Vasilii Kalika (Russian: Василий Калика) was Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov from 1330 to 1352. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Archbishop of Novgorod is the head of the eparchy of Novgorod the Great and is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. Veliky Novgorod (Вели́кий Но́вгород is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia and the administrative center of Novgorod Pskov (Псков ancient Russian spelling Пльсковъ Pleskov) in Latvian Pleskava, in Estonian Pihkva, is an ancient city located in He is in large part responsible for reinvigorating the office after it had fallen into decline to some extent following the Mongol Invasion. The Mongol invasion of Rus' was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223 between Subutai 's reconnaissance unit and the combined force
Background
His baptismal name was originally Grigorii and he had been a priest of the Church of Cosmas and Damian on Slave Street north of the Detinets in Novgorod before his archiepiscopate. The Church of St Cosmas and Damian on Kholop Street (Церковь святых Кузьмы и Демьяна на Холопьей улице was a church in medieval The Detinets ("Young Man's Compound" from the same root as the Russian word deti = children is the ancient name for the Kremlin or fortress in In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated Bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and others this means that they lead [1] The name Kalika means "pilgrim" in Russian (there is another word, Palomnik) and indicates that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land sometime prior to his archiepiscopate. He, in fact, mentions this in a famous letter he wrote to Bishop Fedor of Tver' in 1347 which has been inserted into two Russian chronicles, the Sofia First Chronicle and the Novgorod Second Chronicle. [2] In one redaction of the Novgorodian First Chronicle, he is referred to as Kaleka (rather than Kalika), a word meaning "lame" or "cripple. " Thus, he is sometimes referred to as "Vasilii the Lame" in some hagiographic literature,[3] although the vast majority of scholars consider his surname to be Kalika; if he was lame, there is no other indication of it in the sources.
Archiepiscopate
Vasilii was elected by the Novgorodian veche after the retirement of Archbishop Moisei (1325-1330; 1352-1359). Veche ( Russian: вече Polish: wiec Ukrainian: віче was a Popular assembly in Medieval Slavic countries At the time of his election, he was a monk at the Holy Angels' Monastery in Novgorod. [4] The following year, he was sent to Vladimir-in-Volynia to be consecrated by Metropolitan Feognost, who lived in Volynia for several years. Volodymyr-Volynskyi or Vladimir-Volynsky (Володимир-Волинський translit Theognostus ( Феогност in Russian) (? - March 11, 1353) metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus [5] According to a Greek-language register, Vasilii was then canonically-elected from among three candidates by a council of bishops there in Volynia. [6]
Very soon after his consecration, Vasilii built a stone wall along the northeast side of the Detinets (along the river) between 1331-1333. The Detinets ("Young Man's Compound" from the same root as the Russian word deti = children is the ancient name for the Kremlin or fortress in He also renovated the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom redoing the roof and setting up an iron fence around the cathedral, as well as commissioning a number of icons inside the cathedral and hanging the the Vasilii Gates in the cathedral in 1335. The Cathedral of St Sophia (the Holy Wisdom of God) in the Kremlin (or Detinets in Novgorod the Great is the cathedral church of the Archbishop [7]
Vasilii showed himself over the years to be both an astute political player and a fearless and tireless religious leader. In 1339, he sent his nephew as party to a Novgorodian embassy to sign a peace with Sweden, in which he sought to protect the Orthodox Karelians from being killed if they crossed over to Novgorod. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Karelia ( Karelian and Finnish Karjala, Карелия ( Kareliya) Karelen the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in [8] In 1342, when Ontsifor Lukinich caused a riot in the city, Vasilii and his vicar, Boris, brought peace between the warring parties. Ontsifor Lukinich (Онцифор Лукинич was a Posadnik of Novgorod the Great in 1350 &ndash 1354 In 1348, when King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden demanded that the Novgorodians debate his theologians over the true faith, Vasilii, in consultation with the posadnik, told Magnus to send his theologians to Constantinople, since that is where the Russians had acquired their understanding of Christianity. Magnus Eriksson or Magnus VII of Norway and Magnus IV of Sweden was king of Sweden (spring 1316 &ndash December 1, 1374) Norway, and Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS
That being said, several modern scholars have accused Vasilii of not having done enough to fight the Strigolniki heresy that spread through Novgorod and Pskov in the fourteenth and into the fifteenth century. The Strigolniki (singular Strigólnik &ndash Стригольник in Russian) were followers of the first Russian heretical Sect [9] His letter to Bishop Feodor of Tver' has been interpreted as dualist (that is, similar to the Strigolniki) in nature. [10] However, the building projects that he undertook and his vigorous political activity, fully utilizing the church's wealth and property as it were, would have violated the beliefs against clerical or ecclesiastical ownership of land that the Strigolniki held.
