Peter of Kiev

Who was Peter of Kiev?

Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia was the Russian metropolitan who moved his see from Vladimir to Moscow in 1325. Later he was proclaimed a patron saint of Moscow. In spite of the move, the office remained officially entitled "Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'" until the autocephalous election of St. Jonah in 1448.

Peter was born in Galicia–Volhynia. He founded a monastery on the Rata River, tributary to Bug River, and became its abbot. In 1308 king Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia nominated and the Patriarch of Constantinople appointed Peter to the vacant see of Kiev and all Rus'. Mikhail Yaroslavich, Grand Prince of Vladimir and Tver, wanted to advance his own candidate for this position. Peter's nomination caused prolonged animosity between Mikhail and Peter to the point that the latter had to ask for protection from the Prince of Moscow in 1325.

Peter's alliance with Moscow helped assert his own authority and contributed to the rise of the House of Moscow. Peter transferred his metropolitan duties from depopulated Kiev to Vladimir and then to Moscow, where he received property estates. The move strengthened the political position of Moscow and established it as the spiritual capital of fragmented Russia.