ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the seventeenth-century Kolomenskii sakkos of Patriarch Nikon, with gilded satin, taffeta, velvet weaving, and embroidery, in the Moscow Kremlin Museum; it likely came from the Ottoman Empire. It talks about Metropolitan Pavel of Sarai and the Don, along with his able assistant Epifanii Slavinetskii, was among those tasked with continuing the reforms after Nikon walked away from his patriarchal position in 1658. In the nineteenth century, Pavel M. Stroev combed the archives of the Russian empire to compile a list of all the prelates and heads of monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church from its origins in Rus through the eighteenth century. The portraits of the prelates are based on real individuals, active in the second half of the seventeenth century in a process of church reform initiated during the tenure of Patriarch Nikon. The image of the prelate as an imitator of Christ, teaching the faith and enlightening all Christians, proved stronger as an ideal.
