History of the Russian Church: from Metropolis to Patriarchate and the 20th century

From 988 the Russian Church was a metropolis of Constantinople. In 1448 a council of Russian bishops independently elected Metropolitan Jonah, regarded as the beginning of de facto autocephaly. In 1589 the Patriarchate was established (Patriarch Job) and recognized by the Eastern patriarchs in 1590–1593.

In 1721 Peter I abolished the Patriarchate; the Church was governed by the Most Holy Synod. The period saw the flowering of theological education, missions in Siberia, America and Japan, the eldership of Optina, and the canonization of St Seraphim of Sarov (1903).

The Local Council of 1917–1918 restored the Patriarchate (St Tikhon). Decades of persecution followed: mass executions of clergy and laity, the closing of churches. The Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church was glorified in 2000. From the late 1980s church life has revived.