Alexander !
I somehow missed YOUR reply ! Good, I was really aiming that question at you, because
it has to be someone over there who can look through the materials on - I guess - the Russian
internet? I have never accessed it, but there must be a wealth of information not available
here in the West.
Please let me know what you have dug up, or will dig up !
That's an impressive picture ! The only illustration I have ever seen of him is the sketch which
is none too prepossessing in one of the lives of a Saint with whom this Metropolitan dealt.
I know Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev was originally an inspector at a seminary in today's
Ukraine. He rose through the ranks as Abbot in a monastery - I will get the name, it was not
memorable name but must have been important at the time - and then Archimandrite. But almost nothing is written in English about his elevation to the episcopate, when and where. Then to the Metropolitanate, likewise.
This prelate was extremely sympathetic to monastics and tried to encourage the growth of
substantial, spiritually elevated monasteries throughout today's Ukraine and Russia.
He visited Optina on a few occasions in the early 1840s, and was much pleased with the life there,
especially at the Skete of St John the Forerunner, naturally.
I know he worked hard to raise the level of education of monastics in his realm.
Very kind-hearted is the impression I get from the fragments of anecdotes picked up from
reading the Lives of other holy people at the time.
Yet I am glad Rocor did not glorify him, because I am upset that this otherwise great-seeming prelate did not acknowledge St Theofil of the Kiev Caves.
Met Philaret failed to give the amazing holy man in his midst credence for a long time.Fortunately
he did not persecute or harass 'The Blessed One' as Feofil was known, as others attempted to do.
Until receiving startling and even disastrous proof of Feofil's clairvoyance, Met. Philaret of Kiev vastly preferred his spiritual father, a Hieroschemamonk Parfeny. I think when trying to find material on
Met Philaret of Kiev, I saw that this Parfeny was glorified by the MP, but there to me is not much justification for that. [That's just an off-the-cuff opinion, not based on much historical detail, as it is not
available here.]
I did remember a few days ago the 4th of the quartet glorified by Rocor :
Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov.
[Of course. How did I fail to remember him ?]
If you have any time to look into this now that Pascha is over, I would be so glad.
I am seeking to form a balanced opinion about Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev.
This has been nagging at me for awhile.
Would you have any idea from where his family name derives ? Or what it means ?
Conjures up a Latin or Romance-language word for theater...