Ephraim of Kazan

Holy Hierarch Ephraim of Kazan was metropolitan of Kazan in the Time of Troubles and distinguished himself as a zealous defender of Orthodoxy, of the independence and of the unity of the Russian state. He reposed on 26 December 1613.

In August 1606 he was appointed to the see of Kazan, after Saint Hermogenes, and proved a worthy successor to him. His firm faith, love of his country and gift of organization came to light in the Time of Troubles. In that troubled time, full of fear for Russia, he did all he could to keep peace in his diocese and to prevent unrest among the people.

When letters began to arrive from Moscow calling for armies to be gathered and sent to Moscow against the Poles, Metropolitan Ephraim responded with great understanding. With his blessing the first volunteer army was formed. It soon dispersed, but his merit was that, despite the obstacles, he succeeded by his authority in gathering the wavering masses.

His patriotic acts raised him in the eyes of the Moscow boyars, and all the letters of summons began to come to him. Patriarch Hermogenes himself, in prison, managed to send a letter to Nizhny Novgorod in which, through the people of Novgorod, he addressed Metropolitan Ephraim and asked him to urge the armies to stand firm in the faith. Thus the patriarch, dying in prison as a champion of the Orthodox faith and the Russian fatherland, bequeathed to Ephraim the completion of the great work.

The holy hierarch fulfilled the patriarch's will and sent letters of summons to many towns of the Volga region, urging union with Moscow and the independence of the Russian state from the pretensions of the Polish authorities. His fame grew so great that the army gathered in Nizhny Novgorod under Minin and Pozharsky did not dare to march on Moscow without his agreement.

The struggle for independence ended in the victory of the Russian people. On 22 October 1612 Moscow was freed from the Poles by the strength of the popular armies and by the protection of the Mother of God, of Her Kazan icon, a copy of which Metropolitan Ephraim had sent to Moscow. After the Poles were driven out, a new tsar had to be elected.

The metropolitan was called to Moscow, and at the Great Assembly of the Land on 21 February 1613, under his presidency, he was the first to sign the act of election of the new tsar, Michael Feodorovich Romanov. On 11 July 1613 Metropolitan Ephraim, with the Holy Council, crowned Michael Feodorovich and advised him to protect the Orthodox Church and the Russian state, to honour the clergy and to love his people.

Receiving as a gift from the tsar the Holy Gospel, he returned to Kazan, where he lived very briefly. He reposed on 26 December 1613 and was buried in the cave of the Transfiguration Monastery, in the place where the relics of the wonderworkers of Kazan, Gurias and Barsanuphius, had been found.

He is commemorated on 17 October (new style), in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan.