05/02/2025
On this day in 1589 (26th January in the Julian calendar, 5th February in the Gregorian), Job, the Metropolitan of Moscow was consecrated as the first Patriarch of Moscow, by the Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah of Constantinople. Job had not been intended for the church by his family, but he insisted on taking monastic vows in at the local monastery in Staritsa in 1556 at around the age of thirty. He became abbot of his monastery in 1569, where he attracted the attention of Ivan IV (the Terrible). In 1571, he was transferred to become abbot of the Simonov monastery in Moscow. After a spell at the Novospassky monastery, in 1581 he became Bishop of Kolomna. In January 1587, he became Archbishop of Rostov, only to be promoted in December to Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia.
Joachim, the Patriarch of Antioch, had visited Russia in 1586 to raise money for the Syrian church and had been sympathetic to the idea of raising the church in Russia to the same self-governing status as the other ancient Patriarchates as it was the only major Orthodox territory governed by a Christian at the time. When Patriarch Jeremiah followed in 1589, he was convinced by Boris Godunov, negotiating on behalf of Tsar Fyodor, to allow what had been part of his patriarchate to become fully independent.
He encouraged the evangelising of the northern and eastern territories of Russia, which was expanding into Siberia. He also helped the church in Georgia by sending scholars at the request of King Alexander II. Sadly, politics caught up with him. After the death of Boris Godunov, Job encouraged loyalty to Fyodor Godunov. After Fyodor was overthrown and murdered by the pretender Dmitry, Job was arrested, stripped of his title and exiled to his old monastery at Staritsa. Upon Dmitry's own fall from power in 1606, Vasily Shuisky invited Job to return, but he preferred to stay at Staritsa, where he died the next year.
