SHRINE OR METROPOLITAN PHILIP II

A silver shrine with the relics of Metropolitan Philip II under a bronze silvered canopy is located at the south-east wall of the Cathedral. He was born Feodor Kolychev into one of the noblest boyar families of Muscovy. The Metropolitan’s family was in disgrace and Feodor had to escape. Later he became a monk at the Solovetsky Monastery, and eleven years later he was made hegumen (Father Superior) there. Philip laid the foundations for the prosperity of the monastery.

On orders of Ivan the Terrible he was elevated to the dignity of Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia in 1567.  Philip continued to oppose Oprichnina and was deposed from office in 1568. He was arrested during Liturgy at the Assumption Cathedral and imprisoned in a dingy cell of the Bogoyavlensky Monastery and later transferred to the Otroch Monastery in Tver. In 1569, he was strangled by Malyuta Skuratov due to the Tsar's order.

Monks from Solovetsky Monastery asked for permission to transfer the body of the Metropolitan to their monastery and it was realised in 1591. In 1652 Patriarch Nikon solemnly translated Philip's relics to the Moscow Kremlin. Standing before the shrine with relics Tsar Alexis begged the Saint that the injustices of his ancestor Ivan the Terrible be forgiven. As for Patriarch Nikon, he made it his mission to remove the Church from secular authority and permanently separate the Church from the state. He resigned in 1658 because of the conflict with the Tsar. Nikon was buried in 1682 at the New Jerusalem Monastery that he had founded himself.