Philaret Drozdov
Russian bishop (1783-1867)
Metropolitan Philaret (Real name Vasily Mikhaylovich Drozdov, Василий Михайлович Дроздов; 26 December 1782 – 1 December 1867) was Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and the most influential figure in the Russian Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, from 1821 to 1867.
He was canonized on 13 October 1994 and his feast day is celebrated on November 19.
Life
He was born in Kolomna as Vasily Drozdov (Russian: Василий Михайлович Дроздов). His father was a member of the clergy. Vasily was educated at the seminary of Kolomna, where courses were taught in Latin; and then at the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, and on the completion of his studies was at once appointed professor in the latter. He taught Greek, Hebrew and poetry. He became preacher of the lavra in 1806, and in 1808, received the monastic tonsure and was named Philaret after Saint Philaret the Merciful. In 1809, he was appointed professor of theology in the ecclesiastical academy of Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, becoming archimandrite in 1811 and director in 1812.
The Events of 1812 produced a strong impression on Philaret; he explained the success of the Russians by moral reason and read a lecture on this theme in the "Society of friends of the Russian word".
“Philaret Drozdov” enters the record as russian bishop (1783-1867). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Philaret, Drozdov and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q129641. VIAF identifies the subject as 292374483. The Library of Congress control number is n80050977. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1782, 1867, 1821 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Philaret Drozdov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.