Philaret the Merciful (c. 702 - 792 ) - Orthodox saint (commemorated on December 1 according to the Julian calendar ), a Byzantine landowner from the Asia Minor province of Paflagonia .
According to the life , Filaret, the son of George and Anna, brought up in piety, lived in the VIII century in the village of Amniya, Paflagon region ( Asia Minor ). His wife, Feozva, was from a wealthy and noble family, they had children: the son of Joat and the daughters of Hypatius and Evanphius.
He was distinguished by unusual kindness and responsiveness to the needs of others. His house was looted during one of the Arab-Byzantine wars . Despite this, he distributed the remnants of his wealth, his cattle and his stocks to the poorest neighbors who suffered more than him. By this he aroused the indignation of his wife and children, but invariably replied that the giver would be rewarded a hundredfold. As a result, Filaret’s friends began to rescue the old man themselves: his friend, a tax collector, sent him forty bags of grain, and the inhabitants of neighboring villages gave him sheep.
Filaret became so famous that Empress Irina chose a noble Maria , his granddaughter, for her son Konstantin VI at a bridesmaid show.
Honor
In the name of Filaret the Merciful, one church in Israel (on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem ) and several churches and chapels in Russia were consecrated, including:
- in the Moscow region
- Semenovskoye - the church of Filaret the Merciful in the old refectory building of the Spaso-Borodinsky monastery ;
- Sergiev Posad , Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (with the side chapel of Philaret the Merciful);
- Sergiev Posad, Trinity-Sergius Lavra - the Church of Filaret the Merciful in the Metropolitan Chamber ;
- Sergiev Posad, Gethsemane Skete - church of Sergius and Nikon of Radonezh (with the side chapel of Philaret the Merciful);
- Serpukhov District , Vvedensky Vladychny Monastery - Cathedral of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (with the side chapel of Philaret the Gracious);
- Stupinsky district , Vasilyevskoye - the Church of the Resurrection of the Word (with the side chapel of Filaret the Merciful);
- in the Ulyanovsk region
- Ulyanovsk, the Church of Filaret the Merciful;
- in Moscow
- the Church of Filaret the Merciful at the Filaret Women's Diocesan School ;
- the Church of Filaret the Merciful at the Ermakovskaya almshouse ;
- Theotokos-Nativity Monastery - Church of St. John Chrysostom (with the side chapel of Philaret the Merciful);
- in St. Petersburg
- Cathedral of the Theodore Icon of the Mother of God and Alexander Nevsky in memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign (with the side chapel of Filaret the Gracious).