and contrived to teach himself reading and writing. When he was but twenty his learning and talents obtained for him a cure of souls. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1605 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... A verst (Russian versta, верста) is an obsolete Russian unit of length. ... KM, Km, or km may stand for: Khmer language (ISO 639 alpha-2, km) Kilometre Kinemantra Meditation Knowledge management KM programming language KM Culture, Korean Movie Maker. ... A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, United States customary units and Norwegian/Swedish mil. ... Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: ), colloquially shortened as Nizhny, is the fourth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. ... In some denominations of Christianity, the cure of souls (Latin cura animarum), an archaic translation which is better rendered today as care of souls, is the exercise by a priest of his or her office. ...

Nikon's residence at the New Jerusalem Cloister is representative of his austere aesthetic views.

His eloquence attracted attention, and, through the efforts of some Moscow merchants, he was transferred to a populous parish in the capital. Shortly afterwards, seeing in the loss of his three little children a providential warning to seek the higher life, he first persuaded his wife to take the veil and then withdrew himself first to a desolate hermitage on the isle of Anzersky on the White Sea. Having quarreled with the father superior, he attempted to flee southward, but a tempest broke out and his boat was cast ashore on Kiy Island, where he would later establish a great monastery. He eventually reached the Kozhezersky monastery, in the diocese of Novgorod, of which he became abbot in 1643. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3268x2336, 4941 KB) Новоиерусалимский монастырь. Фото User:Unwrecker, февраль 2005. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3268x2336, 4941 KB) Новоиерусалимский монастырь. Фото User:Unwrecker, февраль 2005. ... Position of Moscow in Europe Coordinates: , Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Government  - Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Area  - City 1,081 km²  (417. ... The Solovetsky Islands (Russian: ), also known as Solovki, are a group of islands in the White Sea in the Onega Bay in the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia. ... Map of the White Sea Two satellite photos of the White Sea The White Sea (Russian: ) is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the North Western coast of Russia. ... Kiy-Island Kiy-Island (Russian: Кий-остров) is situated in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, 8 km off shore and 15 km from Onega (town). ... Velikiy Novgorod (Russian: ) is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia, situated on the M10(E95) federal highway connecting Moscow and St. ... // Events January 21 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga February 6 - Abel Tasman discovers the Fiji islands. ...

On becoming a monk he took the name of Nikon. In his official capacity he had frequently to visit Moscow, and in 1646 made the acquaintance of the pious and impressionable Tsar Alexius, who fell entirely under his influence. Alexius appointed Nikon archimandrite, or prior, of the wealthy Novospassky monastery at Moscow, and in 1648 metropolitan of Great Novgorod. Finally (1st of August 1652) he was elected patriarch of Moscow. It was only with the utmost difficulty that Nikon could be persuaded to become the arch-pastor of the Russian Church, and he only yielded after imposing upon the whole assembly a solemn oath of obedience to him in everything concerning the dogmas, canons and observances of the Orthodox Church. 1646 (MDCXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov (In Russian Алексей Михаилович Романов) (March 9, 1629 (O.S.) - January 29, 1676 (O.S.)) was a Tsar of Russia during some of the most eventful... The New Saviour Abbey sprawls along the bank of the Moskva River Novospassky monastery (New monastery of the Saviour) is one of the fortified monasteries surrounding Moscow from south-east. ... In hierarchical Christian churches, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop (then more precisely called Metropolitan archbishop) of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of an old Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital. ... Velikiy Novgorod (Russian: ) is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia, situated on the M10(E95) federal highway connecting Moscow and St. ... The following is a list of Russian Orthodox metropolitans and patriarchs of Moscow along with when they served: Metropolitans Maximus ( 1283- 1305) Peter ( 1308- 1326) Theognostus ( 1328- 1353) Alexius ( 1354- 1378) Cyprian ( 1381- 1382), ( 1390- 1406) Pimen ( 1382- 1384) Dionysius I ( 1384- 1385) Photius ( 1408- 1431) Isidore the Apostate ( 1437...

