Archimandrite Photius (, secular name Pyotr Nikitich Spassky, ; Julian calendar: 4 June 1792,

Novgorodsky Uyezd Novgorodsky Uyezd (''Новгородский уезд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southwestern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Veliky Novgorod. Dem ...

– 26 February 1838, Novgorod) was an influential and reactionary

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

priest and mystic, appointed in 1822 the

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

Yuriev Monastery The St. George's (Yuriev) Monastery () is usually cited as Russia's oldest monastery. It stands in 5 kilometers south of Novgorod on the left bank of the Volkhov River near where it flows out of Lake Ilmen. The monastery used to be the most impor ...

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

. From 1823 to 1825, he and Alexey Arakcheyev plotted the downfall of Arakcheyev's political rival, Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn, Minister of Education and Spiritual Affairs. As in the later reign of

Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

, this was an age of rebellion, dissent and disputed succession, and Photius, a "theatrical and hypnotic character", has been compared to

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

.Michael Jenkins, ''Arakcheev, Grand Vizier of the Russian Empire'', Faber, 1969. .

Biography

Photius arrived in Saint Petersburg in 1817 as a theology teacher to the Cadet Corps. In 1820 he began to preach in the Kazan Cathedral against the

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Russian Bible Society The Bible Society in Russia () is a Christian non-denominational organization for translating and distributing the Bible in Russia, in languages and formats accessible to anyone. Early history The first attempts to translate books of the Bible into ...

, which he alleged was responsible for all the unrest among young Russians. He and others feared that there might be a

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

in Russia. This impressed powerful sponsors, such as the immensely wealthy Countess

Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya Countess Anna Alekseyevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya (; 1785–1848), was a landowner from the Russian Empire, and courtier. She was known for her work against the serfdom in Russia. Also known for her piety, she acquired a saintly reputation. Anna wa ...

, Arakcheyev, and Speransky's assistant, Magnitsky. In 1822 and 1824 Photius met Tsar Alexander I who regarded Photius as 'divinely inspired' and agreed to abolish the Masonic Lodges. Photius also pleaded for Golitsyn's dismissal. The Tsar hesitated, and Photius then confronted Golitsyn with a curse, later confirmed by Metropolitan Seraphim; 'Anathema! You will be damned!'. Golitsyn was thus forced to resign, his ministry was abolished, and control of the Bible Societies passed to the Orthodox Church; in 1826 Photius and Seraphim persuaded Nicolas I to abolish it altogether. It was a 'surreal episode of fanaticism' by a 'psychologically unstable' priest. Arakcheyev was the mastermind behind the plot and Photius continued to support him in later years, for example insisting that Arakcheyev's murdered mistress should be 'buried in holy ground'. According to

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

scholar and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Tomas Masaryk, Arakcheyev and Photius "represent

theocratic Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's daily a ...

cæsaropapism at the close of Alexander's reign; they are the throne and the altar which Photius defended against the revolution." Photius died in 1836, the same year he had previously predicted would see the start of the

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

. Countess Orlova is buried alongside Photius near the Church of the Annunciation in Novgorod.

In popular culture

Pushkin capitalised on the rumours of an affair with Orlova by writing three short satirical poems: Photius was a 'half saintly fool who means no good'; the countess 'pious on the whole/ To God devoted full her soul/ And gave her flesh without a fight/ To Photius, Archimandrite'.Max Fram, '' The Motherland of Elephants'', print ed., Max Fram, 2016, p. 173. .

References

{{Authority control 19th-century people from the Russian Empire 19th-century Christian mystics Eastern Orthodox mystics Eastern Orthodox priests from the Russian Empire

Biography

In popular culture

See also

References