Family of Patriarch Alexy 2. Alexy II. Biographical note. Patriarch of new Russia

Childhood years (1929 - late 30s)

His Holiness His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia is the fifteenth Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since the introduction of the Patriarchate in Russia (1589). Patriarch Alexy (in the world - Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger) was born on February 23, 1929 in the city of Tallinn (Estonia) into a deeply religious family.

The father of Patriarch Alexy, Mikhail Alexandrovich Ridiger (+1962), a native of St. Petersburg, came from an old St. Petersburg family, whose representatives passed the glorious field of military and public service (among them was Adjutant General Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Ridiger - a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812).

Mikhail Alexandrovich studied at the School of Law, graduated from the gymnasium in exile in Estonia. The mother of His Holiness the Patriarch is Elena Iosifovna Pisareva (+1959), a native of Revel (Tallinn). In pre-war Europe, the life of the Russian emigration was poor, but material poverty did not interfere with the flourishing of cultural life.

Emigrant youth was distinguished by a high spiritual attitude. A huge role belonged to the Orthodox Church. The activity of the Church in the life of the Russian diaspora was high, as never before in Russia.

The religious community in the Russian diaspora has created an invaluable experience for Russia in the churching of various forms of cultural activity and social service. The Russian Student Christian Movement (RSKhD) was actively working among the youth. The movement had as its main goal the unification of believing youth for the service of the Orthodox Church, its task was to train the defenders of the Church and the faith, and affirmed the inseparability of genuine Russian culture from Orthodoxy.

In Estonia, the Movement operated on a large scale. As part of his activities, parish life actively developed. Russian Orthodox people willingly participated in the activities of the Movement. Among them was the father of the future His Holiness Patriarch.

From a young age, Mikhail Alexandrovich aspired to priestly service, but only after completing theological courses in Revel in 1940 was he ordained a deacon, and then a priest. For 16 years he was the rector of the Tallinn Nativity of the Mother of God of the Kazan Church, was a member, and later the chairman of the diocesan council.

In the family of the future Primate, the spirit of Russian Orthodox Churchness reigned, when life is inseparable from the temple of God and the family is truly a home church. For Alyosha Ridiger, there was no question of choosing a life path.

His first conscious steps were taken in the church, when he, as a six-year-old boy, performed his first obedience - poured baptismal water. Even then, he firmly knew that he would become only a priest. At the age of eight or nine he knew the Liturgy by heart and his favorite game was to serve.

Parents were embarrassed by this and even turned to the Valaam elders about this, but they were told that if everything is done seriously by a boy, then there is no need to interfere. Most of the Russians living in Estonia at that time were not, in fact, emigrants. Being natives of this region, they ended up abroad without leaving their homeland.

The peculiarity of the Russian emigration in Estonia was largely determined by the compact residence of Russians in the east of the country. Russian exiles scattered all over the world sought to visit here. By the grace of God, they found here a "corner of Russia", which contained the great Russian shrine - the Pskov-Caves Monastery, which, being outside the USSR at that time, was inaccessible to the godless authorities.

Annually making pilgrimages to the Pyukhtitsky Holy Dormition Convent for Women and the Pskov Caves Holy Dormition Monastery for men, the parents of the future His Holiness Patriarch took the boy with them.

In the late 1930s, together with their son, they made two pilgrimage trips to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga. For the rest of his life, the boy remembered meetings with the inhabitants of the monastery - the spirit-bearing elders Sheikhumen John (Alekseev, +1958), Hieroschemamonk Ephraim (Khrobostov, +1947) and especially with monk Iuvian (Krasnoperov, +1957), with whom a correspondence began and who received the youth in my heart.

Here is a short fragment from his letter to Alyosha Ridiger: Dear in the Lord, dear Alyoshenka! I sincerely thank you, my dear, for your greetings on the feast of the Nativity of Christ and the New Year, as well as for your good wishes. May the Lord God save you for all these spiritual gifts.<...>

If the Lord would vouchsafe all of you to come to us for Pascha, this would increase our Paschal joy. Let's hope that the Lord, in His great mercy, will do it. We also remember all of you with love: for us, you are like our own, kindred in spirit. Forgive me, dear Alyoshenka! Be healthy! May the Lord keep you! In your pure childish prayer, remember me, the unworthy one. Sincerely loving you in the Lord m. Juvian.

Thus, at the very beginning of his conscious life, the future First Hierarch touched with his soul the pure spring of Russian holiness, “the wondrous island of Valaam.”

Through the monk Juvian, a spiritual thread connects our Patriarch with the Guardian Angel of Russia, St. John of Kronstadt. It was with the blessing of this great lamp of the earth that the Russian father Iuvian became a Valaam monk, and of course he told the boy Alyosha, dear to his heart, about the great shepherd.

This connection reminded of itself half a century later - the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990, which elected His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, glorified the righteous John of Kronstadt among the saints.

Youth. Study, early ministry (late 30s - late 50s)

The path that the saints of the Russian land have traveled for centuries - the path of pastoral service, originating from the churched childhood in Christ - was banned under the Soviet regime.

The Providence of God for our current Primate built his life from birth in such a way that life in Soviet Russia was preceded by childhood and adolescence in old Russia (as far as it was then possible), and the young, but in spirit mature and courageous warrior of Christ met with Soviet reality.

From early childhood, Alexey Ridiger served in the church. His spiritual father was Archpriest John the Epiphany, later Bishop Isidor of Tallinn and Estonia (+1949). From the age of fifteen, Alexy was a subdeacon of the Archbishop of Tallinn and Estonia, Pavel (Dmitrovsky; +1946), and then of Bishop Isidore. He studied at a Russian high school in Tallinn.

His Holiness the Patriarch recalls that he always had a five according to the Law of God. The family was his fortress and support both in choosing the path and throughout the entire priestly service. Not only the bonds of kinship, but also the bonds of spiritual friendship connected him with his parents, they shared all the experiences with each other ...

In 1936, the Tallinn Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, whose parishioners were the parents of the future Primate, was transferred to the Estonian parish. The history of this temple is long-suffering: immediately after the proclamation of the Republic of Estonia in 1918, a campaign began to liquidate the cathedral - they collected money "for the demolition of churches with Russian golden onions and booths of Russian Gods" (Orthodox chapels) even in children's schools.

But the destruction of the cathedral was opposed by the public, Russian and international, as well as the Red Cross. Then a new wave arose: to demolish the domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, put up a spire and create a “pantheon of Estonian independence” there. Illustrations were published in an architectural magazine: a view of the city without "Russian bulbs", but with the "pantheon of Estonian independence".

These illustrations were preserved by the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and at one time were useful for saving the cathedral, when the authorities of already Soviet Estonia set out to convert the temple into a planetarium (the demonstration of the intentions of the bourgeois authorities regarding the use of the cathedral discouraged the Soviet rulers).

In 1936, the gilding was removed from the domes. In this form, the cathedral existed until the war. In 1945, subdeacon Alexy was instructed to prepare for the opening of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city of Tallinn for the resumption of services in it (the cathedral was closed during the military occupation period).

From May 1945 to October 1946 he was the altar boy and sacristan of the cathedral. Since 1946, he served as a psalmist in Simeonovskaya, and since 1947 - in the Kazan churches of Tallinn. In 1946, Alexy Ridiger passed the exams to the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Theological Seminary, but was not accepted, because at that time he was not yet eighteen years old.

The following year, 1947, he was enrolled immediately in the 3rd year of the seminary, from which he graduated in the first category in 1949. Being in his first year at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, on April 15, 1950, he was ordained a deacon, and on April 17, 1950, a priest and was appointed rector of the Epiphany Church in the city of Johvi, Tallinn diocese.

For more than three years, he combined the ministry of the parish priest with correspondence studies at the academy. In 1953, Father Alexy graduated from the Theological Academy in the first category and was awarded the degree of Candidate of Theology for his term paper “Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov) as a dogmatist.”

On July 15, 1957, Father Alexy was appointed rector of the Dormition Cathedral in the city of Tartu (Yuriev) and during the year combined his ministry in two churches. He served in Tartu for four years.

Tartu is a university city, quiet in the summer and lively in the winter when students arrive. His Holiness the Patriarch kept a good memory of the old Yuryev university intelligentsia, who actively participated in church life. It was a living connection with old Russia. On August 17, 1958, Father Alexy was elevated to the rank of archpriest.

In 1959, on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the mother of His Holiness the Patriarch died. She had a difficult cross in her life - to be the wife and mother of a priest in an atheistic state. Prayer was a reliable refuge and consolation - every day Elena Iosifovna read an akathist in front of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow." Mother Elena Iosifovna was buried in Tartu, and buried in Tallinn, at the Alexander Nevsky cemetery - the resting place of several generations of her ancestors. Father and son were left alone.

episcopal ministry

On March 3, 1961, in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archpriest Alexy Ridiger took monastic vows. Soon, by the decision of the Holy Synod of August 14, 1961, Hieromonk Alexy was determined to become the bishop of Tallinn and Estonia with the assignment of temporary administration of the Riga diocese.

