Polycarp of Briansk was a Russian monastic of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who, before his tonsure, was a prince and military commander known in the world as Peter Ivanovich Boryatinsky. According to the synaxarion tradition, he was a descendant of Saint Michael, Prince of Chernigov. He renounced his rank and estate late in life, settled at Briansk, and founded a monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord, of which he became the first superior. He is commemorated on February 23.
Boryatinsky's name appears in Russian documents of the sixteenth century in connection with military and administrative service. He was sent to campaign against the Swedish king at the river Sestra and, in 1576, was appointed voevod, or military governor, at Tula. In 1580, while serving as voevod at Kholm, he was taken captive by the Lithuanians during a siege led by Panin. He was released during the rule of Boris Godunov and returned home in disgrace.
In 1591 he was again appointed voevod, this time at Tiumen in Siberia, but after several years he left worldly service entirely. Settling at Briansk, he received monastic tonsure with the name Polycarp and used his own means to build a monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord, where he instituted a rule of strict ascetic life. He died and was buried at the monastery he had founded, in either 1620 or 1621.
