SERGIO, patriarch of MOSCOW. – Ioann Nikolaevič Stragorodskij, born at Arzamas in the eparchy of Nižnij-Novgorod to a priestly family on 11 January 1867, died at Moscow on 15 May 1944.
In 1905 he became archbishop of Finland, in 1911 a member of the Holy Synod, and in 1917 archbishop of Vladimir, being appointed metropolitan; subsequently, until 1924, he was metropolitan of Nižnij-Novgorod. After the death of Patriarch Tichon (8 April 1925), in the following December he succeeded as vicar in place of the imprisoned Metropolitan Pietro (Poljanskij), lieutenant of the patriarchate. In 1934 he was elected metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, and after the death of Metropolitan Pietro (at the end of 1936), from 1 January 1937 he became lieutenant of the patriarchate. In 1943, on 4 September, he was received, together with the metropolitans of Leningrad, Alessio, and of Kiev, Nicola, in an audience with Stalin; on 8 September he was elected patriarch.
S.’s importance lies in the fact that, a man still belonging to the old regime, he restored relations that were as normal as possible with the Soviet government, also seeking to keep the Russians abroad subject to II. Famous is the encyclical of the Holy Synod inspired by him (16–29 July 1927), in which unconditional loyalty to the Soviet regime was demanded, as well as his astonishing declaration (March 1930), on the occasion of an interview, that there was no religious persecution in Russia. During the war, from 22 June 1941 onward, he published 23 encyclical letters and organized collections of money, among other things for a column of tanks, for airplanes, and also for the wounded, widows, orphans, etc.
S. is also known as a theologian and missionary writer. His principal theological work is The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation (1st ed., Serghiev Posad 1895); as the subtitle indicates—Essay toward an Explanation of the Moral-Subjective Aspect of Salvation on the Basis of Holy Scripture and the Works of the Holy Fathers—it deals rather with the subjective aspect of Redemption, underestimating its objective aspect, especially Christ’s vicarious satisfaction. He also wrote on salvation and faith according to «orthodox» and Catholic and Protestant doctrine (Moscow 1913). On 7 September 1935 the patriarchate of Moscow (that is, in practice, Metropolitan S.) condemned the doctrine of the archpriest Sergio Bulgakov concerning Sophia or Divine Wisdom. His views on the primacy of the pope appear in one of his articles (in the monthly journal of the patriarchate of Moscow, February 1944) entitled: Does Christ Have a Vicar in the Church? He gives a negative answer; he nevertheless admits that the entire universal Church on earth might one day find itself with a single supreme ruler (implicitly: the patriarch of Moscow, the third Rome).