Joseph Volotsky — also known as Joseph of Volotsk or Joseph of Volokolamsk (); secular name Ivan Sanin () (1439 or 1440 – September 9, 1515) — was a prominent

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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 early proponent of

tsarist autocracy Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority an ...

, who led the party defending monastic landownership. 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 ...

considers him a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

(along with his most notable opponent, Nilus of Sora); his memory is celebrated on 9 September and 18 October (dates in the

Julian Calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

). His patronage is over businessmen.

Background

Joseph Volotsky came from a family of a wealthy landowner (a '' votchinnik'') whose property consisted of the Yazvishche village in the Principality of Volokolamsk,

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. He learned to read and write at the local monastery and then took the tonsure at the Borovsk Monastery in 1459. Upon the death of its

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

, St. Paphnutius of Borovsk, Joseph Volotsky took his place and attempted to introduce a strict monastic charter.David M. Goldfrank, "Old and New Perspectives on Iosif Volotsky's Monastic Rules," Slavic Review, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 279-301. The

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

s, however, rebuffed his idea, and he had to leave the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

for good. After having lived in a few other monasteries, Joseph became disappointed with their lax morals and founded his own

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

in 1479 near Volokolamsk, which would become known as the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. Joseph's charter prescribed a monk's chief virtue as absolute obedience to his abbot. All aspects of a monk's life at the monastery were regulated and controlled. Initially, Joseph Volotsky was connected with the

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a monarch, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture (where only the eldest inherits). It was ...

princes of Volokolamsk (brothers of Ivan III) and defended the right of local

ecclesiastical {{Short pages monitor Eventually, Joseph Volotsky gained the upper hand and the monasteries preserved their landholdings.

Ideas on the authority of the tsar

The triumph of the possessor party went hand in hand with Joseph's efforts to bolster the position of Russia's grand princes, who were now increasingly referred to as

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

s, succeeding to the title of universal

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

s of

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. Joseph Volotsky restated the formula of an early Byzantine ecclesiastical writer Agapetus that the tsar was a "man in essence, but his power is that of God" and that he was God's deputy on Earth. According to Joseph, however, since the main duty of the tsar is to care for the well-being of the

Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...

, he is legitimate only as long as he adheres to Church rules and moral obligations.

Struggle against heresies

Joseph Volotsky is also known to have been a staunch opponent of the heretical sect which was spreading in

at that time ("

Judaizers The Judaizers were a faction of the Jewish Christians, both of Jewish and non-Jewish origins, who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. They tried to enforce Jewish circumcision upon the Gentile ...

"). During the Church Sobor of 1504, he demanded that all heretics be executed by the state. In his major work, called ''The Enlightener'' (''Просветитель''), which consisted of 16 chapters, he tried to prove the wrongfulness of the "new teaching" in order to be able to prosecute the heretics and convince people not to believe in the sincerity of their

repentance Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better. In modern times, it is generally seen ...

. Taking inspiration from the Roman-Byzantine treatment of heresiarchs and the Dominican-led persecutions in Spain and Portugal, he called for a civil inquisition against heretics and championed their imprisonment and execution. As with the controversy over monastic ownership of estates, Joseph Volotsky was opposed in this matter by Saint Nilus of Sora. Joseph's sainthood was officially accepted by the

following his local

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

in 1579 and national canonization in 1591.

References

External links

Russian biography

T. Allan Smith, "Divine economy and repentance in Discourse 4 of The Enlightener by Iosif Volotskii,"
Canadian Slavonic Papers 60, no.1-2 (2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Volotsky, Joseph People from the Grand Principality of Moscow Russian theologians Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church 1515 deaths 16th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown 15th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians 16th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians 15th-century Russian writers 16th-century Russian writers