Saint Cyprian, Metropolitan of Moscow

Cyprian (c. 1336 – 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.). Cyprian was a clergyman of Bulgarian origin. He is supposed to have been born in aristocratic family of Tsamblak family from the capital Tarnovo. After his upbringing, education, and worldview, he was a hesychast. As a young man Cyprian studied at Kilifarevo, just south of Tarnovo, where he possible accepted his monastic vows and where a disciple of Gregory of Sinai named Theodosius of Tarnovo, who had founded a Hesychast monastery. In Kilifarevo monastery Cyprian met with future Bulgarian patriarch (between 1375 and 1393) Euthymius, who also was studying hesychasm and was later regarded as one of the most important figures of medieval Bulgaria. In 1363 along with Euthymius, Theodosius, and two of Theodosius's followers, Cyprian arrived in Constantinople where he was introduced to Patriarch Callistus I and for a few months studied at the Monastery of Stoudios. Following the death of Theodosius (27 November 1363), Cyprian continued his studies at Mount Athos, becoming a Hesychast. On the other hand, according to Dimitri Obolensky, Cyprian only became a monk in the early 1370s in Constantinople. At Mount Athos Cyprian befriended Philotheus Kokkinos. In the beginning of the 1370s, after the return of Philotheus to the patriarchal throne, Cyprian became "his closest monk".