Alexander Schmemann

6. Russian Orthodoxy (41 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 19

Outwardly, as has already been said, Russian Orthodoxy reached its peak, its imperial self-affirmation, in the Moscow empire. It was expressed first of all in the centralization not only of ecclesiastical life but of the tradition of the Russian Church itself as well. The subjugation of the appanages to Moscow was accompanied by the unprecedented subjugation of all local spiritual traditions to the ecclesiastical center in Moscow. Moscow was to be the center of Russian holiness, and relics from glorious ancient cities were brought there, often by force. The icon of the Savior from Novgorod, the icon of the Annunciation from Ustiug, the Crypt icon from Pskov, the icon of the Mother of God from Vladimir, and the relics of Prince Michael and his boyar Theodore from Chernigov were all brought to the Cathedral of the Assumption.

Along with this appeared a frequently extreme pettiness of local nationalism: the first Muscovite bishop in Novgorod, Sergius, refused to venerate the relics of his Novgorodian predecessor, St. Moses; Ivan III, after visiting the Khutyn Monastery, said that the Muscovite relics should be given precedence over those of the local saints.

The chief inspiration and executor of this centralization was Metropolitan Makari. His Menologion contained “all the books, combined, which had been found in the Russian lands”: the lives of the saints, arranged according to the days on which they are commemorated; the words used in their celebrations; many of their works; whole books of Holy Scripture and interpretations of them. The gathering of all this literary treasure “by many names and many scribes” lasted almost twenty years. Makari is also credited with compiling the Book of Degrees, an extensive collection of information on Russian history.

 

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