the Russian education, opening a school and a small theatre in Rostov, where his own plays could be staged. Work as composer Demetrius was also active as a composer, although his musical education is undocumented aside from the standard music curriculum established by Feofan Prokopovich at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Many of his Penitential Psalms achieved wide circulation, not only in the Ukraine but in the Balkans too, and many have become an integral part of Ukrainian folk-song tradition through the kobzari, itinerant blind singers. Demetrius is credited as composer or compiler of the first Russian opera, the six-hour-long Rostov Mysteries of 1705. Though this has been staged, notably by Boris Pokrovsky's Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre, in Moscow and at the Brighton Festival (1993), it may best be judged an oratorio on the lives of Russian saints. Its basis is the "Cheti-Minei" (Четьи-Минеи), published in four volumes in 1689, 1690, 1700 and 1705 — the same source that inspired Pushkin in 1825 to write Boris Godunov. Death Upon Demetrius' death, on 28 October 1709, his relics were placed at St. Jacob's Monastery, which his followers would rebuild as Demetrius' shrine. A fortress on the Don River was named after him; today it is known as Rostov-on-the-Don. References External links Chrysostom Press Translations of St Demetrius' Lives of the Saints Repose of St Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov Orthodox icon and synaxarion Uncovering of the relics of St Demetrius the Metropolitan of Rostov icon and synaxarion Prelate Demetrius of Rostov www.fatheralexander.org Christian writers 18th-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops Ukrainian Orthodox bishops Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox saints from Ukraine National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy alumni 1651 births 1709 deaths 18th-century Christian saints Russian Orthodox Christians from Ukraine