Metropolitan Joseph (

secular name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then ap ...

Ivan Semyonovich Petrovykh, russian: Иван Семёнович Петровых; 15 December 1872 – 20 November 1937) was a metropolitan of the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

. He was a leader of the anti-Soviet

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, ...

movement and organizer of the

Catacomb Church The Catacomb Church (russian: Катакомбная церковь) as a collective name labels those representatives of the Russian Orthodox clergy, laity, communities, monasteries, brotherhoods, etc., who for various reasons, have moved to a ...

Biography

He was born in

Ustyuzhna Ustyuzhna (russian: У́стюжна) is a town and the administrative center of Ustyuzhensky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Mologa River, west of Vologda, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History Co ...

Novgorod Governorate Novgorod Governorate (Pre-reformed rus, Новгоро́дская губе́рнія, r=Novgorodskaya guberniya, p=ˈnofɡərətskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə, t=Government of Novgorod), was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Ru ...

. Metropolitan of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(1926–27), after the publication in 1927 the "Declaration" by Metropolitan

Sergius (Stragorodsky) Patriarch Sergius (russian: Патриарх Сергий; born Ivan Nikolayevich Stragorodsky, Иван Николаевич Страгородский; – May 15, 1944) was the 12th Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus', from September 8, 194 ...

he led the Josephite Movement. He was against the recognition of the Soviet government by the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

in 1927–37. Before he was killed by the "Soviets", Metropolitan Joseph wrote: "Do not judge me so severely, and clearly understand the following: # I am not at all a schismatic, and I call not to a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

. but to the purification of the Church from those who sow real schism and provoke it. # To indicate to another his errors and wrongs is not schism but, to speak simply, it is putting an unbridled horse back into harness. # The refusal to accept sound reproaches and directives is in reality a schism and a trampling on the truth. # In the construction of ecclesiastical life the participants are not only those at the head, but the whole body of the Church, and a schismatic is he who assumes to himself rights which exceed his authority and in the name of the Church presumes to say that which is not shared by his colleagues. # Metropolitan Sergius has shown himself to be such a schismatic, for he has far exceeded his authority and has rejected and scorned the voice of many hierarchs, in whose midst the pure truth has been preserved".

Death and legacy

He was murdered by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

government in 1937 in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. In 1981, Metropolitan Joseph was glorified as a

New Martyr The title of New Martyr or Neomartyr ( el, νεο-, ''neo''-, the prefix for "new"; and μάρτυς, ''martys'', "witness") is conferred in some denominations of Christianity to distinguish more recent martyrs and confessors from the old martyr ...

by the

Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (russian: Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей, lit=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, translit=Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov' Zagranitsey), also called Ru ...

, but not by the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

External links

Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) profile
theorthodox.org; accessed 21 September 2016. {{Authority control 1872 births 1937 deaths People from Vologda Oblast 20th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Great Purge victims from Russia Catacomb Church Russian anti-communists Russian people executed by the Soviet Union 1937 murders in Europe