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Isidore of Kiev

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Isidore (Russian: Исидор; Ukrainian:Ісидор; died April 27 1463), a Greek by birth, was Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. After his death he was dubbed Isidore the Apostate by anti-Catholic members of the Russian Orthodox clergy and the grand prince of Moscow. He had firmly promoted union with the Holy See in exchange for military aid for Constantinople.

Metropolitan of Kiev

In 1437, Isidore was appointed Metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow by Emperor John VIII Palaeologus to draw the Russian Orthodox Church into communion with the Roman Catholic Church and secure Constantinople's protection against the invading Ottoman Turks. Grand Prince Vasili II met the new Metropolitan with hostility. However, Isidore managed to persuade the Grand Prince to ally with Catholicism for the sake of saving the Byzantine Empire and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople.

After Isidore had received funding from Vasili II, he went to Florence to attend the continuation of the Council of Basel in 1439. He was made a cardinal-presbyter and a papal legate for the provinces of Lithuania, Livonia, all Russia and Galicia (Poland). During this Council, Isidore fervently defended the union between the Churches of East and West, but he was opposed only by the secular representative from Russia - ambassador Foma (Thomas) of Tver. Finally, the union agreement was signed and Isidore returned to Russia.

The Russian princes denounced the union with Rome, but Isidore persisted. On his return from Italy, during his first Pontifical Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin, Isidore had a Latin Rite crucifix carried in front of the procession and named Pope Eugene IV during the prayers of the liturgy. He also read aloud the decree of unification. Isidore passed a message to Vasili II from The Vatican, containing a request to assist the Metropolitan in spreading the Union in Russia. Three days later Isidore was arrested by the Grand Prince and imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery. He was denounced by certain Russian clergymen, who were under pressure of Vasili II, for refusing to renounce the union with "heretical Rome".

In September of 1441, after two years of imprisonment, Metropolitan Isidor escaped to Tver, then to Lithuania and on to Rome. In 1458, he was appointed the titular Patriarch of Constantinople.

See also

References

Isidore of Thessalonica



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