Nikon (Patriarch)
Nikon (real name Nikita Minin ; Russian Ники́та Ми́нин ; * 7 May July / 17 May 1605 greg. In Weldemanowo ; † 17 August July / 27 August 1681 greg. In Yaroslavl ) was a Russian patriarch .
Life
Nikon was born as Nikita Minin in 1605 in the village Weldemanowo not far from Nizhny Novgorod . Originally a married priest, he lived for a time as a monk in a monastery on the White Sea after the death of his wife . Nikon became Metropolitan of Novgorod in 1647 and Patriarch of Russia in 1652 . His term of office was essentially characterized by two conflicts: On the one hand, he was in constant dispute with Tsar Alexei I (1646–1682) regarding different views on the relationship between church and state; on the other hand, the disputes with the so-called "Old Believers" escalated during his term of office , who, under the leadership of the protopope (archpriest) Avakum († 1682), opposed the revision of the books of worship initiated by the patriarch.
Having fallen out of favor with the Tsar because of his indomitable character, he was removed from his dignity by a council resolution in 1666, after he had already been induced to retreat in 1658. Nikon died in Yaroslavl on August 17, 1681.
meaning
Nikon had the Church Slavonic liturgy books corrected according to Greek prints, which triggered the separation of the Old Believers (derogatory: Raskolniken ) from the Russian Church.
The "Nikon Chronicle" (Petersburg 1767–1792, 8 volumes) published by the Petersburg Academy is wrongly attributed to him, which only bears his name because he donated it to the library of the Voskressensk Monastery.
In Russian historiography, Patriarch Nikon was for a long time judged one-sidedly, especially negatively; The most important reason for this may well be that he was seen as the originator of a disruption of the “synallilia” - the relationship between church and state based on the Byzantine model - and thus represented a negative example at the time of the autocratic monarchy.
Others
From 1656 until he lost his dignity, Nikon resided in the Moscow Kremlin in the Patriarch's Palace there , which was built on his instructions. The building has been preserved as a museum to this day; In some cases, the furnishings from Nikon's tenure are reproduced true to the original.
literature
- Wolfgang Heller: Nikon from Moscow. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 937-940.
- SV Lobachev: Patriarch Nikon. Sankt-Peterburg, Iskusstvo-SPB 2003. ISBN 5-210-01561-0
- Makarios: The Patriarch Nikon. Moscow 1881 (in Russian)
- Paul Meyendorff: Russia, Ritual, and Reform. The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the 17th century . St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 1991. ISBN 0-88141-090-X
- Wolfram von Scheliha: Russia and the Orthodox Universal Church in the Patriarchal Period 1589-1721 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2004. (= Research on Eastern European History; 62). ISBN 3-447-05006-3
- Olga B. Strakhov: The Byzantine Culture in Muscovite Rus'. The Case of Evfimii Chudovskii (1620-1705) . Böhlau, Cologne 1998. ISBN 3-412-06898-5
Web links
- Biography on ortho-rus.ru (Russian)
predecessor | Office | successor |
---|---|---|
Joseph |
Patriarch of Moscow 1652–1658 |
Pitirim from Krutitsy |
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Nikon |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Minin, Nikita (original name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian Orthodox Patriarch |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1605 or May 24, 1605 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Weldemanowo |
DATE OF DEATH | August 27, 1681 |
Place of death | Yaroslavl |