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The future Patriarch Nikon was born Nikita Minin on [[May 7]], 1605, into a peasant family in the village Valmanovo, near Nizhny Novgorod. His father, a farmer, was named Mina. Nikita's childhood was troubled and at one time he ran away from home to escape an inhumane stepmother. He was educated in a [[monastery]] and married before being [[ordination|ordained]] a [[priest]]. Through the efforts of Moscow merchants, impressed by Fr. Nikita's eloquence, he was transferred to a large Moscow [[parish]]. However, after losing his three small children during ten years of married life, he decided to enter a [[monastic]] life. Persuading his wife to become a nun, he entered the [[Solovetsky Monastery]] on the White Sea, receiving the name Nikon upon taking his monastic vows.
Entering the monastery, he established himself as a [[hermit]] on the nearby Anzersky island that was a dependency of Solovetsky. He later joined the Kozhuzersky monastery, in the Novgorod [[diocese]], after breaking with the Solovetsky [[monk]]s over allegations of misuse of [[alms]]. In 1643, [[Hieromonk]] Nikon was named hegumen. In his duties as hegumen he often visited Moscow, where in 1646 he met the pious Czar Alexis. Impressed by Nikon, Alexis, who had become czar in 1645, soon included Nikon among his close advisers.
In rapid succession Alexis raised Nikon to the dignity of [[archimandrite]] and assigned him to head the Novospassky monastery in Moscow in 1646. Then in 1648 the czar appointed him [[metropolitan]] of Novgorod. In Novgorod, Nikon was active founding almshouses and pursuing good works and even was responsible for suppressing a revolt in 1650. Then, after yielding to strong persuasion, Nikon was elected Patriarch of Moscow on [[August 1]], 1652, succeeding Patr. Joseph who had died earlier in the year.
