A monk, originally named Ioann, who has assumed the religious name of Job, had spent fifteen years in the cloister and finally became its abbot in 1566 with the help of Ivan the Terrible, who had made Staritsa his residence during the time of the Oprichnina.
Job was in 1571 transferred to Moscow and appointed abbot of the Simonov Monastery.
He became the abbot of the Novospassky Monastery in 1575, and in 1581 had been consecrated as Bishop of Kolomna.
Known as a person of mediocre mental abilities, he has nevertheless managed to draw the attention of Boris Godunov by his talent for reading the longest of prayers by heart in a very expressive manner.
He had been appointed archbishop of Rostov and Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia in 1587.
Godunov, realizing the necessity of strengthening the ecclesiastic authority in Russia, has managed to persuade the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremias II to establish a patriarchate in Russia.
Job is on January 26, 1589, elected the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
He will exercise all his influence and play a major part in Boris Godunov's ascension to the Russian throne.
Job does not approve, however, of Godunov's proposal to open a university in Moscow staffed with foreign professors because he believes their influence and non-Orthodox faith would spread heterodoxy and endanger the purity of the Russian Church.
Under Job's supervision, the Russians correct books for the divine services and prepare them for publication.
He assists in the canonization of some of the Russian saints, ordering the celebration of the memory of Basil Fool for Christ in 1588, as well as that of Joseph Volotsky and others.
As Patriarch, Job also favors the construction of new cathedrals and monasteries and Christian missionary activities in the recently conquered Astrakhan Khanate and Siberia.
