PLATON (LEVSHIN)

(1737–1812), Orthodox metropolitan of Moscow.

Born the son of a church sexton in the village of Chasnikovo near Moscow, Peter Levshin (the future Metropolitan Platon) attended the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow before taking monastic vows at the St. Sergius–Holy Trinity Lavra in 1758. He adopted the name Platon and within three years had become rector of the Lavra seminary.

Platon's eloquence and learning attracted Empress Catherine II (r. 1762–1796), who in 1763 appointed him tutor to her son and heir, Paul. Platon's lectures for the tsarevich were published in 1765 under the title Orthodox Teaching; or, a Short Course in Christian Theology. Translated into German and English, this work earned Platon an international reputation as an Orthodox thinker.

In 1766 Platon became a member of the Holy Synod, the ruling council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Consecrated archbishop of Tver in 1770, he was appointed archbishop of Moscow in 1775, a post he retained for the rest of his life. Platon proved to be an effective administrator. Immediately upon taking office, he revamped the ecclesiastical bureaucracy by issuing new rules for clerical superintendents. He also worked to improve the education and material living standards of the secular clergy. In his effort to create an enlightened clergy, Platon added modern foreign languages, medicine, history, and geography to the seminary curriculum. In recognition of his achievements, Catherine promoted him to the rank of metropolitan in 1787.

By then, however, Platon's relationship to the empress had begun to deteriorate. In 1785 Catherine II had ordered him to investigate Nikolai Novikov (1744–1816), a Freemason and prominent publisher. To her dismay, Platon declared Novikov an exemplary Christian. Despite Platon's finding, Catherine had Novikov arrested a few years later in 1792. That same year, she granted Platon permission to enter a partial retirement by moving to Bethany, his monastic retreat on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Lavra.

During the reign of Emperor Paul (r. 1796–1801), Platon negotiated the return to the state church of some Old Believers (religious dissenters who had broken with the Orthodox Church because they rejected the liturgical innovations of Patriarch Nikon[r. 1652–1658]). The Old Believers accepting this compromise, known as the yedinoverie, or union, agreed to recognize the legitimacy and authority of the state church in exchange for the right to follow pre-Nikonian rituals and practices. As an ecumenical effort by the Russian Orthodox Church, the union failed to win over many adherents.

Platon died in 1812, shortly after hearing of Napoleon Bonaparte's retreat from Moscow. An excellent administrator and inspired preacher, he did not use his position to voice social criticism. Instead, he sought to make the church more effective in a limited ecclesiastical sphere through education and regulation. Platon's collected works, which include his autobiography and a short history of the Russian Orthodox Church, fill twenty volumes.

See also: nikon, patriarch; old believers; orthodoxy

bibliography

Papmehl, K. A. (1983). Metropolitan Platon of Moscow (Petr Levshin, 1737–1812): The Enlightened Prelate, Scholar, and Educator. Newtonville, MA: Oriental Research Partners.

J. Eugene Clay