Joseph

Who was Joseph?

Metropolitan Joseph was a metropolitan of Russian orthodox church.

Metropolitan of Leningrad 1926-1927, after the publication in 1927 the "Declaraton" by Metropolitan Sergius he led Josephites movement.

He was born in the Novgorod province in the area of Tikhvin city of Ustyuzhna.

He was against the recognition of the Soviet government by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1927–1937. He was a leader of the resistance movement and organizer of the Catacomb Church.

Before he was killed by the "Soviets", Metropolitan Joseph wrote: "Do not judge me so severely, and clearly understand the following: 1. I am not at all a schismatic, and I call not to a schism. but to the purification of the Church from those who sow real schism and provoke it. 2. To indicate to another his errors and wrongs is not schism but, to speak simply, it is putting an unbridled horse back into harness. 3. The refusal to accept sound reproaches and directives is in reality a schism and a trampling on the truth. 4. In the construction of ecclesiastical life the participants are not only those at the head, but the whole body of the Church, and a schismatic is he who assumes to himself rights which exceed his authority and in the name of the Church presumes to say that which is not shared by his colleagues. 5. Metropolitan Sergius has shown himself to be such a schismatic, for he has far exceeded his authority and has rejected and scorned the voice of many hierarchs, in whose midst the pure truth has been preserved".