FILARETE, VASILIJ MICHAJLOVIĆ DROZDOV, metropolitan of MOSCOW. — Born on 26 December 1782, died on 19 November 1867; he studied at Colomna and at the Lavra of the Most Holy Trinity, where he also began to teach. Having become a monk, he was rector of the Ecclesiastical Academy of Petersburg and subsequently auxiliary bishop. In 1819 he was elected archbishop of Tver and member of the Holy Synod. Having transferred in 1820 to the see of Jaroslav, he was installed in 1826 as metropolitan of Moscow. F. was a zealous pastor and eloquent preacher; his activity extended throughout all Russia, in Church and State.
For approximately 50 years he was regarded as an oracle and showered with honours and decorations. Except during the period of influence of the procurator general of the Holy Synod, Protasov, F. decided theological and canonical questions. He encountered resistance in his intention—ultimately successful—of translating Holy Scripture into Russian and replacing Church Slavonic in certain customary prayers (Pater, Credo, etc.) with Russian. The celebrated reform of Protasov in 1836, which interrupted the Protestantizing tradition of Teofane Procopovič, compelled him to conceal his Protestant opinions (cf. his writing Ialoženie raznosti meddu vostočenju i zapadnju Cerkoviju v učiniji vary. « Sulla differenza tra la Chiesa orientale e la Chiesa occidentale nella dottrina della fede »), traces of which are found in the first two editions of his great catechism (Christianskij katichisis pravoslavnyja grekorostijskija Cerkvi, etc., Moscow 1823 and 1827), subsequently corrected in the third edition of 1839. The catechism went through many editions and was translated into many languages. F.’s numerous writings—reports, notices, replies, and decisions of a doctrinal, canonical, administrative, and political nature—were published for the most part after his death. The influence exerted by F. on Russian theology is immense.