Early Life and Education
He was born Vasily Mikhaylovich Drozdov on December 26, 1782, in Kolomna in the Moscow Province, into a clerical family; his father was a deacon who later became a priest. He entered the Kolomna Seminary in 1791, where instruction was conducted in Latin, and afterward studied at the Moscow (Holy Trinity) Theological Seminary at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from 1800 to 1803.
Upon completing his studies he was appointed to teach at the Lavra, giving instruction in Greek, Hebrew, and poetry, and in 1806 became a preacher there. He received monastic tonsure on November 16, 1808, taking the name Philaret in honor of Saint Philaret the Merciful, and was ordained hierodeacon that same month and hieromonk on March 28, 1809.
Rise Through the Hierarchy
In 1809 he was appointed professor of theology at the ecclesiastical academy of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, and was elevated to archimandrite on July 8, 1811, becoming director of the academy the following year. On August 13, 1814, he was awarded a Doctorate in Theology.
He was consecrated Bishop of Revel (Reval) on August 5, 1817, serving as episcopal vicar of St. Petersburg. He became Archbishop of Tver on March 15, 1819, and a member of the Most Holy Synod, then Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov on September 26, 1820. On August 22, 1826, he became Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, an office he held until his death in 1867 — a tenure of more than four decades.
Teaching, Scholarship, and the Russian Bible
Saint Philaret's Christian Catechism, first created in 1823, became one of the most influential texts of Russian Orthodox instruction. His many theological and historical writings were known collectively as the Filaretica; among his published works were the Colloquy between a Believer and a Skeptic (1815), a Compend of Sacred History (1816), a Commentary on Genesis (1816), Sermons Delivered at Various Times (1820), the Christian Catechism (1823), and later collections of sermons and scriptural extracts.
He made a direct, creative, and decisive contribution to the translation of the Bible into Russian, working to replace the Church Slavonic version, which was inaccessible to ordinary readers, with a vernacular text that they could understand. He had composed spiritual poetry from his youth, and his poetic correspondence with the poet Alexander Pushkin is well documented.
Public Life and Later Years
The Napoleonic invasion of 1812 left a deep impression on him, and he attributed Russia's deliverance to moral rather than merely military factors; in 1813 he delivered a notable address commemorating the death of Field Marshal Kutuzov. His outspokenness later brought him into disfavor at court: from 1845 until the accession of Alexander II his statements drew imperial disapproval, and in 1855 he was restricted to the limits of his diocese. He is reported to have helped prepare Tsar Alexander II's proclamation of 1861 emancipating the serfs.
He served as spiritual father to the hieromonk Macarius (Glukharyov, 1792–1847), who was himself canonized in 2000 for his missionary work among the Altai people. Sources also record that Saint Philaret implemented harsh measures against the Old Believers, including the confiscation of churches and the sealing of altars at the Rogozhskoye Cemetery. He died on December 1, 1867, at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius near Moscow.
Glorification
Saint Philaret was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1990s, with sources placing the act of canonization in 1994 and 1995. His feast day is celebrated on November 19.
