Porphyrius Uspensky

Bishop Porphyrius (Russian: Епископ Порфирий, secular name Konstantin Aleksandrovich Uspensky, Russian: Константин Александрович Успенский; 8 September 1804 - 19 April 1885), was a Russian traveller, theologian, orientalist, archaeologist and byzantinologist, founder of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and also discovered several ancient codices. In latter year he was auxiliary bishop of Chigirin.

Konstantin Uspensky was born on 8 September 1804 in Kostroma, Russian Empire. He finished religious school in 1818 and four years after, he finished his studies at the Theological Seminary in Kostroma. In 1829, he finished studies at Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. That same year, he became a priest and received the name of Porphyrius.

In 1834, he became an archimandrite in Odessa. It was in Odessa where he became interested in Oriental Orthodoxy, learnt Modern Greek and Italian. He travelled to Palestine in 1842 and became head of the newly established Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in 1847, which he headed until 1854. In 1845 and 1846, he travelled to Mount Athos in Greece and Mount Sinai in Egypt. He saw the Codex Sinaiticus in Saint Catherine's Monastery in 1844 (one year after Constantin von Tischendorf's first visit). After a visit to the monastery of Mar Saba, he took the codex, which was later named after him (Uspenski Gospels), Codex Porphyrianus, and he brought it together with others manuscripts to Russia. Four pre-Iconoclast encaustic icons brought by Uspensky from Sinai are still preserved in Kiev, Ukraine.

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