On August 21, 1961, Hieromonk Alexy was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. On September 3, 1961, Archimandrite Alexy (Ridiger) was consecrated as Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia, temporarily administrator of the Diocese of Riga.

It was a difficult time - the height of Khrushchev's persecution. The Soviet leader, trying to revive the revolutionary spirit of the twenties, demanded the literal implementation of the anti-religious legislation of 1929. It seemed that the pre-war times had returned with their "five-year plan of godlessness." It is true that the new persecution of Orthodoxy was not bloody — the ministers of the Church and the Orthodox laity were not exterminated as before, but the newspapers, radio and television spewed streams of blasphemy and slander against the faith and the Church, while the authorities and the “public” persecuted and persecuted Christians. Across the country there was a massive closure of temples. The already small number of religious educational institutions has sharply decreased.

In February 1960, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, in his speech at the conference of the Soviet public for disarmament, addressed millions of Orthodox Christians over the heads of those gathered in the Kremlin. Calling on them to persevere in the face of new persecutions, His Holiness the Patriarch said: “In such a state of the Church, there is much comfort for its faithful members, for what can all the efforts of the human mind against Christianity mean if its two thousand-year history speaks for itself, if hostile against Christ Himself foresaw his attacks and gave the promise of the unshakableness of the Church, saying that "the gates of hell will not prevail against her!"

In those difficult years for the Russian Church, the older generation of bishops who began their ministry in pre-revolutionary Russia left this world — confessors who went through Solovki and the hellish circles of the Gulag, archpastors who went into exile abroad and returned to their homeland after the war... They were replaced by a galaxy of young bishops, among whom was Bishop Alexy of Tallinn. These bishops, who did not see the Russian Church in power and glory, chose the path of serving the persecuted Church, which was under the yoke of a godless state. The authorities invented ever new methods of economic and police pressure on the Church, but the faithfulness of the Orthodox to Christ's commandment became an invincible fortress for her: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

On November 14, 1961, Bishop Alexy was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. Already at the very beginning of his hierarchical service, the young bishop was faced with the decision of the local authorities to close and transfer the Pukhtitsky Assumption Monastery to a rest home. However, he managed to convince the Soviet authorities of the impossibility for the bishop to start the service with the closing of the monastery. At the beginning of 1962, already the deputy chairman of the DECR, Bishop Alexy brought a delegation of the Evangelical Church of Germany to the monastery. At that time, his father was lying with a heart attack, but the bishop had to accompany foreign guests - after all, it was about saving the monastery. Soon there were rave reviews about the Pühtitsky monastery in the newspaper Neue Zeit. Then there was another delegation, a third, a fourth, a fifth... And the question of closing the monastery was removed.

Recalling those years, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy says: “God alone knows how much each of the clergy who remained in Soviet Russia, and did not go abroad, had to endure... they were shot, but how much they had to endure, defending the interests of the Church, God and history will judge. During the 25 years of Vladyka Alexy's episcopal service in Estonia, with God's help, he managed to defend a lot. But then the enemy was known - he was alone. And the Church had ways of internal opposition to him.

Having ascended the Patriarchal Throne, His Holiness faced a completely different situation: in the modern complex world, with its social, political and national problems, the Church has many new enemies. On June 23, 1964, Bishop Alexy was elevated to the rank of archbishop and at the end of 1964 he was appointed manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate and became a permanent member of the Holy Synod.

His Holiness the Patriarch recalls: “For nine years I was close to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, whose personality left a deep impression on my soul. At that time, I held the post of Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate, and His Holiness the Patriarch fully entrusted me with the solution of many internal issues. The most difficult trials fell to his lot: revolution, persecution, repressions, then, under Khrushchev, new administrative persecutions and the closure of churches. The modesty of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, his nobility, high spirituality - all this had a huge impact on me. The last divine service that he performed shortly before his death was in 1970 at the Candlemas.

In the Patriarchal residence in Chisty Lane, after his departure, the Gospel was left, revealed in the words: "Now let Thy servant go, Lord, according to Thy word in peace ...".

From March 10, 1970 to September 1, 1986, he carried out the general management of the Pension Committee, whose task was to provide pensions for the clergy and other persons working in church organizations, as well as their widows and orphans. On June 18, 1971, in consideration of the diligent efforts to hold the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, Metropolitan Alexy was awarded the right to wear a second panagia.

Metropolitan Alexy performed responsible functions as a member of the Commission for the preparation and holding of the celebration of the 50th anniversary (1968) and 60th anniversary (1978) of the restoration of the Patriarchate in the Russian Orthodox Church; a member of the Commission of the Holy Synod for the preparation of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, as well as the chairman of the procedural and organizational group, the chairman of the secretariat of the Local Council; since December 23, 1980, he has been deputy chairman of the Commission for the preparation and holding of the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia and chairman of the organizational group of this commission, and since September 1986 - the theological group.

On May 25, 1983, he was appointed chairman of the Responsible Commission to develop measures for receiving the buildings of the Danilov Monastery ensemble, organizing and carrying out all restoration and construction work to create the Spiritual and Administrative Center of the Russian Orthodox Church on its territory. He stayed in this position until his appointment to the St. Petersburg (at that time - Leningrad) department.

In 1984, Bishop Alexy was awarded the title of Doctor of Theology. The three-volume work “Essays on the History of Orthodoxy in Estonia” was submitted by him for the degree of master of theology, but the LDA Academic Council unanimously decided that, since “the dissertation in terms of depth of research and the volume of material significantly exceeds the traditional criteria for a master’s work” and “on the eve of 1000 anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, this work can form a special chapter in the study of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church”, then the author deserves a higher academic degree than the one for which he submitted it.

“The dissertation is a comprehensive work on the history of Orthodoxy in Estonia, it contains a huge church historical material, the presentation and analysis of events meet the high criteria for doctoral dissertations,” was the conclusion of the Council. On April 12, 1984, a solemn act of presenting the Doctor's Cross to Metropolitan Alexy of Tallinn and Estonia took place.

At the Leningrad department

On June 29, 1986, Vladyka Alexy was appointed Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod with instructions to govern the Tallinn diocese. Thus began another era in his life.

The reign of the new bishop became a turning point for the church life of the northern capital. At first, he was faced with a complete disregard for the Church by the city authorities, he was not even allowed to pay a visit to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council - the representative of the Council for Religious Affairs stated harshly: “This has never happened in Leningrad and cannot be.” But a year later, the same chairman, at a meeting with Metropolitan Alexy, said: "The doors of the Leningrad Council are open for you day and night." Soon, representatives of the authorities themselves began to come to see the ruling bishop - this was how the Soviet stereotype was broken. Since January 24, 1990, Vladyka Alexy has been a member of the board of the Soviet Charity and Health Foundation; Since February 8, 1990, he has been a member of the Presidium of the Leningrad Cultural Foundation.

From the Charity and Health Foundation in 1989 he was elected a people's deputy of the USSR. During the administration of the St. Petersburg diocese, Vladyka Alexy managed to do a lot: the chapel of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg at the Smolensk cemetery, and the St. John Monastery on Karpovka were restored and consecrated.

During the tenure of His Holiness the Patriarch as Metropolitan of Leningrad, the canonization of Blessed Xenia of Petersburg took place, churches, churches and monasteries began to return, in particular, the holy relics of the Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, St. Zosima, Savvaty and Herman of Solovetsky were returned.

Activities in the international field

During all the years of his hierarchal service, the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy took an active part in the activities of many international organizations and conferences.

As part of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church, he participated in the III Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in New Delhi (1961); was elected a member of the Central Committee of the WCC (1961-1968); was president of the World Conference "Church and Society" (Geneva, Switzerland, 1966); member of the commission "Faith and order" of the WCC (1964-1968).

As the head of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church, he participated in theological interviews with the delegation of the Evangelical Church in Germany "Arnoldshain-II" (Germany, 1962), in theological interviews with the delegation of the Union of Evangelical Churches in the GDR "Zagorsk-V" (Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1984 ), in theological interviews with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in Leningrad and the Pyukhtitsky Monastery (1989).

For more than a quarter of a century, Archbishop and Metropolitan Alexy has dedicated his writings to the activities of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). Since 1964 he has been one of the presidents (members of the presidium) of the CEC; was re-elected president at subsequent general assemblies. Since 1971, Metropolitan Alexy has been Vice-Chairman of the Presidium and Advisory Committee of the CEC. On March 26, 1987, he was elected chairman of the Presidium and Advisory Committee of the CEC. At the VIII General Assembly of the CEC in Crete in 1979, Metropolitan Alexy was the keynote speaker on the theme "In the power of the Holy Spirit to serve the world." Since 1972, Metropolitan Alexy has been a member of the Joint Committee of the CEC and the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Europe (SECE) of the Roman Catholic Church. On May 15-21, 1989, in Basel, Switzerland, Metropolitan Alexy was co-chairman of the First European Ecumenical Assembly on the theme "Peace and Justice", organized by CEC and SEKE. In September 1992, at the Tenth General Assembly of the CEC, the term of office of Patriarch Alexy II as chairman of the CEC expired. His Holiness spoke at the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz (Austria) in 1997.

