The life of St Philip of Moscow
Word of his life reached Ivan, by then tsar, who asked him to become Metropolitan of Moscow. Philip agreed only if Ivan would end the terror of the oprichnina, the tsar's secret police, and for a time an uneasy peace held between them. But as the killings continued, Philip could not stay silent. During the Divine Liturgy he publicly refused to bless the tsar and denounced the massacres carried out in his name. Ivan had him seized during a later service, tried on false charges before a court of intimidated bishops, and deposed. Held in chains through a year of imprisonment, Philip was finally strangled in his cell at Tver by one of the tsar's men, in December of 1569.
