The Transfer of the Relics of Sainted Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia

Commemorated on July 3

The Transfer of the Relics of Sainted Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia: After the martyr's death of Sainted Philip (+ 23 December 1570; the account about him is under 9 January), his body was buried at the Otrocha monastery, in Tver. The monks of the Solovetsk monastery, where formerly he was hegumen, in 1591 requested permission for the transfer of his relics to their monastery. The much-suffered and undecayed body was placed in a grave, prepared by Saint Philip for himself while still alive, beneathe the portico of a temple of the Monks Zosima and Savvatii of Solovetsk, nearby the grave of the starets-elder Jona (Shamin), his beloved guide in monastic deeds.
On 29 April 1649 a grammota by Patriarch Joseph was sent to the hegumen of the Solovetsk monastery, Ilia, concerning the solemn uncovering of the relics of the Sainted Wonderworker Philip. On 31 May the relics were transferred into a new reliquary and placed in the Preobrazhenie-Transfiguration cathedral.

In 1652 Nikon, then still the metropolitan of Novgorod, proposed that there be transferred to Moscow the relics of the three Martyr Sainted-hierarchs: Metropolitan Philip, and Patriarchs Job and Ermogen. With the blessing of Patriarch Joseph, Metropolitan Nikon set off in 1652 to Solovetsk for the relics of Saint Philip and solemnly conveyed them to Moscow. Into the hand of the saint was put a document (grammota) of repentance by tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, in which he besought the forgiveness of sins of his great-grandfather Ivan the Terrible, "transgressing" his own power afront the power of the Church. On 3 July the holy relics were met in Moscow: "a pastor, innocent and cast out, was returned to his own throne". In the Uspensky Sobor-cathedral "in his own centre-place he stood for 10 days" and all day from morning til night there were bells, just like on Pascha Sunday. Afterwards the holy relics were placed in the Uspensky Sobor at the south door of the altar.
At the place where the relics of Saint Philip were met in Moscow by clergy and people, a cross was set up, which gave its name to the Krestov-Cross Tollgate in Moscow (at the Rizhsk rail-station).