Nikon's reforms

Nikon's attitude on this occasion was not affectation, but the wise determination of a would-be reformer to secure a free hand. Ecclesiastical reform was already in the air. A number of ecclesiastical dignitaries, known as the party of the protopopes (deans), had accepted the responsibility for the revision of the church service-books inaugurated by the late Patriarch Joasaph, and a few other very trivial rectifications of certain ancient observances. But they were far too timid to attempt anything really effectual.

Aleksey Kivshenko. Patriarch Nikon and Epifany Slavinetsky revising service-books.

Nikon was much bolder and also much more liberal. He consulted the most learned of the Greek prelates abroad; invited them to a consultation at Moscow; and finally the scholars of Constantinople and Kiev convinced the eyes of Nikon that the Muscovite service-books were heterodox, and that the icons actually in use had very widely departed from the ancient Constantinopolitan models, being for the most part imbued with the Polish baroque influences. Later research was to vindicate the Muscovite service-books as belonging to a different recension from that which was used by the Greeks at the time of Nikon, and the unrevised Muscovite books were actually older and more venerable than the Greek books, which had undergone several revisions over the centuries and ironically, were newer and contained innovations. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Epifany Slavinetsky (Епифаний Славинецкий in Russian) was a great ecclesiastical expert of the Russian Orthodox Church who helped Patriarch Nikon to revise the ancient service-books, thus precipitating the Great Schizm of the national church. ... Map of Constantinople. ... Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ... Look up icon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Recension is the name given to the critical revision of the text of an author, or the revised text itself. ...

Nikon at once (1654) summoned a synod to re-examine the service-books revised by the Patriarch Joasaf, and the majority of the synod decided that "the Greeks should be followed rather than our own ancients." A second council, held at Moscow in 1656, sanctioned the revision of the service-books as suggested by the first council, and anathematized the dissentient minority, which included the party of the protopopes and Paul, bishop of Kolomna. The reforms coincided with a great plague in 1654 and Russians were also greatly concerned about the upcoming year 1666 which many considered the year of the apocalypse. A synod (also known as a council) is a council of a church, usually a Christian church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. ... Anathema (in Greek Ανάθεμα) meaning originally something lifted up as an offering to the gods; later, with evolving meanings, it came to mean: to be formally set apart, banished, exiled, excommunicated or denounced, sometimes accursed. ... Paul of Kolomna was a 17th century Russian prelate and martyr. ... Kolomna (Russian: Коломна) is an ancient Russian city, founded in 1177 on the Moskva River and Oka River. ... A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region (example a continent), or even worldwide. ... Events April 5 - Signing of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. ... 1666 is often called Annus Mirabilis. ... Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Heavily weighted with the fullest ecumenical authority, Nikon's patriarchal staff descended with crushing force upon those with whom he disagreed. His scheme of reform included not only service-books and ceremonies but the use of the new-fangled icons, for which he ordered a house-to-house search to be made. His soldiers and servants were charged first to gouge out the eyes of these heretical counterfeits and then carry them through the town in derision. He also issued an ukase threatening with the severest penalties all who dared to make or use such icons in future. Construction of tent-like churches (of which Saint Basil's Cathedral is a prime example) was strictly forbidden, and many old uncanonical churches were demolished to make way for new ones, designed in the "Old Byzantine" style. This ruthlessness goes far to explain the unappeasable hatred with which the Old Believers, as they now began to be called, ever afterwards regarded Nikon and all his works. Ukase (Russian: указ, ukaz) in Imperial Russia was a proclamation of the tsar government, or a religions leader patriarch that had the force of law. ... The rocket-like church at Ostrov near Moscow is considered typical for Boris Godunovs reign. ... St. ... In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers (Russian: ) separated after 1666 - 1667 from the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. ...

His haughtiness and downfall

Nikon had Metropolitan Philip canonized and his relics transferred to the Moscow Kremlin as a reminder to the tsars about the crimes they had committed against the church (painting by Alexander Litovchenko).

