Patriarch Nikon

Nikon (1605–1681), born Nikita Minin to Mordvin peasants near Nizhny Novgorod, became the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' in 1652. After his three children died, he became a monk and took the name Nikon.

A confidant of Tsar Alexis, he largely ruled Russia during the Polish campaigns. From 1654 he convened councils that corrected the service books after Greek models, splitting conservatives into the Old Believers' Raskol.

His assertion of church supremacy over the tsar alienated Alexis, and in December 1667 the Great Moscow Synod deposed and exiled him north, while confirming his reforms. He died returning from exile in 1681.