Our Holy Father Peter
After some years, he left for the small Monastery of the Transfiguration in order to find the solitude and quiet more favorable to prayer. Saint Maximus, the metropolitan of Kiev visited this monastery and was greatly edified by the virtues of Peter, whom he decided should be his successor as head of the Russian Church.
He was confirmed in this resolve by an apparition of the Mother of God, and he made the request to the Patriarch of Constantinople on whom the Russian Church depended. In 1325 therefore Saint Peter was consecrated Metropolitan of Kiev. Peter's election was confirmed by a Council, but he immediately encountered opposition from the Russian princes, who were vying with one another for influence over the leader of the Church. Peter's meekness and charity towards his enemies won him their respect; but although conciliatory in all that concerned him personally, he was nonetheless strict as regards the faith and moral uprightness. He energetically opposed intense Muslim propaganda, and travelled throughout Russia to confirm the faith. He did not hesitate to risk his life for the sake of making peace among the princes and, foreseeing that Russia would reunite around the principality of Moscow, he transferred his Metropolitan see to that city and began the construction of the renowned Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin. He gave up his soul to God while at prayer on 21 December 1326, and many miracles of healing were wrought at his tomb." (From the Synaxarion)
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