Metropolitan Alexy was the initiator and chairman of four seminars of the Churches of the Soviet Union - members of the CEC and the Churches that maintain cooperation with this regional Christian organization. Seminars were held at the Assumption Pyukhtitsky Convent in 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1989.

Metropolitan Alexy took an active part in the work of international and domestic peacekeeping public organizations. Since 1963 - a member of the board of the Soviet Peace Fund, a member of the constituent assembly of the Rodina society, at which he was elected a member of the society's council on December 15, 1975; re-elected on May 27, 1981 and December 10, 1987.

On October 24, 1980, at the V All-Union Conference of the Society of Soviet-Indian Friendship, he was elected vice-president of this Society.

Delegate of the World Christian Conference "Life and Peace" (April 20-24, 1983, Uppsala, Sweden). Elected at this conference as one of its presidents.

It was up to the future First Hierarch in his Patriarchal ministry to revive church life already on an all-Russian scale.

On May 3, 1990, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Pimen reposed in the Lord. An extraordinary Local Council was convened to elect a new Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. On June 7, 1990, the bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra announced the election of the fifteenth All-Russian Patriarch. The enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy took place on June 10, 1990 at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow.

The return of the Church to broad public service is largely the merit of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. Truly providential events followed one after another: the finding of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, their solemn transfer to Diveevo, when, according to the saint’s prediction, Easter was sung in the middle of summer; finding the relics of St. Joasaph of Belgorod and returning them to Belgorod, finding the relics of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and solemnly transferring them to the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, finding the relics of St. Philaret of Moscow and St. Maximus the Greek in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, finding the incorruptible relics of St. Alexander Svirsky.

These miraculous acquisitions testify to the fact that a new, amazing period has begun in the life of our Church, they testify to the blessing of God on the service of Patriarch Alexy II.

As co-chairman, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy joined the Russian organizing committee for the preparations for the meeting of the third millennium and the celebration of the two millennium of Christianity (1998-2000). On the initiative and with the participation of His Holiness the Patriarch, an inter-confessional conference "Christian Faith and Human Enmity" was held (Moscow, 1994). His Holiness the Patriarch chaired the conference of the Christian Interfaith Consultative Committee “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Christianity on the Threshold of the Third Millennium” (1999); Interreligious peacemaking forum (Moscow, 2000).

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy was Chairman of the Patriarchal Synodal Biblical Commission, Editor-in-Chief of the Orthodox Encyclopedia and Chairman of the Supervisory and Church Scientific Councils for the publication of the Orthodox Encyclopedia, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Charitable Foundation for Reconciliation and Harmony, and headed the Board of Trustees of the National Military Fund.

During the years of his hierarchal service in the rank of Metropolitan and Patriarch Alexy II visited many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church and countries of the world, was a participant in many church events. Several hundred of his articles, speeches and works on theological, church-historical, peacemaking and other topics have been published in the ecclesiastical and secular press in Russia and abroad. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy headed the Councils of Bishops in 1992, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2008, and invariably presided over the meetings of the Holy Synod.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy paid great attention to the training of clergy for the Russian Orthodox Church, the religious education of the laity, and the spiritual and moral education of the younger generation. To this end, with the blessing of His Holiness, theological seminaries, theological schools, and parochial schools are being opened; structures are being created for the development of religious education and catechesis. In 1995, the dispensation of church life made it possible to approach the reconstruction of the missionary structure.

His Holiness paid great attention to the establishment in Russia of new relations between the state and the Church. At the same time, he firmly adhered to the principle of separation between the mission of the Church and the functions of the state, non-interference in the internal affairs of each other. At the same time, he believed that the soul-saving service of the Church and the service of the state to society require mutually free interaction between church, state and public institutions.

After many years of persecution and restrictions, the Church was given back the opportunity to carry out not only catechism, religious, educational and educational activities in society, but also to carry out charity towards the poor and the ministry of mercy in hospitals, nursing homes and places of detention.

The pastoral approach of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy removed the tension between the institutions of the state system for the preservation of cultural monuments and the Church, which was caused by unjustified fears, narrowly corporate or personal interests. His Holiness signed a number of joint documents with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the leadership of individual museum complexes located on the territory of church-historically and spiritually significant monasteries, which resolve these problems and give the monasteries a new life.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy called for close cooperation between representatives of all areas of secular and ecclesiastical culture. He constantly reminded of the need to revive morality and spiritual culture, to overcome artificial barriers between secular and religious culture, secular science and religion.

A number of joint documents signed by His Holiness laid the foundation for the development of cooperation between the Church and the health and welfare systems, the Armed Forces, law enforcement agencies, justice, cultural institutions and other state structures. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, a coherent church system has been created for the care of military personnel and law enforcement officers.

In the course of political, social and economic reforms, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II constantly spoke about the priority of moral goals over all others, about the advantage of serving the good of society and a particular person in political and economic activity.

Continuing the tradition of Christian peacemaking service, during the socio-political crisis in Russia in the autumn of 1993, fraught with the threat of civil war, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia took on the mission of appeasing political passions, inviting the parties to the conflict to the negotiations and mediating these negotiations.

The Patriarch came up with many peacekeeping initiatives in connection with the conflicts in the Balkans, the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation, the hostilities in Moldova, the events in the North Caucasus, the situation in the Middle East, the military operation against Iraq, the military conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008, and so on. Further.

During the time of the Patriarchal service, a large number of new dioceses were formed. Thus, many centers of spiritual and church-administrative leadership arose, located closer to parishes and helping to revive church life in remote regions.

As the ruling bishop of the city of Moscow, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II paid much attention to the revival and development of intra-diocesan and parish life. These works have largely become a model for organizing diocesan and parish life in other places. Along with the tireless intra-Church organization, in which he constantly called for more active and responsible participation of all members of the Church, without exception, on a truly conciliar basis, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church paid great attention to the issues of fraternal cooperation of all Orthodox Churches for joint witness to the Truth of Christ to the world.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy considered cooperation between different Christian denominations for the needs of the modern world to be a Christian duty and a way to the fulfillment of Christ's commandment of unity. Peace and harmony in society, to which Patriarch Alexy tirelessly called, necessarily included benevolent mutual understanding and cooperation between adherents of different religions and worldviews.

ALEXII II (Ridiger Alexei Mikhailovich) (February 23, 1929, Tallinn - December 5, 2008, Moscow), Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1990). Born into a Russian immigrant family. The son of a priest. From the age of 6 he served in the temple. He studied at the Leningrad Theological Seminary (1947-49) and the Academy (1949-53), where he was ordained in 1950 to the deacon, then to the priest. Appointed rector of the Epiphany Church in Jõhvi, Estonia. He combined parish ministry with studies at the academy. PhD in Theology (1953). Rector of the Assumption Cathedral in Tartu (1957), archpriest (1958), dean of the Tartu-Viljandi district of the Tallinn diocese (since 1959). 3/3/1961 in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra he received monastic tonsure with the name Alexy. Ordained Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia (September 3, 1961). Archbishop (23.6.1964). He combined the head of the diocese with the posts: Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (since November 14, 1961), Manager of the Moscow Patriarchate (December 22, 1964–July 29, 1986) and Permanent Member of the Synod, Chairman of the Educational Committee (May 7, 1965–10/16/1986). Metropolitan (25.2.1968). In the years of old age of the patriarch Alexy I , and later, with a serious illness of the patriarch Pimena , on A. as the manager of affairs fell the burden of making independent decisions regarding church administration.

In the 1960s and 70s A. gained authority in international church circles. In 1961, at the 3rd Assembly of the WCC in New Delhi, A. was elected a member of the Central Committee of the WCC. Participated in various interchurch, ecumenical, peacemaking forums; led the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church; participated in theological conferences, interviews, dialogues. President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) (since 1964), Chairman of the Presidium and Advisory Committee of the CEC (since 1987).

Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod (July 29, 1986), retaining control of the Tallinn Diocese. Achieved the return of the ROC former. Ioannovsky monastery. Nar. dep. USSR (since 1989). Member Committee for International Peace Prizes (since 1989).

At the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on June 7, 1990, he was elected Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia by secret ballot. Enthroned on June 10, 1990 at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow. The primatial ministry of A. II was marked by the normalization of relations with the state authorities of the USSR, and then - the Russian Federation. DuringAugust crisis 1991 and October crisis 1993 A. II invariably acted as a peacemaker. In October 1993, in the Danilov Monastery, under the chairmanship of A. II, negotiations were held between representatives of the warring parties. The most important event of the Patriarchate of A. II was the restoration of canonical communion between the Russian Orthodox Church andRussian Orthodox Church Abroad (2007).

