Hierarch
Hierarch Blessed Constantine I, Metropolitan of Kiev
†1159
Saint Constantine of Kiev — metropolitan sent from Constantinople to replace the uncanonically elected Kliment Smolyatich; known for a penitential deathbed testament.
Blessed Constantine I, Metropolitan of Kiev (†1159), was a Byzantine hierarch sent to Kiev by Patriarch Constantine IV of Constantinople in autumn 1155 to replace Kliment Smolyatich — elected metropolitan in 1147 by a council of Russian bishops without Constantinopolitan sanction and never fully recognized. On arriving in Kiev in spring 1156, Constantine and his bishops invalidated all of Kliment's ordinations and liturgical acts.
Constantine died in Chernigov in 1159, having left Kiev amid renewed church turmoil. Before death he sealed a testament for Bishop Anthony of Chernigov, to be opened only afterward: considering himself unworthy of Christian burial and responsible for the discord surrounding his appointment, he ordered his corpse dragged outside the city and thrown to the dogs as an act of penitential humility.
His body lay outside the walls for three days, undisturbed by animals, while storms, thunder, and an earthquake struck. Prince Sviatoslav Olgovich then had the remains honorably retrieved and buried in the Savior Cathedral of Chernigov. Feast: June 5/18.