Theodosius, Metropolitan of Moscow

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Theodosius (Феодосий in Russian) (? - 1475) - Metropolitan of Moscow in 1461-1464.

In 1454, when Theodosius was still an archimandrite in Moscow's Chudov Monastery, he was promoted to the Archbishop of Rostov. After the death of Jonas in 1461, Theodosius became the Metropolitan of Moscow (he was chosen by Jonas himself).

Theodosius's appointment marked a new period of actual independence of the Russian Orthodox Church from the Patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius was the first metropolitan, who had been appointed by the Grand Prince as a representative from the Byzantine emperor.

Since his first days as a metropolitan, Theodosius decided to start eradicating unscrupulousness among the priests and educating the clergy in his eparchy. He didn't want to make real pastors of them, because most of them were illiterate. The only thing Theodosius wanted was to make them stop seducing ordinary people with their dissolute lifestyles.

Theodocius's attempts at reshaping the clergy failed. When he started sifting through the priests and defrocking those unfit for preaching, many parishes were left without priests. Ordinary people had nothing against their priests, therefore, they started to voice their discontent and damn the metropolitan. Theodosius decided to retire and moved to Chudov Monastery after only 3 years of being a metropolitan.