Saint Jonah of Moscow

Jonah of Moscow (Russian: Иона, romanized: Iona; died 31 March 1461) was Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, from 1448 until his death in 1461. After Isidore was condemned for supporting the Union of Florence, Jonah was appointed as metropolitan by a council of Russian bishops at the behest of Vasily II of Moscow. Like his immediate predecessors, he permanently resided in Moscow, and was the last Moscow-based metropolitan to keep the traditional title with reference to the metropolitan city of Kiev. He was also the first metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, as had been the norm, which marked the beginning of autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is recognised as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. From the late 1420s, Jonah had been living in the Simonov Monastery in Moscow and was close to Metropolitan Photius, who made him a bishop of Ryazan and Murom. Despite sporadic Russian attempts to pressure the patriarch of Constantinople into choosing a metropolitan from Russia's native population, most appointees remained Greeks. After Photius's death in 1431, Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow nominated Jonah for the post of metropolitan, but Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople chose Isidore to become the metropolitan. After the death of Photius in 1431, Jonah was chosen by the grand prince of Moscow and a council of Russian bishops as the new metropolitan at the end of 1432. However, due to a succession crisis and civil strife in Moscow, he did not hurry to Constantinople to receive his ordination and did not decide to go to Constantinople until the middle of 1435. Meanwhile, at the request of the Lithuanian grand duke Švitrigaila, the bishop Gerasim was appointed as metropolitan, but the latter did not come to Moscow and remained metropolitan only in Lithuania. Soon, Švitrigaila suspected Gerasim of treason and executed him in 1435.