Lot 168: SERGEI DMITRIEVICH MILORADOVICH (1851-1943)

Patriarch Nikon signed in Cyrillic 'S. Miloradovich' (lower center) oil on canvas 351/2x491/2in. (90.2x125.7cm.) LITERATURE See Feodorovskii Imperial Church at Tsarkoe Selo. Part I The Peshcherskii Church of St. Serafim Sarovskii, (St. Petersburg, 1916) col. pl. for another version of this painting. NOTES Patriarch Nikon (Nikita Minov, 1605-81) was elevated to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1652 from the Archbishopric of Novgorod. He undertook numerous changes within the ritual of the Orthodox Church in Russia, thereby creating much dissention and schism with the Old Believers. He expanded the territorial control of the church which alienated him from the Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich until 10 July 1658 he was exiled to the New Jerusalem Monastery. During the Church Council of 1666-67 he was stripped of his position and sent to the Belozerskii Feropont Monastery where he spent the rest of his life.