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Greek Name Days

1507–1569

Saint Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow

Hieromartyr and Metropolitan of Moscow who publicly condemned Ivan the Terrible's violence and was martyred for it.

9 January

Biography

Philip (born Theodore Kolychev) came from a noble Moscow family and left the world for the Solovetsky Monastery, where he became a monk and later abbot.

In 1566 Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible brought him to Moscow as metropolitan on condition that he abolish the Oprichnina. When the tsar failed to do so, Philip publicly refused to bless him and condemned his massacres; for this he was deposed, imprisoned at Tver, and strangled in 1569. His relics were later found incorrupt, and he is venerated as a hieromartyr.

Sources and further reading