Avvakum Petrov, holy martyr

Avvakum Petrov; 20 November 1620/21 Ð 14 April 1682) (also spelled Awakum) was a Russian protopope of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. His autobiography and letters to the tsar, Boyarynya Morozova, and other Old Believers are considered masterpieces of 17th-century Russian literature.