Western commentators often accuse the
Orthodox Church of having been
wholly subservient to secular authorities and of having allowed ruling
governments to determine the tenor of the Church’s doctrinal and moral
teachings. That state of affairs is often referred to as Caesaropapism,
which is defined as follows: “The system whereby an absolute monarch
has supreme control over the Church within his dominions and exercises
it even in matters (e.g. doctrine) normally reserved to ecclesiastical
authority.”[1] However, that accusation, when directed toward the
Orthodox Church, is the product either of an extremely superficial
understanding of history or of malevolence, that is, the desire to
vilify Orthodoxy regardless of the truth. And, indeed, the historical
record testifies to the truth.
I
say that because the history of the Church is replete with examples of
Hierarchs who defied immoral rulers or who resisted attempts by rulers
to dominate the Church. One need only mention examples such as Saint
John Chrysostomos, who publicly criticized the worldliness of the
Constantinopolitan aristocracy and paid for that outspokenness with his
life. Or, to cite another example, during periods when heretical
monarchs held power, for example during the reigns of the Arian or
Iconoclast Emperors, Orthodox Hierarchs were driven from office and
severely persecuted for their refusal to bend the knee before apostasy.
Today
we will consider the life of a hierarch who stood courageously athwart
the evils and immorality of his monarch and who, consequently, was
murdered by the minions of that monarch and gained the Martyr’s Crown.
Saint
Philip of Moscow was born in the year 1507 to a family of the Russian
nobility, in fact, one of the most distinguished families at the royal
court. The Saint’s father determined to rear and educate his son to
participate in affairs of government and the military, in other words
to follow in his footsteps. But the young man was of a very different
temperament from his father and was most interested in the writings of
the Holy Church Fathers, in visiting churches, and in intense prayer.
The
course planned by his father promised wealth, power, and earthly
acclaim in service to the state, yet, that kind of life, while
perfectly honorable, held no appeal to Saint Philip. His attraction to
the things of God and of the Church led him to enter the Solovetsky
Monastery at the age of 30. There he excelled in the monastic life,
obediently performing menial tasks and fulfilling all his spiritual
duties. It is said that he was always the first to arrive for Church
services and the last to leave. After more than a decade as a simple
Monk, Saint Philip was elected the Monastery’s Igumen, or Abbot. As he
excelled as a simple Monk, so also did he excel as Igumen. “Through his
spiritual authority and practical ability, the Monastery became the
ecclesiastical, economic and cultural centre of the region.”[2]
Now it happens that just before Saint Philip
was elevated to the leadership of his Monastery, Ivan IV (know as “Ivan
Grozny”
or “Ivan the Terrible”) ascended the throne of Moscow. Ivan was a
peculiar man, beset by certain psychological illnesses that manifested
themselves in fits of violence and cruelty. So unstable was he that, in
a paroxysm of blind fury, he struck his own son with his staff and
killed him.
In order
to assure that his will was obeyed throughout the country, the Tsar
established an organization of political police known as the Oprichnina,
which was utterly ruthless in upholding Ivan’s wishes and in assuaging
the monarch’s ever-growing paranoia. This was “a militia to which
[Ivan] gave a quasi-monastic veneer and which committed atrocities of
every kind.”[3] Any act of disobedience, major or minor, or even the
least act or word of opposition to the Tsar, was mercilessly punished
by torture and killing. Thousands—some say tens of thousands—were
butchered and whole regions devastated. Unalloyed fear of the Oprichnina gripped the land.
In
1566 Metropolitan Afanasy of Moscow retired to a Monastery due to ill
health. He was succeeded by Saint Gherman, Archbishop of Kazan, who
fearlessly reproached Ivan over his cruelties. For his courage, he was
deposed and later murdered “in secret by the Tsar’s henchmen.”[4] The
Tsar then approached Saint Philip, asking him to agree to become the
new Metropolitan. Knowing the exceedingly dark nature of Ivan’s
reign—more accurately, his reign of terror—, the Saint hesitated.
