By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the cultural influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. By the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the russian dating in chicago of Bulgarian and Byzantine priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival and life of the Russian state.

Despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the church. The reign of Ivan III and his successor was plagued by a number of heresies and controversies. One party, led by Nil Sorsky and Vassian Kosoy, called for the secularisation of monastic properties. In the 1540s, Metropolitan Macarius codified Russian hagiography and convened a number of church synods, which culminated in the Hundred Chapter Council of 1551. This Council unified church ceremonies and duties throughout the Moscow Church.