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Simeon of Polotzk

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a Russian monk, poet, and ecclesiastical historian, was born at Polotzk in 1628, and was brought up by strangers; but after the capture of Smolensk he was called by the czar Alexis to educate his oldest son, and thus introduced a literary taste at the Kremlin. He composed dramas which were appreciated chiefly by Sophia, the intelligent sister of Peter I. When the emperor Theodore ascended the throne (1676), his preceptor obtained permission to establish a press in connection with the palace. He conceived the design of reforming the Church. Being suspected, not without reason, of Roman Catholic tendencies, he was protected by his pupil from the. animadversion of the Muscovite patriarch. We owe to Simeon several religious and poetical treatises, but the greater part of his works remain buried in the libraries of Moscow: and Novgorod. He died at Moscow, Aug. 25, 1680.