During the patriarchate of A. II, a revival of church life took place: the number of parishes increased from 6,800 to 29,141 (2008); monasteries - from 18 to 769 (2008); theological schools - 30 times, approaching 100, more than 11,000 Sunday schools have been opened, approx. 500 Orthodox Youth Centers (2008). The restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, carried out under his leadership, became a symbol of the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church during this period.

More than 500 church-historical and theological works of A. II have been published in the ecclesiastical and secular press in the USSR, Russia, and abroad. A serious scientific contribution to church history was the study Essays on the History of Orthodoxy in Estonia, for which A. II was awarded the degree of Doctor of Church History in 1984. In 2000–2008 editor-in-chief« Orthodox Encyclopedia".

He was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian activity (2006), the highest orders of the Russian Orthodox Church, other local Orthodox churches, as well as the highest state awards, including the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd (1997) and 1st (2004) degrees, St. Andrew the First-Called (1999) and others, state awards of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Moldova, Estonia. Since 2008, the Synodal Library of the Russian Orthodox Church bears the name of A. II.

He was buried in the Elokhov Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II was married. But this fact is not in any of his official biography.

In the picturesque suburb of Tallinn, Nõmme, a woman lives in a modest rural house. She looks much younger than her years (and she is almost 72), friends call her an exceptionally worthy person. She raised three children from her second marriage, buried her second husband. And few people know that in her first marriage she was the wife of the current Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II (then a student of the Leningrad Theological Academy Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger).

Of course, the patriarch, like any bishop, is not married: since the 7th century, the church has demanded celibacy from its bishops. But this does not mean that he did not have the right to be married before he became a monk. Today, among the episcopate of the Russian Church, there are many who were once widowed or divorced for some reason. So, from the widowed archpriests, Archbishop Sophrony (Budko) of Kemerovo, the recently deceased Archbishops Meliton (Soloviev) of Tikhvin and Mikhail (Mudyugin) of Vologda became bishops. The marriage between the Archbishop of Tambov Yevgeny (Zhdan) and the Metropolitan of Kursk Yuvenaly (Tarasov) did not work out, the latter raised his two children himself. Even one new martyr came out of the widowed archpriests - Metropolitan of Kazan and Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, recently canonized Kirill (Smirnov).

Such a fate is not considered something reprehensible among the Orthodox. The fact of marriage often finds its place in the official biographies of Russian bishops. However, there is not a single word in any official text about the life of Patriarch Alexy that he was also married. You can read that after the first visit to the Valaam Monastery in 1938, the future patriarch dreamed of becoming a monk at the age of 11.

The wife of the Patriarch Vera Georgievna Alekseeva (Myannik by her second husband) was born in the same year 1929 as Alexei Mikhailovich (he - 23.02, she - 2.12), in the family of Georgy Mikhailovich Alekseev. The father-in-law of the patriarch, a Petersburger by birth (01/20/1892), a technologist by education, graduated from the Petrograd Theological Academy in 1918 and ended up in exile in Estonia. In 1931, he became a priest and for a long time served as rector of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn, where the future patriarch once served as an altar boy.

The wedding took place on April 11, 1950, when the future patriarch was still a first-year student at the academy. There is a record of the marriage in the Tallinn archives, but we do not present it, since according to Estonian laws it can be made public only by a court decision or with the consent of relatives. On the same day, the young were married by their fathers - Mikhail Ridiger (also a priest) and Georgy Alekseev. By the way, some Orthodox think that parents should not marry their children: it is supposedly a bad omen and the marriage will be unhappy. But in this case, something else is much more interesting: the date of the wedding. Easter in 1950 fell on April 9, April 11 is Bright Tuesday, and according to church rules, they don’t get married during the entire Easter week: you have to wait for the so-called Antipascha or Krasnaya Gorka (the Sunday following Easter; in 1950 - April 16).

What made a student of the Theological Academy and two respected priest-fathers violate the canon? Apparently, Alexei Mikhailovich was in a hurry to receive a priesthood, which cannot be accepted before the wedding. Indeed, four days later, on April 15, the future patriarch is ordained a deacon, and on April 17, a priest. Why such a hurry, why not wait a few days and do everything according to the rules? The deceased inspector of the Leningrad Theological Academy Lev Pariysky (1892 - 1972) believed that he knew the truth. In the archives of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, his letter (in other words, a denunciation) has been preserved "To the Commissioner of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Leningrad and the Leningrad Region A.I. Kushnarev":

"In L.D.A. (Leningrad Theological Academy. - Approx. Aut.) There was a case of consecration to the priesthood in order to evade serving in the Soviet army. Ridiger A.M., born in 1929, was subject to conscription for military service in 1950. Being the fiancé of the daughter of Archpriest G. Alekseev of Tallinn, Ridiger A. wanted to get rid of military service.Having learned for sure a few days about the draft into the army, Ridiger, Archpriest Alekseev and Bishop Roman of Tallinn begged Metropolitan Gregory to agree to marry Ridiger on Tuesday during the Easter week, when marriage is forbidden according to the Church Charter.

Ridiger was married in the Academic Church on Tuesday of Easter week 1950, was hastily promoted to deacon, then to the priesthood by Bishop Roman, and appointed to the Estonian parish of St. Johva, Balt. railway, Narvskaya st., E 102.

Indeed, until 1950, students of theological educational institutions were granted a deferment from the army. In 1950, it was canceled and they did not begin to call only persons in holy orders. Let's not forget that the future patriarch Alexei Ridiger was born in bourgeois Estonia, did not go to a Soviet school, literally just found himself in the country of victorious socialism, and in this sense he was hardly mentally ready to go to serve in the Soviet army.

What made the inspector of the Theological Academy write a denunciation of the future patriarch and his own student, and even a few months after the wedding? Does the stated version correspond to reality? We will probably never know for sure. But the document puts forward a humanly understandable version of the reasons for the haste with marriage and ordination. It is worth adding that the official biographies of Alexy II known to us contain the phrase: "He was recognized as not liable for military service due to heart disease."

The marriage of Alexei Mikhailovich and Vera Georgievna did not last long: the young couple broke up in the same 1950. The reasons for the divorce are shrouded in mystery. If the marriage really was concluded under the pressure of external circumstances, then it is clear that it could not be lasting.

The collapse of the young family caused a serious discord between the Alekseevs and the Ridigers, as evidenced by the recollections of eyewitnesses.

It is worth adding that marriage was not the result of a youthful impulse, this choice was a family affair. The diary entries of one of the late professors of the Leningrad Theological Academy, preserved in the archives, testify that Elena Iosifovna, the mother of the future patriarch, considered another girl, Irina Ponomareva, to be the “best bride” for her son. The piquancy of the situation lies in the fact that this same Irina in 1951 became the second wife of the inspector of the Leningrad Theological Academy, Archpriest Alexei Osipov. Subsequently, Osipov defiantly broke with the church (those were the times of "scientific" atheism and "Khrushchev's persecution") and moved to the position of militant atheism. He became the most famous apostate of the Soviet era, wrote several atheistic books. The trusting relationship between Irina Ponomareva and Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger is evidenced by Irina's letters to friends, where she calls him Lesha even after he became a priest.

The former father-in-law of the patriarch, Archpriest Georgy Alekseev, was widowed in 1952, which sealed his fate. At the end of 1955, the Synod appointed him Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia. On December 17, 1955, he takes monastic vows with the name John, and on December 25, his episcopal consecration takes place. All this time, from 1950 to 1957, Priest Alexei, the future patriarch, was rector of a small parish in the Estonian town of Johvi. However, in 1957, his former father-in-law promoted him: he elevated him to the rank of archpriest and appointed rector and dean in the large city of Tartu. The fears of the Ridiger family regarding a possible bad attitude from former relatives were not confirmed.

However, in August - September 1961 the following occurs. The former father-in-law, Bishop John (Alekseev), is appointed to Gorky, and his place is taken by ... the former son-in-law - the future patriarch! This family continuity could have made a touching impression, if not for one circumstance. The appointment of bishops from widowed or divorced priests, as we have already said, is a common thing. However, most often candidates for the position of bishop accept monasticism after the decision of the Synod: immediately before episcopal consecration. Here it happened before. On August 14, 1961, Hieromonk Alexy (Ridiger) was appointed Bishop of Tallinn by the Synod. But he accepted monasticism on March 3 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

The ordination of the future patriarch to the bishopric took place in Tallinn on September 3, 1961. The service was headed by Bishop Nikodim (Rotov), ​​who is officially considered the "founder" of Alexy's career, and, as if by an irony of fate, the former father-in-law, Archbishop John, also participated in the ordination. It can be assumed that at this service in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the ex-wife Vera also stood in her favorite place at the left kliros.

The transfer of John (Alekseev) to the Volga had a detrimental effect on his health. In 1963, a year and a half after the transfer, he fell ill, retired in 1965, and died on June 16, 1966. On June 21, he was buried in Tallinn, and this was done by the former son-in-law, Bishop Alexy (Ridiger). The daughter of one and the ex-wife of the other, probably, again stood somewhere nearby ...

