Spiridon (Archbishop of Novgorod)

In 1229, he was elected head of the Novgorod clergy from the hierodeacon of the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery by drawing lots and thus became the trustee of the republic, since the archbishop took a large part in its affairs. In the same year, December 17, went to Kiev for consecration.

The following 1230, on a cheese week , February 18, Metropolitan Cyril ordained Spiridon to the priesthood, and on February 25, “after a clean week for the gathering,” that is, in the week of Orthodoxy , he was ordained and archbishop.

On May 19 of the same year, Archbishop Spiridon arrived from Kiev to Novgorod and soon tonsured Prince Prince Rostislav Mikhailovich , commemorating the fact that the Novgorod reign was to pass from father to son; until now, such a ceremony has not yet been performed on the sons of the Novgorod princes. The ritual consisted in the fact that the archbishop in St. Sophia Cathedral, after reading a prayer, put in a treasury put in a baptism to cut hair, solemnly cut the hair of the young prince. Soon after, Rostislav was left by his father to reign in Novgorod.

In this (1230) year in Novgorod there was a terrible plague , from which many people perished; on Prussian street near the Peter and Paul Church, the archbishop built a skudelnitsa , which 3030 corpses were filled to the top. As the pestilence continued to rage, by the will of the archbishop, two more skudelni were built, which were also filled with corpses.

In the spring of 1232, a violent fire turned the entire Slovenian end to ashes; fearing the flame, many Novgorodians drowned in Volkhov .

Archbishop Spiridon had to work hard to alleviate the fate of unhappy citizens. In his annals little is said about his subsequent activities. Incidentally, in 1234 he mourned the death of the young prince Theodore , the eldest son of the prince of Novgorod, Yaroslav , burial him in the monastery of St. George, and in 1244 he also buried in the same monastery the pious mother of Prince Theodore Theodosius, in nuns Euphrosyne.

The archbishop zealously helped Novgorod Prince Alexander Nevsky repulse the closest enemies of Novgorod land - the Swedes: inspired and prayerfully set up by Archbishop Spiridon in St. Sophia Cathedral in 1240, Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes on the banks of the Neva and, like a hero, was returned from a campaign at sv. Sophia by the same lord Spiridon.

Ho in the same year, due to the sedition of the Novgorodians, Alexander Nevsky left Novgorod with his mother, wife and all close associates. The Swedes again began to crowd out the Novgorodians, who then realized who they had lost in the person of Prince Alexander Nevsky and, in order to return him to Novgorod, Archbishop Spiridon had to travel twice with the embassy to Vladimir and ask Prince Yaroslav to let his eldest son go to Novgorod.

For twenty years, Spiridon ruled the flock, without interfering in the affairs of the noisy Novgorod veche , trying to get along with the Tatars who came to Novgorod, and thereby preserved peace, silence and security in the Novgorod region. He died in 1249 and was buried in the Martyrian Cathedral porch.

• Russian Biographical Dictionary : In 25 volumes / under the supervision of A. A. Polovtsov. 1896-1918.