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Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev
XVII Century
A pious and learned Russian nobleman (frequently described as a "boyar",
but some sources claim this is technically incorrect) whose
charitable works included the establishment of at least two
monasteries and a Moscow hospital, Rtishchev hoped to see a
cultural revival in Muscovy which would include the best of
both Eastern and Western culture. To this end, he established
an educational brotherhood and invited to Moscow two Kievan
Orthodox scholar-monks,
Epiphanius Slovenetsky
and Simon Polotsky. The name
of the college founded by Epiphanius -- "The Græco-Latin
Slavonic College" -- epitomises the intellectual goals for which
Rtishchev and his circle (of which his sister Anna was
also a prominent member) strove. In practice, however, the
most dramatic effect of the intellectual revival was to
provoke opposition from ultra-conservatives in the Russian
Church, resulting eventually in the Nikonian schism. A close friend of
many who became Old Believers, including the Boyarina Morozova,
Rtishchev was horrified by this turn of events, and struggled
heroically but in vain to heal the rift which had opened in the
church.
Norman Hugh Redington
- ABOUT:
- Daniel H. Kaiser:
Testamentary Charity in Early Modern Russia -- Trends and
Motivations,
(2004).
J. Mod. Hist. (76):1
- I. I. Kozlovskii:
F. M. Rtishchev, (1906).
In Russian.
Kiev: Imperial University, 1906.
- ASSOCIATED PEOPLE:
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