It is difficult to imagine what made the patriarch delete the episode of his married life with this woman from his official biography. Purely humanly, such a fact cannot harm the image of any normal person. Not in society, not in church.

4. 09. 2009, Portal-Credo. en On September 4, Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, entered into a correspondence debate on his blog with the famous Russian actor Stanislav Sadalsky, who claims in his interview to Sobesednik that Patriarch Alexy II died a violent death. And making it clear that the current primate of the ROC MP is somehow involved in this.

As the correspondent of Portal-Credo.Ru reports, commenting on Sadalsky's reference to the statement of the protodeacon himself about concealing the true circumstances of the death of the Patriarch, Fr. Andrew writes:

"I did not mean the murder of the Patriarch at all." Of the two initial versions of the death of Alexy II, the protodeacon recognizes the version of a heart attack as partly correct: “As such, a heart attack would not have killed the patriarch. It just happened in the most inconvenient circumstances for help ... "

At the same time, he admits: “It is possible that there was no attack at all. It's just that an elderly person, at some kind of turn or sudden movement, for a second lost coordination of movements - and fell. But, falling, the back of his head hit the corner of the chair. And this corner interrupted the vein.

Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev also reports that on the walls of the room in which the Patriarch was at the time of death, there were “bloody marks from his hands.” The professor testifies that Alexy II himself created the conditions that prevented him from being helped: “It was in the inner chambers of the Patriarch, which he himself locked from the inside at night. The doors are double, the insulation from the rest of the building, where the nuns bustle around, is complete. No one heard the groans of the Patriarch. Even the guards did not have the keys to his chambers.

According to the version of Andrei, the doors of the patriarch's chambers were broken only at 8.30, after which they found the body of Alexy II in the bathroom. Explaining the lack of a coherent official version of the death of the Patriarch, the protodeacon lists possible perplexities: “It is clear that the procurators had a lot of questions.”

Why was there no panic button in the bathroom? Why was an elderly and seriously ill person with a pacemaker alone? Why didn't the guards have the keys? How could there be not soft and shockproof furniture next to him? Why didn't the housekeeper nun tell the guards right away? It is clear that it was difficult for the Patriarchy to say that the Primate met death in the lavatory.

What would be quite ordinary for a common man is perceived as a scandal when applied to
Patriarch. Yes, and schismatics around and within the church would gladly lament about the "death of Arius." In this regard, the version about the death of the Patriarch as a result of an accident, actively disseminated on the day of his death, Fr. Andrew calls "camouflage".

By the way, DDP was. The car of the patriarch and his driver really got into an accident: a KAMAZ classically flew towards them. The driver died. And with the patriarch I had to “sort it out on the spot”, already in the chambers. The body of the driver crushed by KAMAZ, practically without a head and without both legs, was later placed in a coffin for a “funeral”. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to explain its complete and sudden “disappearance”. But where did the body of the patriarch go? Only Kirill Gundyaev knows this. Surely there is something to hide? RAY.

Speaking about the protection of the late Patriarch, Fr. Andrey Kuraev explains: “These are professionals from the FSO. They are simply tactful and did not consider themselves entitled to impose on the Patriarch the standards adopted in their department.” (Yeah: “professionals” are good. The result of their professional activity is right there! BEAM)

Sadalsky’s political argument that Alexy II could have been killed for refusing to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and accept their dioceses as part of the ROC-MP, the protodeacon refutes by saying that the position of the patriarchate on this issue has not changed even with the arrival of Patriarch Kirill. “The death of the Primate of the Church always has a political echo,” Fr. Andrew. - But the death of the Patriarch is not always the result of his policy

"The chambers were covered in blood, and there were even handprints on the walls."

1. There is still no medical report on the death of Patriarch Alexy II.
   All disputes and "Maybe like this, maybe like that"- from the lips of possible killers - the medical examination decides. Why is it not carried out? We don't even know the time of death. It's just unheard of!
2. So far, the films of the external and internal surveillance cameras of the patriarch's chambers have not been made public. Where are they? If the cameras were turned off, then please tell us: who did it and for what purpose?
3. Where is the personal driver of Patriarch Alexy and his nun on duty, who was always with him, day and night? They have been missing since December 5, 2008, and no one still has any information about their whereabouts.
4. Why was Patriarch Alexy II buried with his face covered?
   In violation of all the rules. If he had “a broken vein at the back of his head, according to Mr. Kuraev’s explanations, then why did they have to cover his face?
5. Why did the appearance of the body in the coffin during the farewell in Peredelkino and during the funeral service in the KhHS differ sharply? There are many photographs and video documents that clearly prove this. In the coffin, during the funeral service, a person was completely missing his head and legs.
   TEXT
   Besides: the hands of the patriarch were NOT his hands. And NOT the hands of a person who "died of heart failure." Many who knew Patriarch Alexy II well during his lifetime testify to "their black color", "swollen and dislocated joints" "absence of characteristic freckles" and even... oh "uncut, dirty nails."
6. Why did Kirill Gundyaev behave so strangely and speak wildly about the deceased in a television interview on December 6? Cyril was clearly inadequate - as if drunk, and allowed himself open hate speech against the deceased.

December 22, 2008 archim. Arseniy on the Portal forum-Credo. en I fully share the opinion of Lege and Larisa, I can only add. The fact that the strange death of the patriarch is discussed by everyone so persistently and persistently, and at the same time there are such numerous versions of his death, is not our fault. Blame the patriarchy!

There is too much untruth, too many contradictory, completely illogical interpretations by the patriarchy, of events connected with the death of the patriarch. Everything I read in the press and heard in the media completely contradict one another, and this fact itself gave rise to such disputes around the death of the patriarch.
Indeed, the patriarchate is telling a lie, taking advantage of people's religious illiteracy, that "monks are buried with their faces covered." This is not true. The farewell procedure, everywhere and always, involves only a completely open face in order to exclude hoaxes and setups at the funeral. This is the norm of burial accepted all over the world. When parting, people should see who they are burying.

I don't think anyone will dispute this fact. As for high government officials (to whom, it goes without saying, the patriarch also belonged), they are buried ONLY with their faces open, in order to exclude all sorts of idle gossip about who was buried. Patriarch Alexy the First (Count Simansky) generally lay with an open face. My friend, was at that time next to the coffin, and saw him well.

I myself have been serving the Lord in the Holy Church since the mid-70s! How many of the dead I prayerfully admonished during this time, I didn’t count two thousand or more, only the Lord knows. However, they were all with open faces, and with a clearly defined silhouette of the toes of the legs and face. With their faces covered, only victims of terrible accidents or terrorist attacks are buried. That is, only in the case when the sight of the deceased can frighten or cause shock in bystanders or children by its very appearance.

So, what happened to Ridiger generally borders on something terrible and terrible.

Neither the pronounced relief of the toes of the legs, nor the face (which was generally closed), I did not see at the funeral of the patriarch, although I have photos taken at close range. And this is possible only if the appearance of the deceased is distorted beyond recognition. If the best in the world, Russian make-up artists, failed to restore it!

For the heads of state, and dozens of bishops, to say goodbye to the deceased, with their face covered, this is not at all comprehensible to the mind! And it is not clear - it is contrary to common sense. If the face of the patriarch was not revealed during the farewell ceremony, then this indicates that he passed away in some terrible way. Which one exactly? Whether it was an accident, or an explosive bullet, or a grenade explosion, I think we will never know about it.

Returning to the question of who exactly could organize this, I can only say one thing, it is unlikely that any state services have anything to do with this - firstly, Ridiger was a “brother” for them all and supported any of their antics, he simply if they needed it, they would never go for its elimination, secondly, they have such ample opportunities and means that they could take him out of life in a natural and inconspicuous way for others. Without noise and scandals.

In this case, it is likely that forces with limited options in the choice of means were operating. Either some maniac acted, or a madman, and the people are simply afraid to admit that they failed to ensure the safety of the protected object. It is also possible that the threads stretch into the depths of church intrigues, because it is not for nothing that some of the highest officials of the MP stirred so actively immediately after the death of the patriarch.

Sincerely yours + Arseniy

December 22, 2008 at the Portal-ForumCredo. en Leger Artis. Until now, there is no official medical conclusion on the causes of death of Patriarch Alexy, signed by the Commission of at least three of their doctors. It is not reported where and under what circumstances he died. There is not even a date and time of death.

It is obvious that the one who impudently rushes now to the patriarchal white doll was interested in the death of the patriarch. All these “falls”, the pre-election PR campaign, the ostentatious “Worships” for the press, the nervousness and chaotic statements of high-ranking patriarchal officials, the search for an enemy, the aggravated conspiracy theory - all testify that there is no smoke without fire. But there is nothing hidden that would not become clear.