Finally, he agreed to serve as Metropolitan if the Tsar would agree to
dissolve the Oprichnina and restore a
truly Christian mode of rule, one marked by benevolence. Ivan
apparently agreed, but upon the elevation of the Saint to the office of
Metropolitan, reneged on his promise. Soon thereafter, Saint Philip
spoke bluntly to his monarch: “In Russia charity no longer exists, even
for the good and innocent. It is my duty to tell you this by the will
of God, even if death awaits me for doing so.”[5] The Tsar was taken
aback, but continued to ignore the Saint’s private reprimands. Saint
Philip then made his admonishment public. At the Cathedral of the
Dormition, he spoke to the Tsar from the Amvon in full view of
everyone: “Sire … we are offering the unbloody Sacrifice here, while
the blood of Christians is being shed outside this holy church.”[6]
Tsar Ivan angrily told his Metropolitan to be silent, but he
nonetheless persisted: “If I do not bear witness to the truth, I render
myself unworthy of my office as a Bishop. If I bow to men’s will, what
shall I find wherewith to answer Christ on the Day of Judgment?”[7]
The
people in attendance that day surely gasped in shock at the Hierarch’s
boldness, knowing what it presaged. Indeed, since the Saint had become
so publicly outspoken on his tyranny and oppression, the Tsar commanded
a synod of compliant Bishops to depose Saint Philip on the ridiculous
charge of sorcery which, sad to say, the Bishops did. Saint Philip was
exiled to a monastery, confined to a cell in the basement, placed in
shackles and chains, and “two days before Christmas 1569, … was
suffocated there by one of the Tsar’s secret executioners.”[8] He is
commemorated January 9th.
“If
I do not bear witness to the truth, I render myself unworthy of my
office as a Bishop.” So spoke Saint Philip of Moscow. Some of you may
remember my talk on Saint Germanos of Constantinople some months ago
who, like Saint Philip, also bore witness to the truth by speaking
forthrightly to his Emperor. So it has always been with the Saintly
Bishops and clergy of the Orthodox Church. As both men made clear, to
oppose heretical, un-Christian, or immoral conduct by one’s Monarch, or
one’s government, is the duty of a Bishop, an essential duty. It is
likewise the duty of any and all Orthodox clergy. All are required to
speak openly against tyrannical abuses by their rulers. Moreover,
Orthodox Christian believers, even when they are not Bishops or other
clergy, must also oppose acts by government that promote immorality or
threaten the lives of the innocent.
Under
republican forms of government, where the people vote for candidates
who, if they win, will hold positions of governmental authority,
Orthodox Christians must exercise their voting rights with decency and
truth uppermost in their minds. To vote for candidates who support laws
that allow, for example, the killing of unborn babies or same-sex
“marriages” or other such abominations is tantamount to approving such
laws, when, of course, such things are blatant violations of Christian
moral teachings and are destructive of the moral framework that holds
society together. What would our forebears of seventy-five or one
hundred years ago have said of such things?
To
vote for candidates who through their support of the objectives of the
militant Left, such as those I have just mentioned, is to promote the
rise of social chaos—social chaos that is the veritable delight of the
demons. Moral considerations must come first, at such times, and not,
by way of contrast, one’s economic or other interests, or, God forbid,
the glibness or physical handsomeness of a candidate, or other such
puerile considerations. We must say, to paraphrase Saint Philip, “If I
do not bear witness to the truth, I render myself unworthy of my
calling as a Christian.”
To
be sure, honest, decent, truly selfless politicians are extraordinarily
rare today, since our anti-Christian mass media—the newspapers,
television, and radio—invariably oppose such men and women, unjustly
portraying them as bigots or fanatics. But one must do one’s duty as a
Christian to cut through the media’s fog of deception and take the time
to discern the truth from lies, and, thereby, to identify those
office-seekers who bear witness to truth. If we do not do that duty, then, to paraphrase the Saint
again, “what shall we find with which to
answer Christ on the Day of Judgment.”
Saint
Philip gave his life in his effort to bring the rule of decency and
charity to his country and to defend the lives of the innocent. We need
not give our lives to accomplish the same ends—at least not at this
stage of things—but we are obligated, at the very least, to direct our
actions as citizens according to the teachings of our Church. To do
otherwise is simply to render our Faith pointless and futile. May we
ever remember Saint Philip of Moscow and pray to him to give us his
guidance in matters pertaining to our government.
[1] Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd Edition, ed. F.L. Cross,
3rd edition edited by E.A. Livingstone (Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, 1997), p. 262:
[2] The Synaxarion,
Vol. III, p. 99.
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Synaxarion,
Vol. II, p. 52.
[5] Father James Thornton, Quickened With Christ: Sermons on the Epistle Readings
of the Orthodox Liturgical Year (Etna, CA: Center For
Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2004), p. 35.
[6] The Synaxarion,
Vol. III, p. 99.
[7] Father James Thornton, Quickened, p. 36.
[8] The Synaxarion, Vol. III, p. 100.