Archimandrite Melchizedek (Zabolotsky): biographical description

Abstract

Archimandrite Melchizedek (Zabolotsky) (1754–1794), one of the closest assistants to Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) of Moscow, held several key church positions in the period from the 1780s to the early 1790s: he was rector of the famous Trinity Seminary and the Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy, vicar of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Vysokopetrovsky monastery in Moscow. However, despite such important posts, no detailed biographical information has been preserved about him, he did not leave a visible trace in history. Examining the archival material of the Trinity Seminary and Academy, the Pereslavl Consistory and the Moscow Synodal Office, it was possible to identify, clarify and supplement important data for compiling the biography of Archimandrite Melchizedek, and, as a consequence, the history of the Moscow Theological Academy and the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The name of Archimandrite Melchizedek, who was twice nominated to the episcopal see, is closely connected with the personality of Metropolitan Nikanor (Klementyevsky), as well as a number of famous hierarchs of the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.