During the funeral of the patriarch, there were massive cases of "epilepsy".
From statements on the forums of the PortalCredo Ru:

12. 12. 2008 Victor
In the XXC, the Liturgy was attended by all kinds of heretics, Jews of other faiths and crucifiers of Christ. However, he began serving in this post from a meeting with the New York rabbis, and ended his earthly existence with them.
13. 12. 2008 L. Gumerova.
Why be surprised if ecumenism, this heresy of heresies, is their banner? To equalize everyone with a comb: and whoever serves Christ all his life and carries the Cross for Him, and a Jew, and a Buddhist, and anyone else, no matter who comes to their club: to talk about the brotherhood of peoples and drink and eat from the belly.

The death of the patriarch, probably, should now reveal a lot, and people will begin to wake up from this dope. Let everything not be in vain, and most importantly: not as they planned!

12. 12. 2008 Svyatoslav.
I completely agree. All this heretical episcopate is not pleasing to God. Yes, and the temple itself is all in atheistic symbolism, it is not our temple and not God's. This is the temple of the Antichrist. And also visited there, earlier, on the so-called. the “funeral service” of the atheist Yeltsin by Alexy, and the main Masons of the world. Everything is defiled.

According to media reports. The Zavtra newspaper writes: “According to insider sources, the sudden death of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, perhaps not coincidentally coincided with the publication of the results of a genetic examination to identify the remains of Nicholas II, which was carried out in one of the military medical centers of the Pentagon” .
Allegedly, this is precisely why the information that initially appeared about a certain accident involving a car in which the Patriarch returned to Peredelkino on the evening of December 4 was quickly blocked, asking journalists not to spread this version, and subsequently officially refuted.

In the same way, the version of the “severe and prolonged illness” of Alexy II was relegated to the background. As you know, on the eve of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has repeatedly expressed distrust of the authenticity of the remains, served the Liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin and a prayer service in the Donskoy Monastery, felt great, and on December 5, his participation in the Russian People's Cathedral was scheduled.

12. 12. 2008 Alexander
During the funeral of the patriarch, there were massive cases of demon possession and the so-called. "falling". From real grace, a person never becomes ill (see the lives of the saints) The XXC is not only desecrated, but was originally built as a concrete remake, a temple, a mausoleum for the ambitions of the "patriarch" and Luzhkov. The fall of Cyril and the mass episcopal death during the funeral of the "patriarch" are the most discussed topics in church circles. You see how many patriarchs squirm like a snake, this is their sore point.

9. 12. 2008 Vasily. Article forum: « The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Kirill, called for wreaths to be laid at the tomb of the Patriarch, "not raising anyone with conflicts and enmity." During the funeral, the metropolitan lost consciousness.” Kirill was in the altar for about 50 minutes and after two injections by the doctors he tried several times to get up again, put on the miter and tried to go out onto the solea. But he was so stormy that he could not even get up from his chair. He was in a semi-conscious state for about 20 minutes.

I say this as a living witness who has been at the altar all this time. Then Archbishop Anastay of Kazan was literally dragged there, who also lost consciousness and was brought to his senses right in the altar on the floor. Only 5-6 bishops: (Vasily Zaporizhsky, 76 years old; Vladimir Kotlyarov, 80 years old; Cornelius of Estonia, 80 years old; Pankraty of Solovetsky or Valaamsky and a couple of little-known ones were in the altar - literally firewood. Here Putin and Medvedev have seen enough of how our masters fell down like sheaves ...

Mother Russia, STOP, finally, licking the boots of geeks and bloody tyrants!

HOW MUCH IS IT POSSIBLE?

Weasel demon -
in the holy
gathered.
But here from Heaven
a sly voice rang out:
"Where are you going,
cursed demon?
I did not create such
more miracles
to sell
holiness
you snorted
and I myself gave you
on the paw

Roll you back
to your lot!
Pretty you're in sales
succeeded
you've fooled the people quite a bit.
It's time for him from demons -
to freedom.

It's time for Russia to stand up
to normal growth.
And you go away, wait
your tail
don't forget:
archangel Michael
you are my sentence
proclaimed."

The driven demon howled
and staggered
rolled up his hoof
and stumbled -
and collapsed like a sack,
without any power...

And the Archangel raised his sword
Michael.

Rough and dirty KGB performance.
The only one who fiercely hated Patriarch Alexy II , killed and sat in his place.

BEAM: A brutal, brutal murder whose motive is REVENGE. The only one (it is impossible to use the word "man") who could and passionately wanted to take revenge on the patriarch: Kirill Gundyaev. Revenge for what

Other facts of the criminal activity of Kirill Gundyaev, the head of the mafia structure of the MP.

ORGANIZED CRIME UNDER THE SHAPE OF "CHURCH".
The customer of the persecution of believers in Suzdal and Vladimir is the crime boss V. Gundyaev.

It is necessary to investigate egregious cases of violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in Suzdal and Vladimir, accompanied by gross violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of law-abiding citizens of Russia on its territory.

In the cities of Suzdal and Vladimir, civil servants, employees of law enforcement agencies and the administration of these cities (the head of the Vladimir territorial department of the Federal Property Management Agency V. Gorlanov and others) organized criminal harassment (criminal harassment) and persecution for faith, up to a threat to health and life, - law-abiding citizens, indigenous people of Russia.

It looks incredible, but it is on the part of civil servants, employees of the state apparatus, the court and the prosecutor's office of the cities of Suzdal and Vladimir, whose professional and official duties include the protection and protection of the rights and freedoms of honest citizens of the Russian Federation, that a planned, organized policy of cruel persecution is carried out at all levels, persecution, all kinds of humiliation, persecution and physical destruction of people.

All this suggests a criminal gang of enemies of Russia and the Russian people operating in one of the central regions of the country (organized crime).

The long-term litigation for the property and temples of the ROAC has now ended in the illegal seizure and in fact the expulsion of believers from their temples, built literally from the ruins by their own hands. These are completely illegal decisions. They must be completely abolished and punished by all those responsible for these criminal acts. They caused irreparable damage to the national, cultural and spiritual heritage of Russia and led to the suffering of thousands of innocent people.

We draw the attention of readers to the facts of criminal activity and the personality of citizen Vladimir Gundyaev. In our opinion, it is he who is the main "customer" of all this organized persecution and the head of a criminal gang.

Since the beginning of the 90s, citizen Vladimir Gundyaev has been engaged in illegal actions: criminal scams, money-grubbing, usury, theft of state and people's property. As a monk and bishop, he is expressly prohibited from owning property by the Charter of the Church. He made his initial capital by trading in humanitarian bibles sent to the Russian people as a gift from the Vatican.
Gundyaev is connected with the entire criminal world of Russia, in particular with the well-known criminal authorities Sergey Mikhailov (nickname "Mikhas", Vladimir Kumarin, nickname "Kum", as well as with the notorious "Jap", Vyacheslav Ivankov) and is their mentor.

In July 2008, priceless relics from the royal treasuries of the Kremlin were handed over to him personally; This transmission was witnessed by Patriarch Alexy II. On December 1, 2008, an article by Kommersant newspaper journalist Vasily Lipsky appeared on the Credo Portal, demanding a report on where the shrines are now and why no one has seen them.

It goes without saying that Patriarch Alexy asked the same questions to Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk. Three days after this article, on the night of December 5, 2008, Patriarch Alexy was brutally murdered in his residence in Peredelkino.

The circumstances of his death are hushed up. There is still no official medical opinion; the Russian people do not even know the time of his death. The funeral service in the XXC was frankly mystified: the body of a non-Patriarch Alexy II was placed in the coffin, which is clearly evidenced by numerous photo and video materials that have spread around the world and caused an unceasing wave of indignation of the world community.

In addition, the personal chauffeur of the patriarch and the nun on duty, who were always inseparable from Patriarch Alexy, disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to them.

In the summer of 2008, the then Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk traveled abroad, and the royal shrines of the Kremlin, historically unique and the most precious asset of the people, could well have been taken abroad for sale.

The fact remains that they were handed over to M. Kirill in the presence of many witnesses, but no one has ever seen them again and no one knows about their specific whereabouts.

On October 13, 2006, Metropolitan Valentin of Suzdal and Vladimir was also attacked by a bandit in his own residence in Suzdal along Teremki Street, 2. They beat him on the head, tortured him, rolled him into a carpet, trying to strangle him. Miraculously, he survived, but he had to go through many ordeals associated with his critical state of health. Prior to that, he was repeatedly brought to trial on non-existent trumped-up charges.

On March 9, 2008, the rector of the ROAC parish in the name of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God in the city of Belorechensk, Krasnodar Territory, Priest Alexy Gorin, born in 1959, was killed. The circumstances of his death do not exclude the ordered nature of this brutal murder.

Under circumstances that have not yet been clarified, the former sisters of the Marfo-Marin Convent perished. But the fact is that: on August 5, 2009, in the Tver region, Likhoslavsky district, the village of Vladychnya, citizen Natalya Moliboga secretly went to the cemetery where four sisters of the monastery were buried, who ended their life in the village of Vladychnya.

