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'''Nikon of Moscow''' was [[patriarch]] of the [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]] from 1652 to 1658, during which years he oversaw and enforced extensive revision of the church service books and practices in Russia to bring them inline with the books and practices of the Churches of Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. His policies for enforcing the reforms caused a backlash from the defenders of the old practices and resulted in a long standing schism in the [[church]] that has been referred to as the ''Raskol'' with the defenders called ''[[Old Believers]]''.

The future Patriarch Nikon was born Nikita Minin on [[May 7]], 1605 into a peasant family in the village Valmanovo, near Nizhny Novgorod. His father, a farmer, was named Mina. Nikita's childhood was troubled and at one time he ran away from home to escape an inhumane stepmother. He was educated in a [[monastery]] and married before being [[ordination|ordained]] a [[priest]]. Through the efforts of Moscow merchants, impressed by Fr. Nikita's eloquence, he was transferred to a large Moscow [[parish]]. But, after losing his three small children during ten years of married life, he decided to enter a [[monastic]] life. Persuading his wife to become a nun, he entered the Solovetsky monastery on the White Sea, receiving the name Nikon upon taking his monastic vows.

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* [[w:Patriarch Nikon|Wikipedia:Patriarch Nikon]]

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11077b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Nikon]