Saint Philaret of Moscow’s judgments and the Philaret milieu in the biography of Archbishop Sophonias (Sokolsky): between skepticism, criticism and misunderstanding

Abstract

The present study examines the judgements of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov) concerning the works of Archbishop Sophonias (Sokolsky) of Turkestan, the first Orthodox hierarch in Central Asia. The analysis is grounded in archival materials: service records, Archimandrite Sokolsky’s Synopsis of Seminary Instruction in the Theological Disciplines together with an anonymous review thereof, and the correspondence of Archbishop Sophonias as well as in published opinions and letters of Metropolitan Philaret. The article seeks to determine the extent to which the personality and assessments of the Moscow hierarch shaped the biography of the future Archbishop of Turkestan, and to identify the specific grounds upon which Metropolitan Philaret’s judgements of Archbishop Sophonias were formed. Three principal episodes are examined: the controversy surrounding the erection of a monument to Lomonosov in Arkhangelsk (1832); Metropolitan Philaret’s review of a translation from the Greek (1852); and his opinion on Archimandrite Sophonias’s report concerning the reception of Nestorian Assyrians into Orthodoxy (1862). It is demonstrated that in two of these three cases Philaret’s judgements rested either on a factual misunderstanding (1832) or on a distorted reading of a canonical rule, compounded by political caution in the aftermath of the Crimean War (1862). Only in the case of the 1852 translation was Metropolitan Philaret’s criticism substantively well founded. It appears likely that Archbishop Sophonias became aware of the Moscow metropolitan’s judgements only indirectly. Particular attention is given to the influence of Metropolitan Philaret upon the life of Archimandrite Sophonias through teachers of the Tver Seminary and the St Petersburg Theological Academy, who were themselves direct disciples of Metropolitan Philaret. The article also addresses the question of an anonymous review, authored by a representative of the “Philaret circle”, of Archimandrite Sophonias’s Synopsis of Seminary Instruction in the Theological Disciplines, composed during his tenure as rector of the Orel Seminary (1837). The study concludes that the relationship between the two hierarchs was shaped by Archbishop Sophonias’s contextual affiliation with the “Philaretian” milieu, notwithstanding his independence from the Metropolitan’s own theological positions.