Without informing the villagers about this, she dug up the graves of the sisters and took them to the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. The sisters are not glorified and these burials are civil.

Residents of the village of Vladychnya who visited the cemetery were shocked by such blasphemy. Patriarch Alexy II categorically objected to disturbing the ashes of the deceased sisters of the monastery. In fact, the exhumation of the remains took place. The question is: why?

It is known that Natalia Moliboga also made an attempt on the grave of Father Mitrofan Serebryansky, the former spiritual mentor of the Convent and a personal friend of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Romanova.

The people of Vladimir Gundyaev practically destroyed to the ground, that is, historically completely destroyed, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. The legitimate abbess, mother Elizaveta Kryuchkova, was expelled from the Convent. Her lawyer Mikhail Seroukhov was attacked in Moscow on October 26, 2006: beaten and hospitalized with a concussion. The document folder has disappeared.

During the trial, the legal adviser of the Patriarchate, K.A. The other two lawyers didn't even know that a Doctor of Laws was a degree.

Blatant threats, utter incompetence on the part of IMO lawyers, made a strange impression. No one could answer the question: why was Mother Elizabeth dismissed from her post?

It is quite obvious that criminal structures turned out to be in the Abode. The monastery's millions of funds have been plundered, the children's health resort has been sold. A shopping center and a parking lot are being built on the territory of the Monastery for the personal enrichment of Vladimir Gundyaev.

In June 2009, Gundyaev’s people (citizen Mikhail Donskov, Natalia Moliboga and the wife of the oligarch Vasily Anisimov Ekaterina) gangster attacked the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem and contrary to the will and will of the Holy Martyr, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, contrary to the opinion and prohibitions of the abbess, servants of the temple and believers , defiled her tomb and unlawfully seized part of her relics.

This act of vandalism in a holy place caused and continues to cause indignation and strong condemnation of the general public around the world.

It is necessary to stop this criminal lawlessness, the flow of murders and violence against honest and law-abiding citizens of Russia, who are not only illegally deprived of their property, strength and health, but their basic rights are violated: freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and life itself.

This completely contradicts not only the articles of the Basic Law, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, or the Criminal Code of Russia, but also the elementary norms and rules of the human community in general.

Crimes against the people of Russia must be suppressed by law. Criminals and robbers must be convicted and held accountable. They must bear the punishment due to their wrongful acts.

Russia has guarantors of the execution and respect for the laws of the Russian Federation and the rule of law on the territory of the Russian Federation. The Russian people and the world community expect immediate action from them if there is still at least some kind of power in Russia.

Some information about the activities of Mr. Gundyaev.

In the mid-1990s, a scandal erupted over the publication of the sale of imported cigarettes by M. Kirill, which he received through the Church's humanitarian aid channels. Based on customs documents, the journalists established that the cigarettes were supplied by Philip Morris Products Inc. Cigarettes came from Switzerland, from the city of Basel, Güterstrasse, 133.

All references in the customs documents are to a certain agreement on humanitarian assistance of the Russian Orthodox Church dated April 11, 1996. On the same customs documents it was marked: “Producer: RJR Tobacco (USA). Seller: DECR of the Moscow Patriarchate, warehouse address: Moscow, Danilovsky Val, 22, Danilov Monastery.

In addition to super profits from the sale of cigarettes, it turned out that through the DECR he heads, Metropolitan Kirill is engaged in the sale of alcohol, the tourism business, precious stones, oil, and so on. At the same time, the firms established by M. Kirill disappear after a while, which allows him to make denials, and new ones appear in their place.

Lidia Mikhailovna Leonova, the daughter of the cook of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU (who is called the illegal wife, and sometimes the metropolitan's sister), more precisely, a number of commercial enterprises are registered at her home address in Smolensk. Also, according to information received in the media in certain years, Metropolitan Kirill owns real estate in Switzerland, and on his accounts in the banks of the United States and Europe there are billions of dollars, and in Russia he (together with his former deputy Metropolitan Clement) established bank Peresvet.

Considering that Vladyka’s huge amount of money practically did not benefit the Church, all this information, which had been in the media for many years, created a corresponding reputation for M. Kirill: the reputation of a person who serves not God, but mammon.

At the same time, it should be noted that all of the above activities of Metropolitan Kirill are contrary to church canons. The bishop is a monk, and it is forbidden for a monk to own property. Of course, Russian believers are not Pharisees, and if M. Kirill were the owner, for example, of a private house and a car, and not "factories, newspapers, steamboats", no one would blame him for this. In addition, the canonical rules forbid clerics from lending money on interest, and generally receiving interest in any of the existing ways, including through banks.

With Kumarin and Mikhailov.

Vyacheslav Ivankov, the notorious Yaponchik, in the form of a priest (!) "baptizes" the son of a crime boss in the Orthodox Church of New York. Photo from the FBI archive, 1995

According to information from the Genealogy of the Ridigers, during the reign of Empress Catherine II, the Courland nobleman Friedrich Wilhelm von Rudiger converted to Orthodoxy and, with the name Fedor Ivanovich, became the founder of one of the lines of this well-known noble family in Russia, one of whose representatives was Count Fedor Vasilyevich Ridiger - cavalry general and adjutant general, an outstanding commander and statesman, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. 7 children were born from the marriage of Fyodor Ivanovich with Daria Fedorovna Yerzhemskaya, including the great-great-grandfather of Patriarch Alexy Georgy (1811-1848). The second son from the marriage of Georgy Fedorovich Ridiger and Margarita Feodorovna Hamburger - Alexander (1842-1877) - married Evgenia Germanovna Gisetti, their second son Alexander (1870 - 1929) - the grandfather of Patriarch Alexy - had a large family, which he managed to take out in difficult revolutionary times to Estonia from unrest-ridden Petrograd. The father of Patriarch Alexy, Mikhail Alexandrovich Ridiger (May 28, 1902 - April 9, 1964), was the last, fourth, child in the marriage of Alexander Alexandrovich Ridiger and Aglaida Yulyevna Balts (July 26, 1870 - March 17, 1956); the eldest children were George (born June 19, 1896), Elena (born October 27, 1897, married to F. A. Gisetti) and Alexander (born February 4, 1900). The Ridiger brothers studied at one of the most privileged educational institutions in the capital - the Imperial School of Jurisprudence - a first-class closed institution, the pupils of which could only be children of hereditary nobles. The seven-year education included classes corresponding to gymnasium education, then special legal education. Only Georgy managed to finish the school, Mikhail completed his education already in a gymnasium in Estonia.

In the world Ridiger Alexei Mikhailovich was born on February 23, 1929 in the city of Tallinn.
From the age of 7 he served in the church under the guidance of his spiritual father, Archpriest John the Epiphany. In 1944-1947 he was a subdeacon - first with Archbishop Pavel, and then with Bishop Isidore. Studied at Tallinn High School.

(from the archive of Patriarch Alexy II. With parents)

In 1945, he was instructed to prepare for the opening of the Tallinn Alexander Nevsky Cathedral for the resumption of worship in it (the cathedral was closed during the occupation period).
From May 1945 to October 1946 he was the altar boy and sacristan of the cathedral.
Since 1946, he served as a psalmist in Simeonovskaya, and since 1947 - in the Kazan Church in Tallinn.
In 1947 he entered the Leningrad Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in the first category in 1949.

Priesthood

On April 15, 1950, in his first year at the Leningrad Theological Academy, he was ordained a deacon, and on April 17 of the same year - a priest and was appointed rector of the Epiphany Church in the town of Johvi, Tallinn diocese.

The parish of the priest Alexy Ridiger was very difficult. At the first service, Fr. Alexy, who was on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, only a few women came to the temple. However, the parish gradually came to life, rallied, and the repair of the temple began. " The flock there was not easy, - His Holiness the Patriarch later recalled, - after the war, people from various regions came to the mining town for special assignments for hard work in the mines; many died: the accident rate was high, so as a shepherd I had to deal with difficult fates, family dramas, various social vices, and above all with drunkenness and the cruelty engendered by drunkenness ».

For a long time about Alexy served alone in the parish, so he went to all the necessities. Patriarch Alexy recalled that the danger was not thought in those post-war years - whether it was close, how far, one had to go to the funeral, to be baptized. Having loved the temple since childhood, the young priest served a lot; later, as a bishop, Patriarch Alexy often fondly recalled his service in the parish.

In 1953 he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy with a degree in theology.
On July 15, 1957, he was appointed rector of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Tartu and dean of the Tartu district.
On August 17, 1958, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest.
On March 30, 1959, he was appointed Dean of the United Tartu-Biljandi Deanery of the Estonian Diocese.

Aug 19 1959, on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, E. I. Ridiger died in Tartu, she was buried in the Kazan Church in Tallinn and buried at the Alexander Nevsky cemetery - the resting place of several generations of her ancestors. Even during the life of his mother, Archpriest Alexy thought about taking monastic tonsure, after the death of Elena Iosifovna, this decision became final.

