Sylvester (Russian: Сильвестр, romanized: Silvestr; secular name: Simeon Agafonovich Medvedev; 6 February 1641 – 21 February 1691) was a Russian writer, poet, and theologian.
[3][4] In 1665, he entered the newly established Slavic Greek Latin Academy of Simeon of Polotsk (1629–1680) in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, where he learnt Latin, poetics and rhetoric.
[5] Sylvester supported Sophia (r. 1682–1689) during her regency and promoted the Roman Catholic understanding of the Eucharist,[6] which led to theological disputes during the 1680s.
[7] In 1690, a sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the views of the Westernizing party.
[6] After Sophia's overthrow, Sylvester was executed for high treason against Tsar Peter I.