View source for Stephen (Yavorsky) of Ryazan

[[Image:Stephen Yavorsky.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Metropolitan Stephen Yavorsky]]
'''Metropolitan Stephen''' (secular name '''Simeon Ivanovich Yavorsky''' ({{lang-ru|Симеон Иванович Яворский}}; 1658–1722) was a [[metropolitan]] and statesman in the [[Russian Empire]]. Patriarchal locum tenens (1701-1921). One of the ablest coadjutors of [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] and the first president of the [[Most Holy Synod]].

Born in [[Yavoriv|Yavorov]] near [[Lviv|Lvov]], Yavorsky was educated at the [[Kyiv-Mohyla Academy]] and various other schools of the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]]. Becoming a monk, he settled at the Kiev Academy as a preacher and professor, being appointed prefect of the institution and prior of the monastery of [[St. Nicholas]]. He attracted the attention of Peter I by his funeral oration over the [[boyar]] [[w:Aleksei Shein|Aleksei Shein]], and was made [[archbishop]] of [[Ryazan]] in 1700. 

In 1700, on the death of [[Patriarch Adrian|Adrian]], the last patriarch of [[Moscow]], Stephen Yavorsky was appointed custodian of the spiritualities of the patriarchal see. Notwithstanding frequent collisions with Peter, and his partiality for the unfortunate Tsarevich [[Alexius]], Yavorsky was too valuable a man to be discarded.

In 1721 he was made first president of the newly erected [[Holy Synod]], but died in the following year. After that Stephen's duties were conferred on [[Feofan Prokopovich]].

Yavorsky was also a noted poet and composer.

==See also==
*[[List of Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow]]

==References==
* {{1911|article=Stephen Yavorsky|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Stephen_Yavorsky}}

==External links==
*{{worldcat id|lccn-n84-78788}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Yavorsky, Stephen
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Eastern Orthodox archbishop
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 1658
| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
| DATE OF DEATH     = 1722
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}