Date of birth unknown; died June 19 (29), 1607, at Staritsa, in present-day Kalinin Oblast. First Russian patriach; appointed by Boris Godunov.

In 1588, Godunov succeeded in winning the approval of Jeremiah, the patriarch of Constantinople, for the establishment of a patriarchate in Russia, an act which strengthened the position of the Russian church. In January 1589, a church council in Moscow elected Iov as its first patriarch. After the death of Fedor Ivanovich in 1598, Iov encouraged the election of Boris as tsar. In June 1605, however, he was removed from his office and sent to Uspenskii Monastery in Staritsa by boyars who opposed the Godunovs and supported First False Dmitrii as tsar.