Memorial Day of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow

Elevferiy (Simeon) Fedorovich Byakont was born in 1292 (according to another version - 1304) in the family of a boyar who was originally from the Principality of Chernigov The baby's godfather was Prince John Danilovich, who later received the nickname Kalita Biographers note that the Lord revealed to the boy his high destiny very early - at the age of 12 And this determined the life path of the future metropolitan At the age of 15, after frequent attendance at church services, Eleutherius decides to become a monk at the Moscow Epiphany Monastery, and at the age of 19, he takes monastic vows Alexei, a pupil of Metropolitan Theognost, spent 20 years of his life in the monastery His friends and ascetics were Stefan, the elder brother of Sergius of Radonezh, and schema-abbot Gerontius At the behest of his mentor, Alexy leaves the monastery and begins to engage in the judicial affairs of the church In 1344 he was appointed governor of Theognost, and in 1352 he was ordained Bishop of Vladimir At the metropolitan courtyard, Alexy learned Greek At that time, the Russian Church was torn apart by strife and squabbles due to the claims of Metropolitan Roman of Lithuania and Volyn In 1356, wanting to put an end to the unrest, the saint went to Constantinople to see Patriarch Callistus He grants Alexy the right to be considered the Archbishop of Kyiv and all Rus' for his spiritual merits and virtuous life The saint was involved not only in church affairs, but also in politics Alexy was an adviser to the brothers of Prince Simeon Andrei and Ivan, took custody of the young Dmitry, nicknamed Donskoy, after the death of Prince John, and established relations with the khans from the Horde After being rescued from a storm on the Black Sea, the saint founded the Andronikov Monastery in Moscow, and in 1365 he founded a stone church in the name of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael in Khoneh, and with it the Miracle Monastery As regent under the young Dmitry, Metropolitan Alexy pursued a policy of creating a union of Russian principalities that could resist the Horde More than once Sergius of Radonezh became the saint's envoy to the princes In 1361, the Metropolitan organized a convent for women in Moscow, which was named in his honor as the Alekseevsky Stavropegic Monastery He placed independent abbesses at the head of this, Zachatievsky and other monasteries Alexy lived to a ripe old age - he died at the age of 85 on February 25 (February 12, Old Style) 1378 The saint was buried according to his will on the territory of the Chudov Monastery Every year on February 25, the Day of Remembrance of the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', the Wonderworker St Alexy, is celebrated His incorrupt healing relics with surviving vestments were found 50 years after his death - June 2 (May 20, Old Style) 1431 Now they rest in the Epiphany Cathedral in Elokhov Therefore, in memory of the saint, another holiday was established - on June 2, the Orthodox Church celebrates the discovery of the relics of Metropolitan Alexy