Jonas
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- This page is about the Russian saint. For the Application server, see JOnAS
Jonas (Иона in Russian) (died 1461?), was the Metropolitan bishop of Moscow, commencing 1448.
Since the late 1420s, Jonas had been living in the Simonov Monastery. He was close to Metropolitan Photius, who would make him Bishop of Ryazan and Murom. After Photius's death in 1431, Grand Prince Vasili II nominated Jonas for the post of Metropolitan. Due to Vasili's war with the appanage princes, Jonas did not leave for Constantinople until the end of 1435. However, before Jonas arrived the Patriarch of Constantinople had already chosen Isidore the Apostate to become the Metropolitan of Russia.
After Isidore had been condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1441, for his support of Catholicism and the re-uniting of the Eastern and Western Churches, Vasili II confirmed Jonas' nomination for the metropolitan post, however, continuing internecine wars were to blame for the delay of his appointment. Jonas became Metropolitan only in 1448 and without the consent of the Patriarch of the Constantinople. This signified the establishment of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthdox Church (Jonas received the Patriach's benediction only after Constantinople's collapse in 1453). In 1451, Jonas took under his control the Lithuanian diocese.
Jonas was canonized by the Russian Church.