Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) and His Views on the Shortcomings of the Administrative Component of the Spiritual and Educational System of the Late 1840s

Today, the personality and works of Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) of Moscow and Kolomna are a popular field for research. His activities in preparing the charter of 1808–1814, as well as his attitude to the reform of the theological school of N. A. Protasov and D. A. Tolstoy, are sufficiently covered. This article presents an analysis of Metropolitan Filaret's views on the problems of the theological-educational system, which were subject to wide discussion in the late 40s of the XIX century, especially in the context of the reaction in journalism. At this time, due to the cancellation of the call to the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Filaret focuses on the issues of diocesan administration, but does not abandon active church activities, as evidenced by the Metropolitan's written responses on various issues. The present study is based on an attempt to analyze the response of the Moscow Metropolitan to the project of one of the secular critics in 1849 on theological seminaries and the shortcomings of the administrative component of the theological school. Metropolitan Filaret carefully approached the identified problems and presented his opinion on the identified issues. The sources for the study were archival documents of the Russian State Historical Archive. As additional literature, materials of modern researchers of the life and legacy of Saint Filaret were used, which allows us to approach the most objective view of both the personality of the outstanding saint and his works. Based on the available materials, the author of the article shows the contribution of Metropolitan Filaret to church science and to the resolution of problems of the spiritual and educational system at the time in question.