Rumors about the death of Lavra’s Archimandrite, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Halych, and All Russia Joasaph Krokowski

Did you know that various rumors about the death of the Lavra Archimandrite, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Halych, and All Russia Joasaph Krokowski circulated during the 1720^s?

In one of our previous stories we spoke about the arrest of Joasaf Krokowski in connection with the case of Tsarevych Oleksii Petrovych. Arrested in Kyiv, Metropolitan was to be taken to Moscow, but he got seriously ill with dropsy on his way to the city and died. Of course, no one wanted to explain the death of an elderly man (who underwent difficult trials at the end of his life) by simple reasons. Krokovsky’s disgrace was allegedly explained by his secret correspondence with Hieromonk Gideon, who was then teaching at the Slavic-Greek-Latin School in Moscow. The investigation tried to prove that Gideon was Krokovsky’s informer who was feeding the latter with the facts about Tsarevych’s escape, the temper and traveling routes of Peter I, as well as the life of the Russian court, in general. They considered Metropolitan as a potential conspirer. So, shortly after, foreign diplomats (who used to portray the reign of Peter I in bright tones) started sending the reports with the rumours about Krokowski’s death. They were saying that he did not die of natural causes, but was poisoned. And that he either did it himself or somebody else killed him in such a way.

Caption to the illustration:

1. Portrait of Joasaph Krokowski. 19^th century.

Hanna Filipova