Job (Metropolitan of Novgorod)

Born in the village of Katunka, Balakhninsky district , came from the clergy. He was tonsured a monk in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery ^[1] .

Since 1689 - Archimandrite of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery in Moscow.

Since May 2, 1697 - rector of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery .

On June 5, 1697 he was consecrated bishop with the elevation to the rank of Metropolitan of Novgorod, who remained until the end of his life.

In Novgorod, he established three hospitals, a stranger and a house for illegitimate and foundlings near Novgorod, in Kolmovo .

He died on February 3, 1716. He was buried in Novgorod Sophia Cathedral .

He was a supporter of education and a lover of books, had an extensive library, which was replenished with books from Rostov and Moscow (the library had books in Greek, Latin, Polish, German, Serbian). He accepted books “like Indian ships filled with lucrative goods, and beads of many value: various Indian stone and shining adamants.”

In 1706, he opened the Novgorod Greco-Slavic School (with ancient languages) at his bishop’s house, summoning the Greek scholars Ioannicius and Sophronius Likhudov , whom he met while still living in Moscow, to lead him in exile. At the expense of St. Sophia Cathedral, he organized the construction of a two-story building for the school; the pupils (there were up to 153 people) were kept at the expense of the Metropolitan, who placed at his disposal his book collection. The Novgorod school was an attempt to create an Orthodox educational institution based on the patristic tradition, and not intended for scholastic disputes. Latin was not taught here at all. With the appointment of Feofan Prokopovich as Archbishop of Novgorod, these Novgorod schools were abolished ^[2] . The theological school in Novgorod was resumed only in 1740 by the Archbishop of Novgorod and Velikiy Lutsk, Ambrose (Yushkevich) at the Anthony Monastery, but already on the model of Little Russian Latin schools.

Other dioceses appealed to Metropolitan Job with a request to send them teachers who had been educated at the Novgorod School. He created a circle in Novgorod, engaged in translating books from Greek and Latin into Russian. The metropolitan took the initiative to correct the Slavic translation of the Old Testament , intended to open a printing house in Novgorod. He also organized schools that provided basic knowledge in other cities of his diocese (a total of 14 schools were established).

Metropolitan Job rejected Western scholastic scholarship and believed that Russian spiritual education should be based on patristic tradition ^[3] .

Based on his patrimonial income, he founded several hospitals in the diocese (one of them for retired people with disabilities), two strange houses and, in 1706, the first Russian educational home, a shelter for foundlings and illegitimate children , created in the Kolmovo Monastery near Novgorod. He attracted funds from wealthy donors to the diocese, for which an almshouse for orphans and the elderly with a clergy was built at the Znamensky Cathedral . Tsar Peter I praised the work of Metropolitan Job in creating a shelter and an almshouse and issued decrees in which he referred to the experience of Job and ordered the establishment of such institutions in all provinces ^{[4] [5]} .

He was engaged in the restoration and repair of temples in Novgorod that suffered from fires, invited the leading icon painters from Moscow, Kostroma and Yaroslavl to the diocese. He fought with the Old Believers, including by means of capture and imprisonment ^[6] . The author of the book “A short answer to the letter about the birth of the Simi’s birth of the time of the Antichrist” (M., 1707) (Zernova A. S., Kameneva T. N. The consolidated catalog of the Russian book of the Cyril press of the 18th century M., 1968, No. 60) with criticism of the ideas of the Old Believers about the Antichrist. He also left many letters of interest to history - fragments of his correspondence were published in the journal “Wanderer” in 1861.

During his administration of the diocese, it expanded to include territories liberated by Russian troops during the Northern War, with the cities of Shlisselburg , Yamburg , Koporye , Korela (Kexholm), as well as the conquered Narva and Vyborg . The diocese also included the new capital, St. Petersburg , in which in 1704 Vladyka Job consecrated the first church in the Peter and Paul Fortress . Since 1712 he repeatedly asked to be fired, but these requests were not satisfied by Peter I, who respected him as an energetic archpastor and supporter of enlightenment.

• Biography
• Biography
• History of the Novgorod School of Av Letters from Metropolitan Job (inaccessible link)
• Likhud brothers in Novgorod
• A.K. Galkin. Job // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2011. - T. XXV. - S. 295-298. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-046-2 .