Today, the Orthodox Church keeps the feast of St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, who reposed on this day in 1461. St. Jonah of Moscow was born in the city of Galich in the early 15th century, into a pious family. He was also tonsured in a monastery in Galich, reputedly at the very young age of 12. In the late 1420s, Jonah was transferred to Simonov Monastery in Moscow, where he again worked at various obediences. He was close to Metropolitan Photios, who predicted that he would become a bishop and later indeed consecrated him to the See of Ryazan and Murom. After Photios died in 1431, Grand Prince Vasilii II nominated Jonah as Metropolitan. He needed to travel to Constantinople to be approved by Patriarch Joseph II, but his journey was delayed by war. In the meantime, Isidore of Kiev had already been established as Metropolitan of Moscow by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Contrary to his promises to remain faithful to Orthodoxy, following a brief stay in Moscow, Isidore converted to Uniatism at the Council in Florence. After he returned to Moscow and commemorated the name of the Pope during the liturgy, a council of Russian bishops assembled In 1441 which condemned the union with Rome. Metropolitan Isidore refused to reject Uniatiasm and fled to Constantinople where, after its collapse in 1453 to Rome, he died in 1462. Archbishop Jonah was again elected Metropolitan. He was consecrated on December 15, 1448, by Russian hierarchs in Moscow, ending the administrative dependence of the Russian Church on Constantinople. This was the first time that Russian bishops had consecrated their own metropolitan. This signified the establishment of de facto autocephaly for the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1451, Jonah took under his control the see in Kiev and the Lithuanian Diocese under it. His instalment took place with reading the major invocation prayer, which is read for the offices of deacon, priest and bishop (“The Divine Grace…”). Since 1448 and until 1590 the Ecumenical Patriarchate considered the Russian Church to be in schism. In 1451, St. Jonah was present during an unexpected attack by the Tatars on Moscow. He was present at the miraculous deliverance from the city in accordance with a prediction by the pious monk Anthony, who died during the assault, on the Feast of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God. St. Jonah built a church in honor of the Placing of the Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos to commemorate this event. Metropolitan Jonah reposed in the year 1461. In 1472, his incorrupt relics were uncovered and moved to a place in the Dormition Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. He was canonized in 1547 and added in 1596 to the Synaxis of the Moscow Hierarchs by Patriarch Job. Sources: “Jonah of Moscow,” OrthodoxWiki, https://orthodoxwiki.org/Jonah_of_Moscow. “Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow”. The Orthodox Church in America. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2024/06/15/101725-saint-jonah-metropolitan-of-moscow. | 