From 1652 to 1658, Nikon was not so much the minister as the colleague of the tsar. Both in public documents and in private letters he was permitted to use the sovereign title. Such a free use did he make of his vast power, that some Russian historians have suspected him of the design of establishing a particular national papacy; and he himself certainly maintained that the spiritual was superior to the temporal power. He enriched the numerous and splendid monasteries which he built with valuable libraries. His emissaries scoured Muscovy and the Orient for precious Greek and Slavonic manuscripts, both sacred and profane. Image File history File links Litovchenko. ... Image File history File links Litovchenko. ... Malyuta Skuratov approaching Metropolitan Philip in order to kill him (painting from 1898). ... The Moscow Kremlin (Russian: Московский Кремль) is a historic fortified complex at the very heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River (to the south), Saint Basils Cathedral (often mistaken by westerners as the Kremlin) and Red Square (to the east) and the Alexander Garden (to the west). ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ... The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ...

But his severity raised up a whole host of enemies against him, and by the summer of 1658 they had convinced Alexius that the sovereign patriarch was eclipsing the sovereign tsar. Alexius suddenly grew cold towards his own bosom friend (as he called him). Nikon thereupon publicly divested himself of the patriarchal vestments and shut himself up in the Ascension Convent (July 19, 1658). In February 1660 a synod was held at Moscow to terminate the widowhood of the Muscovite Church, which had now been without a pastor for nearly two years. The synod decided not only that a new patriarch should be appointed, but that Nikon had forfeited both his archiepiscopal rank and his priests orders. Events January 13 - Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in Tower of London February 6 - Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt (Storebælt) in Denmark over frozen sea May 1 - Publication of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus by... Cathedral of the Ascension Convent (1580s), from an early 19th-century drawing. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 13 - Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in Tower of London February 6 - Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt (Storebælt) in Denmark over frozen sea May 1 - Publication of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus by... // Events January 1 - Colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and begins advance towards London in support of English Restoration. ...

Against the second part of this decision, however, the great ecclesiastical expert Epifany Slavinetsky protested energetically, and ultimately the whole inquiry collapsed, the scrupulous tsar shrinking from the enforcement of the decrees of the synod for fear of committing mortal sin. For six years longer the Russian Orthodoxy remained without a patriarch. Every year the question of Nikon's deposition became more complicated and confusing. Almost every contemporary orthodox scholar was consulted on the subject, and no two authorities agreed. At last the matter was submitted to an ecumenical council, or the nearest approach to it attainable in the circumstances, which opened its sessions on the November 18, 1666 in the presence of the tsar. Epifany Slavinetsky (Епифаний Славинецкий in Russian) was a great ecclesiastical expert of the Russian Orthodox Church who helped Patriarch Nikon to revise the ancient service-books, thus precipitating the Great Schizm of the national church. ... The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      An Ecumenical Council (also sometimes Oecumenical... is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1666 is often called Annus Mirabilis. ...

On the 12th of December the council pronounced Nikon guilty of reviling the tsar and the whole Muscovite Church, of deposing Paul, bishop of Kolomna, contrary to the canons, and of beating and torturing his dependants. His sentence was deprivation of all his sacerdotal functions; henceforth he was to be known simply as the monk Nikon. The same day he was put into a sledge and sent as a prisoner to the far northern Ferapontov monastery. Yet the very council which had deposed him confirmed all his reforms and anathematized all who should refuse to accept them, like protopope Avvakum. Nikon survived the tsar (with whom something of the old intimacy was resumed in 1671) five years and was allowed to return to Moscow, expiring on his way thither, after crossing the Kotorosl River in Yaroslavl, the August 17, 1681. Kolomna (Russian: Коломна) is an ancient Russian city, founded in 1177 on the Moskva River and Oka River. ... Difficulty of access helped preserve the monastery intact since the 17th century The Ferapontov convent, in the Vologda region of Russia, is considered one of the purest examples of Russian medieval art, a reason given by UNESCO for its inscription in the World Heritage list. ... Old Believer icon depicting Avvakum surrounded by other martyrs of the Old Faith Avvákum Petróv (November 20, 1620 or 1621 - April 14, 1682) was a Russian archpriest of Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nikons reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. ... Kotorosl (Ко́торосль) — river in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. ... Yaroslavl (Russian: ) is a city in Russia, the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, located 250 km north-east of Moscow at . ... is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.