Jeremias II of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople who travelled to Russia in 1588, installed the first patriarch of Moscow in January 1589, and had the act confirmed by a council at Constantinople in 1590.
Jeremias wrote to the tsar from Smolensk in June 1588. In the letter, as the Russian record gives it, he says that he had been imprisoned by the unbeliever, had lately been released, and had come to seek help for his church (Russian ambassadorial records, in Muravyov, Relations with the East, June 1588). In Moscow he declined the tsar’s proposal that he stay as patriarch at Vladimir, and on 26 January 1589 he installed Job of Moscow as patriarch of Moscow (Russian ambassadorial records, in Muravyov, Relations with the East, July 1588 – 26 January 1589).
The Russian charter of May 1589 gives him a speech calling the tsar’s realm the Third Rome (Charter of the Moscow Patriarchate (1589) speech of Jeremias). The charter issued by his own council at Constantinople a year later tells the story from his side: the tsar asked, he saw the greatness of the realm and its Orthodox ruler and consented, and the other patriarchs approved; it ranks Moscow after Jerusalem and under Constantinople as head (Synodal charter of Constantinople (1590) in Muravyov, under June 1590). See Moscow Becomes a Patriarchate.
In the timeline
- 26 January 1589, firm dateMoscow Becomes a Patriarchate
In January 1589 Jeremias II of Constantinople, visiting Russia, installs Metropolitan Job as the first patriarch of Moscow. A council at Constantinople confirms it in 1590 and ranks Moscow fifth. The tsar’s charter calls the Russian realm the Third Rome.