Philaret

PHILARET, fî´´lā-ret´ (VASILY MIKHAILOVICH DROZDOV): Russian prelate; b. at Kolomna (58 m. s.s.e. of Moscow) 1782; d. at Moscow Dec. 1, 1867. He was educated at the seminaries of Kolomna and St. Sergius Lavra, and on the completion of his studies was at once appointed professor in the latter. He became preacher at the monastery of St. Sergius at Troitsk in 1806, and four years later was appointed professor of theology in the ecclesiastical academy of Alexander Nevski in St. Petersburg, becoming archimandrite in 1811 and director in 1812. He took monastic vows in 1817, and after being bishop of Reval and episcopal vicar of St. Petersburg, became, in 1819, archbishop of Tver and a member of the Holy Synod. In the following year he was archbishop of Yaroslav, and in 1821 was translated to Moscow, also becoming metropolitan in 1826. His daring utterances, however, brought him into imperial disfavor, and from 1845 until the accession of Alexander II. in 1855 he was restricted to the limits of his diocese. He is said to have prepared Alexander's proclamation freeing the serfs (Mar. 19, 1861), and he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the leading pulpit orators of his time and country. He was a prominent figure in preparing a Russian translation of the Bible (see Bible Versions, B, XVI., § 2), and wrote "Colloquy between a Believer and a Skeptic on the True Doctrine of the Greco-Russian Church " (St. Petersburg, 1815); "Compend of Sacred History" (1816); "Commentary on Genesis" (1816); "Attempt to Explain Psalm lxvii." (1818); "Sermons delivered at Various Times" (1820); "Extracts from the Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles for Use in Lay Schools" (1820); "Christian Catechism" (1823; Eng. transl. by R. W. Blackmore in his Doctrine of the Russian Church, Aberdeen, 1845; reprinted in Schaff, Creeds, ii. 445–542); "Extracts from the Historical Books of the Old Testament" (1828–30); "Principles of Religious Instruction" (1828); and "New Collection of Sermons" (1830–36). An English version of some of his sermons was published at London in 1873 under the title "Select Sermons by the late Metropolitan of Moscow, Philaret," together with a brief biographical sketch.

Bibliography: Biographie universelle, xxxiii. 45–46; La Grande Encyclopedie, xxvi. 645.