FILARET (Fedor), NIKITIČ ROMANOV, patriarch of Moscow. — He was one of the good boyars and great figures at the court of the last Rurikid, Theodore (1584–98). Boris Godunov forced F. to become a monk. The "False Dmitry" appointed him metropolitan of Rostov (1605). As such, he adhered to the False Dmitry II. He then went to the Polish king Sigismund Vasa to persuade him to have his son Ladislaus crowned tsar of Russia (1611). Sigismund had F. arrested in Poland, who was only able to return to Russia in 1619, by which time his son Michael had been crowned tsar. He was appointed patriarch of Moscow that same year.
He worked to reform the patriarchal administration. In a synod, he decreed that all Latins who had passed to the Russian dissident Church should be rebaptized. In general, F. fought against Western influence, and in Poland he favored the new schismatic hierarchy against the Eastern Catholics united with Rome. F. took part in the government under the title of Grand Prince (velikij gosudar), and with cautious moderation he carried out a profound reform of the liturgical books. In this, he stands favorably in contrast to Patriarch Nikon, the future reformer of Russian liturgy. Died in 1633.