Saint Gennadius Archbishop of Novgorod

Saint Gennadius was Archbishop of Novgorod from 1484 to 1504, a learned hierarch of the Russian Church best remembered for sponsoring the first complete codex of the Slavonic Bible. Descended from the Gonzov family, he became a monk at the Valaam monastery under the guidance of Saint Sabbatius of Solovki, and from 1472 served as Archimandrite of the Chudov monastery in the Moscow Kremlin before his elevation to the see of Novgorod.

He was named Archbishop of Novgorod in Moscow and placed in office on December 12, 1484, arriving in his diocese the following January. Sources note that he was the first Novgorodian prelate in well over a century to be chosen by appointment rather than by the casting of lots. His nineteen-year episcopate combined administrative energy, scholarship, and a sustained campaign against the heresy of the Judaizers, which he pursued with the support of the grand prince and the metropolitan.

Gennadius gathered around himself learned scribes and translators, and in 1499 their labors produced the Gennadius Bible, the first single codex bringing together all the books of Holy Scripture in Slavonic. Where books were missing from the existing Slavonic manuscript tradition, he had them translated anew from Latin sources. He also founded a school at Novgorod for the training of worthy clergy. He retired from his see in 1504 and reposed at the Chudov monastery on December 4, 1505, the day on which he is commemorated.