Philaret

The nineteenth century Russian Czar Nicholas I was a classic autocrat. He crushed dissent, created a police state in Russia, and waged numerous expansionist wars. He must be Vladimir Putin’s role model! Nicholas wasn’t corrupt when he first became emperor of Russia. The Russian Orthodox archbishop Philaret (1782-1867) compared him favorably at the outset of his reign to the early days of King Solomon in Scripture. Philaret became disenchanted with the czar’s grab for power and his repeated attempts to place the church under strict government control. Philaret directed the effort to translate the Bible into modern Russian until Nicholas passed a decree that Scripture must be read in an ancient Russian dialect. By the 1840s, Philaret was regarded with royal disfavor, and Nicholas had his correspondence and private papers secretly examined for incriminating evidence. Philaret didn’t back down. His courage to stand up to Nicholas was displayed at the Triumphal Gate dedication in Moscow to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon. Philaret objected to statues of pagan gods on the archway and refused to consecrate it. Nicholas became angry, and Philaret eventually fled the country. Philaret sought the counsel of his spiritual mentor, Father Anthony, in the aftermath of the Triumphal Gate controversy. “Did I act well?” he asked. Anthony answered, “Remember you are a Christian bishop, a pastor of the church of Christ, to whom only one thing is terrible: to depart from the will of God.”
Philaret’s morning prayer is still widely shared among Russian Orthodox believers today: