Imperial saint. Toward a history of the canonization of St. Metrophanes of Voronezh in 1832

In the Synodal era, the canonization of a righteous man was an extraordinary event: until the middle of the 19th century, only three saints were canonized. Moreover, in each of these cases, special attention was paid to the incorruptibility of the relics of the saint of God as an indispensable condition for the recognition of holiness. It is all the more interesting to trace how the canonization of Metrophanes of Voronezh, was carried out. It became urgently desired after many healings that took place through prayer to him during the cholera epidemic that occurred in Russia at the turn of the 1830s. Relying on archival sources and publications of periodicals that accompanied the preparation for canonization and the events that followed it, as well as the history of the compilation of the life of St. Metrophanes, the author traces this process in detail, paying close attention to the details of the canonization process, the imposed ideological roles of the personalities of Peter I and Nicholas I and their attention to St. Metrophanes, as well as the interaction of the diocesan authorities, the Holy Synod and the Russian Imperial House in organizing the canonization.