Vladimir, Metropolitan of Moscow
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Vladimir (Russian: Владимир; real name - Василий Никифорович Богоявленский, or Vasili Nikiforovich Bogoyavlensky) (January 1, 1848—7 February [O.S. January 25] 1918) was the Metropolitan of Moscow from 1898 to 1912.
Born to a family of a clergyman in Tambov, Vasili Bogoyavlensky graduated from a seminary in Tambov and Kiev Theological Academy. He then returned to Tambov to teach at his alma mater. In 1882, Vasili was ordained as a priest in a town of Kozlov in Tambov guberniya. On the death of his wife and child in 1886, he took monastic vows under the name of Vladimir and was appointed abbot of the Trinity Monastery in that same town. In 1888, Vladimir was sent to St Petersburg as a vicar to assist metropolitan and then raised to bishop. He was soon assigned to preach in Samara and then Georgia, where he would spend five years. In 1898, Vladimir was summoned to Moscow and appointed Metropolitan of Moscow. During the events of October 1905, Vladimir ordered to read out his address called Что нам делать в эти тревожные наши дни? (What should we do during these troubled days?) to the people in all of the Muscovite churches. In this address, he told the people of Moscow about "criminal" and "anti-Christian" intentions of those who had compiled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Metropolitan Vladimir's address made a huge impression on those who confessed Russian Orthodoxy. He himself read his speech in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Assessing the Protocols, Vladimir directly associated its authors' "monstrous" intentions with the revolutionary events in Russia, examining the then-ongoing social disturbance in the Russian society from religious, not political, point of view. He urged the orthodox people to stand up against the Anti-Christ.
Upon the death of the Metropolitan Antonius of Saint Petersburg in 1912, Vladimir was chosen to fill this post. His successful career in this city, however, came to an end due to the fact that he had been criticising Grigori Rasputin.[citation needed] In December of 1915, Vladimir was sent away to Kiev. A few months after the October Revolution, Metropolitan Vladimir was arrested by five Red Army soldiers on 7 February [O.S. January 25] 1918 in front of the monks and immediately executed.
Metropolitan Vladimir was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church on October 4, 1998.
