View source for Zosimus, Metropolitan of Moscow

{{Short description|Metropolitan of Moscow from 1490 to 1494}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix =
| name             = Zosimus
| honorific-suffix =
| title            = [[List of metropolitans and patriarchs of Moscow|Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia]]
| image            = Митрополит Зосима.PNG
| caption          = Miniature from the [[Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible]]
| enthroned        = 1490
| ended            = 1494
| church           = [[Russian Orthodox Church]]
| see              = Moscow
| predecessor      = [[Gerontius, Metropolitan of Moscow|Gerontius]]
| successor        = [[Simon, Metropolitan of Moscow|Simon]]
| other_post       = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = 
| birth_place      = 
| death_date       = 1494
| death_place      = 
| buried           = 
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| awards           =
}}

'''Zosimus the Bearded''' ({{langx|ru|Зосима Брадатый'}}; died 1494) was [[List of metropolitans and patriarchs of Moscow|Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus']], the [[Primate (bishop)|primate]] of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], from 1490 to 1494. He was the fifth metropolitan in Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]] as had been the norm.

For the first time in Russian history, Zosimus was appointed metropolitan by the decision of the council of the Russian bishops by order of the Grand Prince [[Ivan III]]. 

==Biography==
He was the author of the work conceptualizing Moscow as the [[third Rome]]. He had been archimandrite of the Simonovskii Monastery in Moscow when he was picked to replace Metropolitan Gerontii some six months after Gerontii's death.<ref>E. E. Golubinskii, Istoriia russkoi tserkvi, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 567.</ref>

[[Archbishop of Novgorod|Archbishop]] [[Gennady of Novgorod]] had uncovered the [[Heresy of the Judaizers]] in 1487 and Zosimus's entire metropolitanate was overshadowed by this crisis. Gennady wrote a letter in 1490 to Zosimus and other bishops in the Russian church demanding a council be convened and the heresy be dealt with. The council convened less than a month after Zosimus' elevation to the metropolitan throne and condemned the heresy.<ref>Golubinskii, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 570.</ref> Gennady demanded that the heretics be severely punished - hanged and burned - and not merely incarcerated, but Zosimus and Grand Prince Ivan III opposed these harsher methods. Zosimus was eventually accused of being a secret heretic and, on 17 May 1494, he was removed from the metropolitan throne on charges of heresy and sodomy.<ref>Golubinskii, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 577.</ref>  He died before any trial was held.

Zosimus is known for having compiled a list of [[banned books]] and written an [[epistle]] against [[heresy|heretic]]s.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite Efron|Зосима, митрополит московский}}

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{{succession box
| before = [[Gerontius, Metropolitan of Moscow|Gerontius]]
| title  = [[List of metropolitans and patriarchs of Moscow#Metropolitans of Moscow and all Rus' (1448–1589)|Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus']]
| years  = 1490&ndash;1494
| after  = [[Simon, Metropolitan of Moscow|Simon]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zosimus}}
[[Category:Metropolitans of Moscow and all Rus']]
[[Category:1494 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Place of birth unknown]]
[[Category:15th-century Russian clergy]]


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