In 1352, he was sent by the Novgorodian government to rebuild the fortress of Orekhov, which had recently been destroyed in fighting between Novgorod and Sweden. Shlisselburg (Шлиссельбу́рг is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated at the head of the Neva River on Lake [11] The remnants of the stone wall he had built (it had been previously a wooden fortress) were excavated in 1969 and can be seen in the courtyard of the fortress today. Later in 1352, he was called to Pskov, which was at that time ravaged by plague. Pskov (Псков ancient Russian spelling Пльсковъ Pleskov) in Latvian Pleskava, in Estonian Pihkva, is an ancient city located in Plague is a deadly Infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis (Pasteurella pestis. He went to the city and held a number of processions and liturgies until the plague subsided. On his return trip to Novgorod down the Shelon River he himself took ill with plague and died at the Monastery of St. Shelon River (Шелонь ( Finnish / Karelian Selonajoki is a River in the Pskov Oblast (Pihkovan lääni and Novgorod Oblast Michael the Archangel on the Shelon' on July 3. Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. [12] His body was brought back to Novgorod and interred in the Martirievskaia Porch in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom where many of his predecessors and successors are buried. He is a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church (and is commemorated in the Orthodox Church in America and in some of the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church as well). See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure The Orthodox Church in America ( OCA) is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church in North America. His feast day is July 3 (OS)/July 16 in the Gregorian Calendar. Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. [13]
References
- ^ Michael C. Paul, "Episcopal Election in Novgorod Russia 1156-1478", Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 72, No. 2(June, 2003), 265.
- ^ The letter is available online at http://lib.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=4972. See also, Michael C. Paul, "Secular Power and the Archbishops of Novgorod Before the Muscovite Conquest" Kritika: Explorations in Russia and Eurasian History 8, No. 2 (Spring 2007), 251.
- ^ See for example, the list of Novgorodian saints online at http://www.orthodox.cn/divenbog/FEB/10-FEB.DOC
- ^ Paul, "Episcopal Election in Novgorod Russia", 265.
- ^ Paul, "Episcopal Election in Novgorod Russia", 268, 269-270.
- ^ Paul, "Episcopal Election in Novgorod Russia", 270.
- ^ Makarii (Veretennikov, Petr Ivanovich; Archimandrite), “Vasil’evskie Vrata. ” In Makarievskaia Chteniia. Russkaia Kul’tura XVI veka – epoka Mitropolita Makariia. Materialy X Rossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii posviashchenoi Pamiati Sviatitelia Makariia. Vypusk 10. (Mozhaisk: Terra, 2003): 111-119.
- ^ Paul, "Secular Power", 253.
- ^ A. S. Khoroshev, Tserkov v sotsialno-politicheskoi sisteme novgoroskoi feodal'noi respubliki (Moscow: Moscow State University, 1987), 67-8; N. A. (Nataliia Aleksandrovna)Kazakova, and Ia. S. (Iakov Solomonovich) Lur’e, Antifeodal'nye ereticheskie dvizheniia na Rusi XIV-nachala XVI veka (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1955), 33-38; B. A. Rybakov, Strigolniki, 3.
- ^ Kazakova and Lur'e, Antifeodal'nye ereticheskie dvizheniia, 37.
- ^ Paul, "Secular Power", 237, 249.
- ^ A. V. Mikhailov, "Poslednii put' Vasiliia Kaliki", Novgorod i Novgorodskaia Zemlia 11 (1997)
- ^ For more on Vasilii, see Michael C. Paul, "A Man Chosen by God": The Archbishops of Novgorod Russia 1165-1478 (Ph. D. Dissertation, the University of Miami, 2003).
| Preceded by Moisei |
Archbishop of Novgorod 1330–1352 |
Succeeded by Moisei (second term) |
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