Catherine I of Russia Catherine I of Russia Catherine I (, born , later known as Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya; – ) was the second wife of Peter the Great and Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death. The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Said to have been born on 15 April 1684 (o.s. 5 April), she was originally named Marta Helena Skowrońska. Marta was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński (later spelt "Samuil Skavronsky"), a Roman Catholic peasant from the Polish–Lithuanian
Church reform of Peter the Great century the majority of the Russian Orthodox Church was headed by people from Ukraine (Little Russia or Galicia). Between 1700 and 1762, out of the 127 hierarchs who headed cathedrals in Russia 70 were from Ukraine and only 47 from Russia (the rest originating from other regions). Peter I, known as "Peter the Great" (ruled 1682–1725), ushered in an era in which the church government was fundamentally transformed: instead of being governed by a patriarch or metropolitan, the government of the church came under the control of a committee known as the Most Holy Governing Synod, which was composed both