CHAPTER XVIII. St. Metrophanes. NE of these days, when I was walking with Mr. ON Blackmore, he pointed out to me in a bookseller's shop a picture of St. Metrophanes, first bishop of Voronege on the Don, "whose incorrupted relics" (which is the Russian phrase1 to express canoni 1 [If this means that, according to Russian theology, incorruption of body is the sufficient test and criterion of sanctity for canonization, it is contrary to the doctrine of Roman theologians and the practice of the Catholic Church. Supr. p. 81. Cardinal Lambertini (Benedict. xiv.) thus writes, de Canoniz. lib. iv. t. 8, edit. 1790: "Writers on canonization commonly admit that the incorruption (as they speak) of a corpse is to be accounted a miracle, in case it is clear that the man, whose corpse is in question, was in his lifetime conspicuous for heroic virtues; and thus they consider they escape the difficulty arising from the fact that a great many bodies are found incorrupt, the owners of which, when living, were not adorned with heroic virtues; nay, were even stained with vices and sins. The teaching of St. Thomas is favourable to this view."-P. 185. "In the beginning of 1729 the corpse of Lorenzo Salviati, who 66 zation) were found in 1832." There is an official account of his life, miracles, and canonization, of which I make the following abridgment. It begins by saying that "God is wonderful in His saints. With the grace of such gifts Russia has been adorned from her first reception of the faith to the present day." Metrophanes was born in 1623, seemingly in the district of Vladimir, and was a secular priest, with the name of Michael. In 1663, having lost his wife, he became a monk, and was hegemon (head) first of the monastery of St. Cosmas at Yakroma, and then of the Troitsa at Galicho. In 1681, the Tsar Theodore called him to Moscow, and April 2, next year, he was consecrated first bishop of Voronege. The formal document goes on to say, that in his first pastoral, while exhorting his clergy to diligence, he bids them attend carefully to the sick and dying, that they may not depart this life without the holy mysteries, nor be deprived of extreme unction. His use of this Latin term is remarkable, as it implies that, though died in 1609, was found absolutely incorrupt, which led to a publication in which it was proved, by an accumulation of examples, that not in every instance is incorruption an evidence of sanctity, nor is to be accounted a miracle."-P. 188. 66 [Some writers add] that that state of the body, by which a long resistance is made to corruption, can be [naturally] secured by spareness of living and austerity of life."-P. 189.] not by origin from Little Russia, he had at some time or other been influenced by persons or by books from the Latin quarter. He left behind him, besides this pastoral, a testamentary address, and another MS. filled with passages from the funeral offices, the Scriptures, and the Fathers, showing his meditations on death, and his deep sense of the value of prayers for the departed. He rebuilt a portion of his cathedral of brick, it having hitherto been of wood, and was buried under its wall; but after a while all the building gave way, and thus it was that his sanctity was revealed. For the body having to be removed for a time, and then restored back again, on both translations to and fro, it was found to be incorrupt, and thence a rumour that Metrophanes was a saint. As to the acts of his life, it is recorded that once when the Tsar Peter was building ships at Voronege in order to attack Azoff, Metrophanes, hearing that the works were suspended, gave 6000 roubles, all the money that he had by him or could raise, as a contribution to Peter, who on his returning from the war in triumph, bestowed on the bishop the title of Azoffsky. Another time, when works were suspended for want of pay, the bishop gave his imperial master 4000 roubles; and still on another occasion 3000, towards the payment of the troops, for which he received from Peter a letter of thanks. However, when there was need, he did not shrink from withstanding the Tsar to his face, at any price. Peter had a house at the Bishop's See, and, in imitation of the western fashions, had set up about his dockyard stone figures of heathen divinities. One day he sent word for the bishop to come to him; but the bishop, seeing these figures of naked, heathen gods and goddesses-Bacchus, Venus, &c.-turned back home. The Tsar sent again, and repeated his command that Metrophanes should come to him. The bishop replied, "Unless the Tsar orders the removal of those idols, the sight of which is a scandal, I cannot come to him." Peter flew into a passion, and sent a third time, with a threat, that, if he did not come at once, he would lose his head. The bishop replied, “My body is in the Tsar's hands, but there is a God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell; Him I fear. It would be better for me to die, than to fail in my duty in defending the orthodox faith;" and he began at once to prepare for the worst, and set the great bell of his church tolling as if for a coming death. The Tsar, startled at the first sound of the bell, finding on inquiry what was its meaning, burst into a laugh, saying, "I was not in earnest," and ordered the statues to be removed. Then the bishop came to him immediately, and thanked him both for having granted him his life, and still more for having got rid of his idols. From that time Peter always showed him the utmost respect. In his Testamentary Address composed before his death, Metrophanes exhorts "all the people to remain in the faith of their forefathers. The Orthodox Catholic Faith," he continues, "I charge them to love with all their souls; and to reverence the Holy Church, which is one throughout the universe, and to abide in her immovably, and to hold fast to the tradition and doctrine of the holy fathers, nor suffer it in any point to be tampered with or slighted. For, as without faith it is impossible to please God, so also without the Holy Eastern Church and her divinely delivered doctrine, it is impossible to be saved." Then, addressing all, he asks forgiveness for himself, and implores them earnestly and repeatedly with tears to pray for his wretched and sinful soul. Before his death he received the Holy Viaticum and the great schima or habit. So he died, November 23, 1703, and the Tsar with his suite closed his eyes and carried the coffin into the church and to the place of burial. |