Patriarch Joseph of Moscow

Joasaphus (Russian: Иоасаф)
Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus'
Patriarch Joseph, a 19th-century hand-drawn lubok
Church	Russian Orthodox Church
See	Moscow
Installed	March 27 1642
Term ended	April 15, 1652
Predecessor	Patriarch Joasaphus I
Successor	Patriarch Nikon
Personal details
Born	Russia
Died	April 15, 1652
Buried	Dormition Cathadrel, Moscow Kremlin
Profession	Civil Servant, Tsardom of Russia

Patriarch Joseph (Russian: Иосиф) (died April 15, 1652) was the sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, elected after an unusual one and a half year break.

The early life of Joseph is unclear. Before the election he was an archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery.

For the first time the patriarch was elected by sortition from candidates offered by tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich in coordination with the Council of Bishops. The election was held on March 20, 1642 in Moscow. Joseph came into office on March 27 and was titled "master" and not "sovereign" (as his predecessor Filaret had been).

Joseph conducted a fairly conservative policy. When Danish prince Valdemar Christian arrived to Moscow in 1644 Joseph began persuading him to adopt Orthodoxy because Valdemar was married to tsarevna Irina Romanova. When Valdemar refused, Joseph opened the debate on June 2, 1644. The debate was limited mainly to the fulfilment of the christening but Orthodox scholars couldn't competently prove their opinion. In 1650 Joseph opened another debate, on Russian and Greek Orthodoxy with Paisius I, the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

He took measures to build school in Moscow, which subscribed to the scientists from Kyiv. In 1649, the Moscow printing spravschiki prepared for printing "in learning for children" polemical Brief Catechism Peter Graves. Textbooks presented before a special Psalms, Breviary, alphabet and primers, enriched "grammar" Smotritsky Meletios (1648).

He cared about the improvement of the beauty of churches and church services, and participated at the dedication of the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl in 1650, and brought a gift of a new piece of the robe of the Lord Church.