St. Philip's commemoration is connected with the fact that he was a true pastor who stood up for the faith without fear of either reproach or death itself. St. Philip was born into the noble family of the Kolychev boyars. He knew wealth and honors, but when he reached the age of 30, he decided to devote himself to monasticism.
He walked from Moscow to the coast of the White Sea. And in order to feed himself, he took on any job. By Lake Onega, he tended sheep like a simple peasant. Then, he crossed to the Solovetsky Islands and became a novice at the Solovetsky Monastery. When he was tonsured a monk, he, feeling a vocation to hermitry, retired for a long time to the deserts 2 km away. from the monastery. The abbot and the brethren asked him to become the new abbot. Philip refused several times, but he was forced to assume the abbot's authority.
As head of the brotherhood, Philip brought the monastery's economy into perfect condition, built a stone pier, and was a strict but fair pastor. Under him, stone construction began on Solovki. Philip consecrated the first stone church in the name of the Dormition of the Most Pure Theotokos.
In 1566, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, who received the nickname of the Terrible in Russian history, called the pious abbot to Moscow. There, the council of bishops elevated him to the rank of metropolitan — Philip headed the entire Russian Church.
At that time, Tsar Ivan IV created the oprichnina, and the oprichniks carried out indiscriminate violence against those they saw as enemies of the tsar. Philip exhorted Ivan IV to renounce the shedding of blood for the sake of Christ. He did not agree. Then the metropolitan publicly, in the temple, refused him a blessing.
Philip was threatened with violence, but the metropolitan did not bless the tsar, considering his cruelty unchristian. The saint stood not against the emperor, but for the faith. He was falsely accused of being deposed from the metropolitan see, the insignia of his dignity was publicly stripped from his clothes and exiled to an Otroch monastery.
In December 1569, the leader of the oprichniks, Malyuta Skuratov, came to Philip at the Otroch monastery in Tver, and again asked for the tsar's blessing for the oprichniks. Philip refused. Seeing what was about to happen, he told Malyuta, "Do what you came for." The guard strangled the old man. Philip was buried in the monastery grounds.
Philip, despite the royal disgrace, began to be revered as a saint in the Solovetsky monastery. The son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, allowed the relics of Philip to be transported from the Otroch monastery to Solovki.
In 1652, Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod, the future patriarch, went to Solovki. There he read to the monks a letter in which Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich prayed to Philip for forgiveness for the long-dead Tsar Ivan IV. Philip's relics were delivered to Moscow. The people and the clergy welcomed them with joy. The tsar carried the coffin together with the bishops. The relics were placed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. Philip was glorified as a great saint.