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Sylvester ( Russian: Сильвестр, romanized: Silvestr; secular name: Simeon Agafonovich Medvedev; 6 February 1641 – 21 February 1691) was a Russian writer, poet, and theologian. [1] He was a student of Simeon of Polotsk. [2]
Sylvester was born in Kursk; [2] he was first a podyachy in Kursk and then Moscow. [3] [4]
In 1665, he entered the newly established Slavic Greek Latin Academy of Simeon of Polotsk (1629–1680) in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, where he learnt Latin, poetics and rhetoric. [1] After Simeon's death, Sylvester re-established the school. In 1687, the school and the printing press schools were merged to form the Slavic Greek Latin Academy. [5]
Sylvester supported Sophia ( r. 1682–1689) during her regency and promoted the Roman Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, [6] which led to theological disputes during the 1680s. [7] In 1690, a sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the views of the Westernizing party. [6] After Sophia's overthrow, Sylvester was executed for high treason against Tsar Peter I. He was buried at the Zaikonospassky Monastery.