Jonas/Jonah of Moscow

Jonah, son of the pious Theodore, entered a monastery in his hometown at the age of twelve and then came to the Simonov Monastery in Moscow. After many years as a monk, he was appointed bishop of Ryazan and Murom. After the Moscow Metropolitan ==Photius died in 1431, Jonah was elected as his successor and he traveled to Constantinople – today’s Ístanbul – to be confirmed by Patriarch Joseph II, because shortly before the Bulgarian Isidor Isidore had been established as Metropolitan, but this was not successful. Metropolitan Isidor spent a short time as incumbent in Kiev and then in Moscow; In 1438 he traveled to the Council of Florence, where he agreed to the unification of the Orthodox Churches with the Catholic Church, which was negotiated there. Jonah, after seven years of vacancy, was unanimously elected Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia in 1448 – but as the first Metropolitan without the consent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Metropolitan Jonah continued to live strictly ascetic. When in 1451 the Tatars unexpectedly advanced into Moscow, his intercession caused the Tatars to launch their attack on July 2 – the feast of the laying down of the dress of our Lady; In gratitude, Jonah built a church dedicated to this resignation in the Kremlin. After Jonah’s death, miraculous healings occurred at his grave. In 1472, his remains were raised and taken to the Kremlin’s Dormition Cathedral in Moscow.

Joachim Schäfer: Article Jonah von Moskau, from the Ecumenical Dictionary of Saints – https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienJ/Jona_von_Moskau.html