The dedication to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the History of the Synod: publication of the text

The book by Metropolitan Paisius Ligarides of Gaza († 1678) on the trial of Patriarch Nikon († 1681) at the Great Moscow Synod of 1666-1667 opens with a dedication to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The document, though lacking its original autograph, has been preserved in four Greek copies from the late seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Also, it does not yet have a complete Russian translation or scholarly edition. Acknowledged by many 19th century historians as a crucial document concerning the relationship between the clergy and the tsarist system in mid-17th century Russia, this invaluable source, written by an observer, adds to our understanding of Greco-Russian relations and the influence of the Greek Church in Russia’s political and religious environment during that time. The authors conducted a comprehensive study of the preface-dedication text, which is of significant literary interest and contains numerous factual details, and introduced it into scholarly discourse through a concise mid-19th century Russian translation. To fill the gap in the original Greek edition of the preface, we are publishing the text based on three manuscript copies, preceded by a brief introduction, and accompanied by a detailed historical and philological commentary. The Greek source examined characterizes Ligarides not solely as a dedicated churchman and ideologue with distinct perspectives on power, but also as an imaginative and skilled writer, a key participant in the secular trend within Russian literature in the 1600s.

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