St. Cassian of Uchma and His Canonization at the Time of Mikhail Romanov: Trust in the Spiritual Authorities

Abstract

The article examines the circumstances and significance of the canonization of St. Cassian of Uchma in 1629. Based on a wide range of sources (the life of St. Cassian in its various copies and editions, as well as the “books of the foundation” of the Assumption Church of the Cassian Monastery, wills of Russian princes and other documents), analyzed by the classical methods of historical science (retrospective, method of historical periodization, historical-genetic, historical-systemic), it was possible to come to the conclusion that in the information about the life and miracles of St. Cassian, the central government drew important ideas necessary to overcome the crisis of statehood and power generated by the Time of Troubles. For the consolidation of the huge country of the central government, it was extremely important to apply to the images of the righteous defenders who discovered their holiness in the regions. After the end of the intervention, it was no less important to emphasize that Russia, in spite of everything, was an integral part of the common European cultural space. The figure of St. Cassian, a “Greco-Roman” saint by origin, whose appearance in Russia is associated with the arrival of Sophia Palaeologina in Moscow (1472), fully reached these important national goals.