SERGIUS, Patriarch of Moscow. - Ioann Nikolaevič Stragorodskij, b. at Arzamas in the eparchy of Nižnij-Novgorod to a priestly family on 11 Jan. 1867, d. at Moscow on 15 May 1944.
In 1905 archbishop of Finland, in 1911 a member of the Holy Synod, in 1917 archbishop of Vladimir, appointed metropolitan; then, until 1924, metropolitan of Nižnij-Novgorod. After the death of Patriarch Tikhon (8 Apr. 1925), in Dec. he succeeded as vicar in the place of the imprisoned Metropolitan Peter (Poljanskij), locum tenens of the patriarchate. In 1934 he was elected metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, and after the death of Metropolitan Peter (end of 1936) he became from 1 Jan. 1937 locum tenens of the patriarchate. In 1943, on 4 Sept., he was received, together with the metropolitans of Leningrad, Alexius, and of Kiev, Nicholas, in audience by Stalin; on 8 Sept. he was elected patriarch.
The importance of S. lies in the fact that he, a man still of the old regime, re-established relations as normal as possible with the Soviet government, seeking also to keep the Russians abroad as subjects. Famous is the encyclical of the Holy Synod inspired by him (16-29 July 1927), in which unconditional loyalty to the Soviet regime is demanded, and his astonishing declaration (March 1930), on the occasion of an interview, that in Russia there was no religious persecution. During the war, from 22 June 1941, he published 23 encyclical letters and organized collections of money, among other things for a column of tanks, for airplanes, and also for the war wounded, widows, orphans, etc.
S. is also known as a theologian and missionary writer. His principal theological work is The Orthodox Doctrine on Salvation (1st ed., Sergiyev Posad 1895); as the subtitle notes, Essay of Explanation of the Moral-Subjective Side of Salvation on the Foundation of Holy Scripture and the Works of the Holy Fathers, it treats rather of the subjective side of the Redemption, undervaluing its objective side, especially the vicarious satisfaction of Christ. He also wrote on salvation and faith according to the "Orthodox" doctrine and the Catholic and Protestant one (Moscow 1913). On 7 Sept. 1935 the patriarchate of Moscow (that is, practically, Metropolitan S.) condemned the doctrine of the archpriest Sergius Bulgakov on Sophia or the Divine Wisdom. His views on the primacy of the pope appear in an article of his (in the monthly review of the patriarchate of Moscow, Feb. 1944) entitled: Has Christ a Vicar in the Church? : there he gives a negative answer; he admits, however, that the whole universal Church on earth might one day find itself having a single supreme leader (it is implied: the patriarch of Moscow, the third Rome).
Bibliography2 works
Bernardo Schultze