Cyprian, Metropolitan of Moscow

Cyprian ( – 16 September 1406) was a prelate of Bulgarian origin, who served as the Metropolitan of Kiev, Rus' and Lithuania (2 December 1375 – 12 February 1376) and the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' (12 February 1376 – 16 September 1406) in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. During both periods, he was opposed by rival hierarchs and by the grand prince of Moscow. He was known as a bright opinion writer, editor, translator, and book copyist. He is commemorated by the Russian Orthodox Church on May 27 and September 16 (O.S.). He is supposed to have been born in aristocratic family of Tsamblak family from the capital Tarnovo. On the other hand, according to Dimitri Obolensky, Cyprian only became a monk in the early 1370s in Constantinople.

Achievements

Cyprian is remembered as a wise and experienced church administrator who fought for the unity of the Russian church. In fact, he is mainly responsible for uniting the Church in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He faced serious opposition during his metropolitanate; Dmitry Donskoy and his advisors were excommunicated for opposing Cyprian's efforts to take up his place in Moscow, and Novgorod the Great – especially Archbishops Aleksei and Ioann II – also opposed his efforts to adjudicate ecclesiastical cases there, which would have allowed him to gain the court fees from Novgorod during the time he sat in judgement there.

Cyprian was an erudite person and alumnus of Tarnovo Literary School. He oversaw the copying and creation of a number of important works, including the Troitskaia Chronicle (or Troitskaya letopis) and, probably, the Metropolitan Justice (also known as the Pravosudiye metropolich’ye or Правосудие митрополичье). He also rewrote the Life of Metropolitan Peter, originally written around 1327. He also corrected biblical books and translated a number of ecclesiastic works from Greek into Old Church Slavic.

The Book of Degrees (Stepénnaya kniga), which grouped Russian monarchs in the order of their generations, was started by Cyprian in 1390 (but completed only in 1563).

Death He died on 16 September 1406. Cyprian is buried in the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 15th century. St. Kiprian Peak on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Cyprian.