Archbishop Philaret (, secular name Dmitry Grigorievich Konobeyevsky (Конобе́евский); 1805-1866) was the

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 ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

(1841–48),

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

(1848–59), and Archbishop of

Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...

(1859–66). The son of a priest from the village of ,

Shatsky District Shatsky District () is an administrativeLaw #128-ZS and municipalLaw #101-OZ district (raion), one of the twenty-five in Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center ...

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, and the Russian SFSR, with its capital in Tambov. It was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north latitude, north and betwee ...

, Filaret is best known as a

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

church historian Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of th ...

. At the precocious age of 30 he was appointed Dean of the

Moscow Theological Academy Moscow Theological Academy () is a higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, training clergy, teachers, scholars, and officials. The Academy traces its origin to the Slavic Greek Latin Academy, which was founded in 1685 by th ...

based in the

Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius () is a lavra and the most important Russian monastery, being the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about to the northeast from Mosco ...

. During his tenure in Riga (1841-1848) the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

saw a religious conversion movement, as a result of which more than one hundred thousand Estonian and Latvian peasants converted to Orthodoxy. He also established a school in Riga in February 1846, which grew four years later into a seminary (Latvian: ''Rīgas Garīgais seminārs''). His magnum opus is ''The History of the Russian Church'' (1847–48), the first complete and systematic outline of the evolution of the

Russian Orthodox Church 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 ...

. It was seen as a clerical counterpart to Karamzin's great history of the Russian state and went through many reprints. This work was later revised and expanded by the likes of Macarius Bulgakov and Yevgeny Golubinsky. Filaret Gumilevsky is buried in the Trinity Cathedral, Chernihiv. In 2009, the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), commonly referred to by the exonym Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was officially formed in 1990 in pla ...

recognized him as a saint for local veneration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gumilevsky, Filaret Historians of the Russian Orthodox Church Russian theologians Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox theologians 1805 births 1866 deaths Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church 19th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops 19th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians Russian historians of religion Bishops of Chernihiv