Hierarch
Hierarch Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia
ум. 1461
Saint Jonah of Moscow — the first primate of the Russian Church elected by a council of Russian bishops without Constantinople, marking the beginning of autocephaly.
St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus (d. March 31, 1461), is one of the Moscow Wonderworkers and the first primate of the Russian Church elected independently by a council of Russian bishops, without appointment from the Patriarchate of Constantinople — an act that marked the beginning of the Russian Church's de facto autocephaly.
Ordained Bishop of Ryazan and Murom in 1431, he was elevated to the Moscow metropolitan see on December 15, 1448, by a council of Russian hierarchs. He zealously organized church life, opposed the Union of Florence with Catholic Rome, and worked to strengthen Russian unity during the difficult period of Mongol dominion and princely strife.
He reposed on March 31, 1461, in Moscow. His relics were found incorrupt in 1472 and rest in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. He was formally glorified church-wide at the Moscow Council of 1547.