Nikon (Patriarch)

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Patriarch Nikon around 1660

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

Letter from the Patriarch Nikon to Tsar Alexei I from 1669

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

Web links

Commons : Patriarch Nikon  - collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Joseph Patriarch of Moscow
1652–1658
Pitirim from Krutitsy