Metropolitan Macarius (born Mikhail Petrovich Bulgakov) was the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna in 1879-1882 and a member of many learned societies, including the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Background
Metropolitan Macarius was born on October 1, 1816, in the village Surkovo, Kursk province (Now Shebekinsky district, Belgorod region, Russian Federation) in a poor family of a rural priest, in which there were six children.
When the future Metropolitan was seven years old, his father died. Despite the need, the mother tried to educate the children.
Education
When he was 9 years old, Metropolitan Macarius was assigned to the parish Christian Ecclesiastical school. Then he was transferred to the Belgorod district Ecclesiastical school, which he graduated from in 1831.
Metropolitan Macarius graduated from the Kursk Ecclesiastical Seminary in 1837. In the last two years of his studies he was engaged in teaching in the lower classes of the same Seminary, and later in 1841 was graduated from the Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy.
Career
In 1841, Metropolitan Macarius graduated from the Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy, of which he served as a dean in 1851-1857. His popular student manual, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, steeped in the Latin methodology, was originally printed in 6 volumes in 1847-1853. In 1866 Macarius started the publication of his landmark History of the Russian Church, for which he is best remembered. The 12th volume of his magnum opus, covering the patriarchate of Nikon, was released posthumously.
Membership
Russian Academy of Sciences.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
His lifetime biographies described that in his adolescence Metropolitan Macarius was a sickly and incapacitated child - until the following event happened to him: when he once hid from his classmates who had been harassing him in the schoolyard, a stone was thrown into his head from nowhere, which cut "the cranial membrane on the head, producing strong bleeding", after which his health suddenly improved and his mental talents opened up.
Quotes from others about the person
According to Metropolitan Manuel: "The distinctive features of his character were kindness and gentleness. The kindness of his soul was manifested in practice in the form of donations of his funds for schools, for the construction of temples, for libraries, and other purposes. All the money that he received from his writings, he kept until he collected a significant amount (120 thousand rubles). Then he put this amount in the State credit institution for good and bequeathed after his death to establish annual bonuses for the promotion of domestic talents who devote themselves to the cause of science and General useful knowledge."