Peter of Moscow

Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus, born around 1260 in Volhynia, moved in 1325 the metropolitan see from Vladimir to Moscow and remained patron of the city. He fell asleep on 20 or 21 December 1326. He is commemorated on 21 December, the day of his repose, on 24 August, the translation of his relics, on 5 October, with Metropolitans Jonah and Alexis, and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Galicia. In his time he was compared, for his church and state work, to Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.

Childhood and beginnings

He was born in Volhynia, of pious parents, Theodore and Eupraxia. According to his Life, before the son's birth the Lord revealed to Eupraxia in a dream his election. It is told that from childhood Peter was tongue-⁠tied and slow to understand, but at an appearance of a saint "his mouth was opened and his mind lit up". At twelve he entered a monastery, where he learned the sciences of books, eagerly loved obediences and learned to paint icons. Painted by him, the icons were given to the brethren and the faithful. He is held to be author of the first wonder-⁠working icon of Moscow, called "of Peter". For his virtuous life the abbot ordained him hieromonk. After years of struggle he left, with the abbot's blessing, in search of a solitary place. On the river Rata, a tributary of the Western Bug, he made himself a cell and began his struggle in silence. On the place of his labours a monastery arose, called Novodvorsk. Made abbot, he guided gently, never angry with the guilty, teaching by word and example. Prince Yuri of Galicia often came to him to hear his counsel. Once Metropolitan Maximus of Kyiv visited the monastery. Abbot Peter gave him as a gift the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, painted by him, before which Maximus prayed to the end of his life.

Metropolitan of Kyiv

In 1299 Maximus left Kyiv and settled at Vladimir on the Klyazma. Prince Yuri of Galicia, displeased, wanted a metropolitan of his own and chose Peter and sent him to Constantinople, but at that time Metropolitan Maximus died, in 1305, and Patriarch Athanasius made Peter not metropolitan of Galicia but metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus. Prince Michael Yaroslavich of Tver sent to the patriarch Abbot Gerontius, asking to be set on the see. It is told that the Mother of God appeared to Gerontius at night, in a storm on the Black Sea, and told him he laboured in vain. The decision displeased Prince Michael, who was long an enemy of Peter, so that in 1325 he had to ask the protection of the prince of Moscow. Returning to Rus, he came to Kyiv after a year, then to Vladimir. In the time of Tatar rule Rus was in turmoil and Peter was often forced to change his residence. He moved the metropolitan see from depopulated Kyiv to Vladimir, and in 1325, at the request of the grand prince of Moscow, Ivan Kalita, from Vladimir to Moscow. The move strengthened Moscow's political position and made it the spiritual capital of fragmented Rus. After that Ivan Kalita built in the Kremlin the Dormition Cathedral and other stone churches, with his blessing. The foundation of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery in Moscow is ascribed to him. He also wrote a few sermons and epistles. In his pastorate, which lasted eighteen years, he had to endure much from the envious and heretics. He mediated between hostile princes and stood against fratricidal strife. He built his own tomb in the Dormition Cathedral.

Veneration

He fell asleep in 1326. After his canonization by Metropolitan Alexis, his veneration spread through all Muscovy, and many churches were dedicated to him in Moscow and other cities. His relics rest in the Dormition Cathedral in the Kremlin, where his staff is also kept. He is regarded as the heavenly patron of Moscow. Despite the move, the official title remained "Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus" until the election of Jonah in 1448.