PHILOTHEUS OF PSKOV
(Philotheus)
This vision, known as "The Third Rome" saw not only Moscow as the seat of Christianity for the world, but saw the Czar as the Head of the Christian unified Church. Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims and Rome to the Barbarians and the Pope had virtually no power at the time. Particularly interesting is his vision of transforming a civil Emperor to the head of the Church—one who was strong and wealthy enough to end the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches and command all. In this sense, he was following the Muslim concept of a single secular and religious, all powerful, leader—like the Caliph.
Philotheus (or Filofei) (Russian: Филофей) (1465–1542) was a hegumen of the Yelizarov Monastery, near Pskov, in the 16th century. He is credited with authorship of the Legend of the White Cowl and the Moscow - Third Rome prophecy, details of which are very scarce. He is popularly known as the presumed author of the concept of Moscow as the Third Rome; Philotheus set out this thesis in his letters to the priest Mikhail Grigorievich Misyur-Munekhin and to Grand Duke Vasily III.
