Dormition Cathedral

The present Dormition Cathedral was already standing here when, in October sixteen oh eight, detachments of False Dmitry II burst into Rostov Veliky. This pretender claimed to be the surviving Tsarevich Dmitry and set up his own court in Tushino near Moscow. His supporters defeated the Rostov militia. Some townspeople fled to Yaroslavl, while others took refuge in the cathedral.

There were still no Kremlin walls or towers around the square then: they were built more than sixty years later. The main church of the Rostov Metropolia became the last stone stronghold. It was the seat of the metropolitan, where the city’s principal services were held and relics and the church treasury were kept. The cathedral is dedicated to the Dormition—the name the church gives to the death of the Mother of God and her passage into eternal life. It is once again an active Orthodox church today.

Filaret (Fyodor Romanov), Metropolitan of Rostov Veliky and head of the local eparchy, remained with those taking refuge and urged the townspeople to keep their oath to the lawful tsar. He had previously been known as Fyodor Romanov. Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the influential boyar to be forcibly tonsured as a monk, so that he would lose the possibility of claiming the throne. After that, clerical rank became Filaret’s only permitted public role, and Rostov Veliky the place of his service.

A chronicle account compiled under the Romanovs portrays Filaret as strengthening the townspeople and ordering priests to hear people’s confessions and give them communion before their possible deaths. His solemn speeches should not be taken as a transcript. The assault itself is beyond doubt: the attackers broke down the cathedral doors, killed many laypeople and priests, looted the altar, and carried off a golden reliquary—a precious casket above the relics of Saint Leontius. Filaret was stripped of his episcopal vestments, dressed in rough clothing, and taken as a captive to Tushino.

False Dmitry II needed a high-ranking clergyman bearing the Romanov name. He proclaimed the captive “designated patriarch”—head of the church appointed at the Tushino court in opposition to the recognized patriarch in Moscow. Historians dispute how willingly Filaret performed this role.

From Tushino, Filaret entered a new captivity and returned only in sixteen nineteen. During his absence, his son Mikhail I was elected tsar. Filaret became the now recognized Patriarch of Moscow and his son’s co-ruler.

Four years later, father and son donated a silver-gilt cross for the altar to the ravaged Rostov cathedral. The names of Tsar Mikhail I and Patriarch Filaret are engraved on the cross, which states that it was intended for Dormition Cathedral. This cross has survived in the collection of the Rostov Kremlin Museum-Reserve. The cathedral from which Filaret was taken captive is the very building in front of which he later ordered his gift to be placed.