METROPOLITAN PHOTIUS AND PRINCE VLADIMIR

Saint Photius (1408–1431) was the last Metropolitan of the Russian Church to be sent from Constantinople. His feast day is July 2. According to the modern calendar, this day falls on the 15th of the same month. According to the Julian calendar, however, a celebration is held on July 15 in honor of Prince Vladimir (960–1015), the Baptist of Rus’. On this day, the Baptist of Russia ended his earthly journey. In connection with Vladimir, an Orthodox celebration is also held in honor of the Synaxis of the Kiev Saints, whose list, approved by the Synod of the Russian Church, includes Metropolitan Photius. This coincidence of dates may seem trivial, but it can be considered a remarkable sign. Finally, many local Orthodox churches adhere to the new calendar, while others, such as the Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Polish, and Jerusalem Orthodox Churches, follow the old one. Thus, the memory of Saint Photius is celebrated twice on the same day on different occasions on our planet: once personally and once as part of the Assembly of Saints. This is extremely rare. Crucially, however, the memory of Photius coincides with that of Vladimir in this way. Photius was not only canonized. He became the last metropolitan of the Russian Church as it was born with the baptism of 988, and in the structural, institutional form in which it was, if not invented, then at least approved by Vladimir himself. The Orthodox Church calls him “Vladimir the Equal-to-the-Apostles.” He was undoubtedly a ruler in his own right, capable of determining the structural development of the local Church. Unlike Western Christianity of the same era, Orthodoxy always respected the will of the secular ruler. The baptism of Vladimir and his people, as well as the subsequent installation of Russian metropolitans for centuries, were carried out from Byzantium. During Prince Vladimir’s reign, Byzantium was a magnificent Orthodox empire. 400 years had passed till the time of Photius. Byzantium had only a few decades left to live. From the death of Photius in 1431 to the tragic fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, only 22 years remained—the age of a young man, less than a quarter of a century. The “Romans,” Romei, as the Byzantines proudly called themselves, preferred not to think about it. Many believed the empire would last forever. As in Gabriel Garcia-Márquez’s great novel, in which the ruler dies but his subjects believe him still alive, Constantinople remained the capital of universal Orthodoxy. Thus, the decline of the empire and the autumn of the patriarch coincided.