GENNADIO, Archbishop of Novgorod. — He governed this see from 1485 to 1504; he was elected by the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III (1472–1505).
He suffered greatly from the Grand Duke’s ruthless confiscation of ecclesiastical goods, to which G. vainly opposed himself. Towards the end of his life he was imprisoned, probably for the same reason. In 1487 he uncovered in his diocese the sect of the Judaizers (v.), against whom he convened at least three synods. Together with Iosif of Volokolamsk, he sought to proceed vigorously against them, drawing inspiration from the Spanish Inquisition. Probably prompted by the Psalter translated by the Judaizers, he commissioned the Croatian Dominican Benjamin to render into Old Slavonic those Sacred Books not yet translated. Thereby G. bequeathed to the Russian Church its first complete Bible version, which remained in use for centuries. To facilitate studies on the reform of the calendar, in 1495 he had the Rationale divinorum officiorum of William Durandus translated.