Our father among the saints [[saint]]s '''Job''' ( + 1607) was the first [[Patriarch]] of Moscow and All Russia. He is commemorated by the Church on [[June 19]] and [[April 5]].

St Job was born into the family of pious tradesmen in Staritsa near Tver in the 1530s. His baptismal [[baptism]]al name was John. As a teenager, John knew most of the [[Bible|biblical ]] texts by heart and strove to become a [[monk]]. His father, however, insisted on his [[marriage]]. Once, John asked his father's permission to see his confessor in the Uspensky [[Monastery]] in their native town of Staritsa (Tver Oblast). Upon his arrival, John immediately took monastic vows and assumed the name of Job. He spent fifteen years in the cloister and finally became its [[abbot]] in 1566 with the help of Ivan the Terrible, who had made Staritsa his residence in times of the Oprichnina(secret police).

Realizing the necessity of strengthening the [[ecclesiology|ecclesiastic]] authority in [[Church of Russia|Russia]], Godunov managed to persuade the [[Patriarch]] of [[Constantinople]] [[Jeremias II of Constantinople|Jeremias II]] to establish a [[patriarchate]] in Russia. On [[January 26]], 1589, Job was elected the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He exercised all his influence and played a major part in Boris Godunov's ascending to the Russian throne.

Job did not approve, however, Godunov's proposal to open a university in Moscow with foreign professors because he believed their influence and non-[[Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] faith would cause "heterodoxy" and endanger the authority of the Russian Church. Under Job's supervision, the Russians corrected books for [[Liturgy|divine service]] and prepared them for publishing.

He assisted in glorification of some of the Russian [[saint]]s, ordering the celebration of the memory of [[Basil the Blessed|Basil Fool for Christ]] in 1588, as well as that of Joseph Volotsky and others. Job also favored the construction of new [[cathedral]]s and monasteries and Christian missionary activities in the recently conquered Astrakhan Khanate and Siberia. After the mysterious death of tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich in 1591, Jove accepted the non-criminal noncriminal version of his demise, supporting Boris Godunov every step of the way.

Job was known as a harsh critic of False Dmitriy I , and he tried to persuade the people of Moscow to remain loyal to the deceased tsar. The armed supporters of the impostor burst into the Cathedral of the Dormition , and a boyar named P.F.Basmanov declared Job a traitor. Job was sent into exile to his monastery in Staritsa, where he went completely blind and finally died a very sick man in 1607.

In 1652, Job's [[relicrelics]]s were transferred to the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Moscow Kremlin, where they remain to this day. Patriarch Job was [[canonisationcanonization|glorified]] as a [[saint]] by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1989.