Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow

Life events

1. Born — 1507

   Fyodor Stepanovich Kolychev was born on 11 February 1507 in Moscow into the Kolychev family, an old Moscow boyar clan descended from Andrei Aleksandrovich Kobyla. Grand Prince Vasili III brought the young Fyodor into the royal court.

2. Tonsured — 1537

   At around age 30, Fyodor entered Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea and a year and a half later took monastic vows, receiving the name Philip. One account dates his departure from Moscow to Sunday, 5 June 1537, when he heard the gospel words 'No man can serve two masters' (Matthew 6:24) during the Divine Liturgy.

3. Other

   Eleven years after entering Solovki, Philip was made hegumen (abbot) of the monastery. Under his leadership the monks constructed two cathedrals, a brickyard, water-mills, storehouses, and a canal network connecting 72 lakes; he also adopted a new monastic typicon for the community.

4. Consecrated — 1566

   On 25 July 1566 Philip was consecrated a bishop and enthroned as Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, the thirteenth metropolitan appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. He accepted the appointment on condition that Ivan IV would abolish the oprichnina.

5. Other — 1568

   On 2 March 1568, the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross during Great Lent, Philip refused to bless Ivan IV before the congregation at the cathedral and publicly rebuked the tsar for the killings carried out under the oprichnina — a direct challenge that few metropolitans had risked.

6. Imprisoned — 1568

   Ivan IV had Philip arrested during the Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Dormition on fabricated charges of sorcery and dissolute living. He was held in a cell of the Epiphany Monastery, fettered in chains with a heavy collar, and deprived of food; he was subsequently transferred to Otroch Monastery at Tver. In November 1568 the Holy Synod formally deposed him.

7. Martyred — 1569

   On 23 December 1569, two days before Christmas, Philip was strangled at Otroch Monastery by Malyuta Skuratov, acting on the tsar's orders. Philip had received Holy Communion three days earlier, reportedly aware of his approaching death.

8. Translated — 1652

   In 1652 Patriarch Nikon persuaded Tsar Alexis to bring Philip's relics from Solovetsky Monastery — where they had rested since their transfer from Tver in 1590 — to Moscow, where Philip was formally glorified (proclaimed a saint) that same year.

Relationships

Documented claims

• When monks from Solovetsky Monastery opened Philip's tomb after his martyrdom, they found his body incorrupt; reports of healings followed, and his relics were transferred to Solovki in 1590. (plausible)
• Philip is commemorated three times in the Orthodox calendar: 9 January (his main feast), 3 July (translation of relics), and 5 October (Synaxis of the Hierarchs of Moscow) — the last observance added only in 1875 at the proposal of Metropolitan Innocent. (likely)
• As hegumen of Solovetsky Monastery, Philip oversaw the construction of two cathedrals and a canal network linking 72 lakes, transforming the monastery's physical and spiritual infrastructure; most of his projects survive to the present day. (likely)
• Philip was killed not by judicial execution but by Malyuta Skuratov, Ivan IV's most feared oprichnik, strangling him in his monastic cell at Otroch Monastery on 23 December 1569. (likely)
• Philip was the thirteenth Metropolitan of Moscow appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, reflecting the increasing ecclesiastical independence of the Russian Church from its Constantinopolitan origins. (likely)