Philotheus of Pskov

Philotheus (or Filofei; Russian: Филофей; c. 1465 – 1542) was a hegumen of the Yelizarov Monastery, near Pskov, in the 16th century. He is credited with authorship of the Legend of the White Cowl and the Moscow, third Rome prophecy.

Quotes

... стараго убо Рима церкви падеся невѣрием аполинариевы ереси, втораго Рима, Константинова града церкви, Агаряне внуцы секирами и оскордъми разсѣкоша двери, сиа же нынѣ третиаго, новаго Рима, дръжавнаго твоего царствиа святая соборная апостольскаа церкви, иж в концых вселенныа в православной христианьстей вѣре во всей поднебесней паче солнца свѣтится.
- The Church of Old Rome has fallen through the unbelief of the Apollinarian heresy, and the Church of the Second Rome, the city of Constantinople, the Persians have struck with swords and axes and broken its doors. But now the Church of the Third, the new Rome, of your sovereign realm, the holy universal conciliar apostolic church, shines at the ends of the earth under the Orthodox Christian faith more than the sun shines on all under the sky.
- Epistle to Tsar Vasili III (c. 1510) from the Old Church Slavonic in MS. РНБ, Q.ХѴІІ.15, ff. 493–497

... и нынѣ глаголю: блюди и внемли, благочестивый царю, яко вся христианская царьства снидошася въ твое едино, яко два Рима падоша, а третей стоит, а четвертому не быти. Уже твое христианьское царство инѣм не останется, по великому Богослову, а христианской церкви исполнися блаженнаго Давыда глаголъ: „Се покой мой в вѣкъ вѣка, здѣ вселюся, яко изволих его“.
- And now I say unto Thee, take care and take heed, pious Tsar: all the empires of Christendom are united in thine. For two Romes have fallen, and the Third exists; and there will not be a fourth. Thy Christian Empire, according to the great theologian, will not pass away. And, for the Church, the word of the blessed David will be fulfilled: 'she is my place of eternal rest'.
- Epistle to Tsar Vasili III (c. 1510) tr. Dimitri Strémooukhoff, "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine", Speculum, vol. 28, no. 1 (January 1953) pp. 84–101. Reprinted in M. Cherniavsky, The Structure of Russian History: Interpretative Essays (New York, 1970) pp. 108–25

She flees into the third Rome which is the new great Russia, that is to say, the desert (pustynja), for it was empty (pusta) of the holy faith, the divine apostles not having preached there and it is only after all other countries that it has been enlightened by divine grace ..., and now, alone, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East shines more brightly than the sun in the universe, and only the great Orthodox Tsar of Russia, like Noah saved from the flood in the ark, directs the Church.
- Epistle to Munexin (c. 1520) tr. D. Strémooukhoff (1953)