15th Century
During the 15th century the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival and life of the Russian state. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, and to expand both economically and spiritually.
At the Council of Florence 1439, a group of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church leaders agreed upon terms of reunification of the two branches of Christianity. The Russian Prince Basil II of Moscow, however, rejected the concessions to the Catholic Church and forbade the proclamation of the acts of the Council in Russia in 1452, after a short-lived East-West reunion. Metropolitan Isidore was in the same year expelled from his position as an apostate.
In 1448, the Russian Church became independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople when the Russian bishops elected their own patriarch, Metropolitan Jonas, without recourse to Constantinople, and the Russian church was thenceforth autocephalous.
Metropolitan Jonas was given the title of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. He also received the fifth rank in honour after the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Five years later, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. From this point onward the Russian Orthodox Church saw Moscow as the Third Rome, legitimate successor to Constantinople, and the Patriarch of Moscow as head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Russian Orthodox Church
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