The Consecration of Metropolitan Spyridon in the Context of the Epistle of Misael 1476

Abstract

The paper aims at shedding a new light on the consecration of the monk Spyridon the Metropolitan of Kyiv in the mid-1470s in Constantinople, considering the situation in the Kyiv metropolitanate after the Florentine Union (1439) with a due regard to the witness of the Epistle of Misael (1476) concerning the confessional attitude and actions of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian secular and spiritual elite. On the basis of historiographical and source analysis the author discovers new possible readings of Spyridon the Satan’s biographical data and proposes a new interpretation of his mission to Constantinople and identification of patrons behind him. The author also adjusted the date of Spyridon’s escape or release from imprisonment in Lithuania. The author considers the dating of the division of Kyiv metropolitanate by 1448 or 1458 ungrounded. The documents and behavior of all interested parties indicate that even in the late 1460s they regarded it as a unit and tried to control its entire territory. Furthermore, the actions of the Polish-Lithuanian monarch Casimir IV with regard to Metropolitan Hryhorii Bolharynovych testify to his attempt to introduce a new modus vivendi for the Orthodox Ruthenians by providing them with a dual jurisdiction: both of Rome and of Constantinople. The election of Misael for the metropolitan see of Kyiv in early 1473 was made primarily in view of the prospects for his recognition in the territories controlled by Moscow. Some passages of the Epistle of Misael of 1476 testify to the continuing policy of double communion and its support by the Ruthenian secular and spiritual elite. This approach reveals not only the reason for Spyridon’s embassy in Constantinople, but also the importance of chronicles’ information on cunning nature of the envoy and acquisition of the Metrpolitan dignity by bribery.