On March 3, 1961, Archpriest Alexy was tonsured a monk at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra with a name in honor of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. The monastic name was drawn by lot from the shrine of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Continuing to serve in Tartu and remaining a dean, Father Alexy did not advertise his acceptance of monasticism and, in his words, “simply began to serve in a black kamilavka.” However, under the conditions of new persecutions against the Church, young, energetic bishops were needed to protect and govern her.

Bishop of Tallinn

On September 3, 1961, he was consecrated Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia. The consecration in the Tallinn Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was performed by: Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Nikodim (Rotov), ​​Archbishop of Gorky and Arzamas John (Alekseev), and Bishop of Kostroma and Galich Nikodim (Rusnak).

In the very first days, Bishop Alexy was put in an extremely difficult situation: Ya. S. Kanter, authorized by the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia, notified him that in the summer of 1961 a decision was made to close the Pyukhtitsky monastery and 36 "unprofitable" parishes (the "unprofitability" of churches was a common excuse for their closure during the years of Khrushchev's attack on the Church). Later, Patriarch Alexy recalled that before his consecration, when he was rector of the Assumption Cathedral in Tartu and dean of the Tartu-Viljandi district, he could not even imagine the scale of the impending disaster. There was almost no time left, because the closure of the temples was to begin in the coming days, and the time for the transfer of the Pyukhtitsky monastery to a rest home for miners was also determined - October 1. 1961

Understanding that Orthodoxy in Estonia should not be allowed to suffer such a blow, Bishop Alexy begged the commissioner to postpone the implementation of the harsh decision for a while, since the closure of churches at the very beginning of the young bishop's hierarchal ministry would make a negative impression on the flock. The church in Estonia received a small respite, but the main thing was ahead - it was necessary to protect the monastery and temples from the encroachments of the authorities. At that time, the atheistic authorities, whether in Estonia or in Russia, took into account only political arguments, and positive mentions of this or that monastery or temple in the foreign press usually turned out to be effective.

In early May 1962, taking advantage of his position as Deputy Chairman of the DECR, Bishop Alexy organized a visit to the Pyukhtitsky Monastery by a delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the GDR, which not only visited the monastery, but also published an article with photographs of the monastery in the Neue Zeit newspaper. Soon, together with Bishop Alexy, a Protestant delegation from France, representatives of the Christian Peace Conference (CPC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) arrived in Pukhtitsa (now Kurmäe). After a year of active visits to the monastery by foreign delegations, the issue of closing the monastery was no longer raised.

Bishop Alexy also managed to defend the Tallinn Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which, it seemed, was doomed.

On November 14 of the same year, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
On June 23, 1964, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop with the right to wear a cross on his hood.
On December 22 of the same year, he was appointed Manager of the Moscow Patriarchy and a permanent member of the Holy Synod ex officio.
On May 7, 1965, he was appointed chairman of the Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, which manages the spiritual and educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church.
From October 17, 1963 to 1979, he was a member of the commission of the Holy Synod on Christian unity and inter-church relations.
On October 19, 1967 he was elected an honorary member of the Leningrad Theological Academy.
On February 25, 1968, he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan.
On August 26 of the same year he was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Theological Academy.

In 1989, Vladyka Alexy was elected a people's deputy of the USSR from the Charity and Health Foundation, of which he was a board member. Metropolitan Alexy also became a member of the Committee for International Peace Prizes. Participation in social and political life brought its own experience: positive and negative. Patriarch Alexy often referred to the parliament as " a place where people don't have respect for each other ».
« I am categorically against the election of clergy today, because I have experienced firsthand how unprepared we are for parliamentarism, and I think that many other countries are not yet ready either. There reigns the spirit of confrontation, struggle. And after the meeting of the Congress of People's Deputies, I returned simply sick - this atmosphere of intolerance influenced so much when they slammed and shouted at the speakers. But I think that my deputyship was also useful, because I was a member of two commissions: under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (the Estonian delegates asked me to participate in this commission) and under the law on freedom of conscience. There were lawyers in the commission on the law on freedom of conscience who considered the Regulations on Religious Associations of 1929 to be a model and did not understand, refused to understand that it was necessary to deviate from the norms of this law. Of course, it was very difficult, I'm not an expert in jurisprudence, but I tried to convince even these Soviet lawyers, and often succeeded ”, recalls Patriarch Alexy.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

In addition to holding permanent positions in the highest church administration, Vladyka Alexy participated in the activities of temporary synodal commissions: to prepare and conduct the celebration of the 500th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the restoration of the Patriarchate, to prepare the Local Council of 1971, to celebrate the Millennium of the Baptism of Russia, was chairman of the commission for reception, restoration and construction in St. Danilov Moscow Monastery. The best assessment of the work of Metropolitan Alexy as manager of affairs and the performance of other obediences was his election as Patriarch in 1990, when the members of the Local Council - bishops, clergy and laity - remembered Vladyka Alexy's devotion to the Church, talent as an organizer, responsiveness and responsibility.

On June 7, 1990, at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was elected Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The enthronement took place on June 10 of the same year at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow.

A few days after the enthronement, on June 14, Patriarch Alexy went to Leningrad in order to glorify St. Righteous John of Kronstadt. The celebration of glorification took place in the Ioannovsky Monastery on Karpovka, where the saint of God was buried. Returning to Moscow, on June 27, the Patriarch met with the Moscow clergy at St. Danilov Monastery. At this meeting, he spoke about the fact that the new Statute on the governance of the ROC makes it possible to revive catholicity at all levels of church life and that it is necessary to start with the parish.

Until July 20, 1990, he remained the ruling bishop of the Leningrad diocese, and until August 11, 1992 of the Tallinn diocese.

Tragic events took place in the country on August 19-22, 1991. Some of the leaders of the state, dissatisfied with the reform policy, made an attempt to overthrow the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev, forming the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). This attempt ended in failure, which resulted in the ban of the CPSU and the fall of the communist regime. " In the days that we have just lived through, the period of our history, begun in 1917, ended with the Providence of God, - wrote His Holiness the Patriarch on August 23 in his Message to the archpastors, pastors, monastics and all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church. – From now on, the time can no longer return when one ideology owned the state and tried to impose itself on society, on all people. The communist ideology, as we are convinced, will never again be a state ideology in Russia ... Russia begins the work and the feat of healing! "(ZHMP. 1991. No. 10. P. 3).

Having learned about the events in Moscow, His Holiness the Patriarch, who was then at the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Orthodoxy in America, urgently interrupted his visit and returned to his homeland. In the Danilov Monastery, with the mediation of the Hierarchy of the Russian Church, negotiations were held between representatives of the warring parties, which, however, did not lead to an agreement. Blood was shed, and yet the worst did not happen - a full-scale civil war.

From May 8, 1999 to March 3, 2000, he took over the temporary administration of the Japanese Orthodox Church.

During the years of the Primate of Patriarch Alexy, 6 Councils of Bishops were held, at which the most important decisions for the life of the ROC were made.
On May 17, 2007, with the First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus of Eastern America and New York, he signed the "Act of Canonical Communion", marking the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia with the Moscow Patriarchate.

On June 10, 2000, the Russian Church solemnly celebrated the tenth anniversary of the enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy. At the liturgy in the revived Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Patriarch Alexy was co-served by 70 bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, representatives of the fraternal Local Orthodox Churches, as well as about 400 clerics from Moscow and the Moscow region.

Addressing the Patriarch with a welcoming speech, President of Russia V. V. Putin emphasized: “ The Russian Orthodox Church plays a huge role in the spiritual gathering of Russian lands after a long period of unbelief, moral decay and theomachism. There is not only the restoration of destroyed temples. The traditional mission of the Church is being restored as a key factor in social stability and the unification of Russians around common moral priorities - justice and patriotism, peacemaking and charity, creative work and family values. Despite the fact that you had a chance to steer the church ship in a difficult and contradictory time, the past decade has become a unique era of a real revival of the moral foundations of society. At this crucial moment in our national history, millions of our fellow citizens listen with deep respect to your firm, heart-wrenched word of the shepherd. The Russians are grateful to you for your prayers, your patronage for the strengthening of civil peace in the country, for the harmonization of interethnic and interreligious relations "(Orthodox Moscow. 2000. No. 12 (222). P. 2).

Death and burial

At about 11 a.m. on December 5, 2008, the head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Vigilyansky, reported that the Patriarch died at his residence, located next to the railway platform and the village of Peredelkino, in the morning of the same day, “ an hour - an hour and a half ago ". On the same day, the Patriarchate denied the circulating speculation about the unnatural nature of the death of the Patriarch.

According to the official version, the cause of death was acute heart failure: the patriarch suffered from coronary heart disease, suffered several heart attacks and periodically traveled abroad for examination. The most serious health incident took place in October 2002 in Astrakhan.

On the evening of December 6, the coffin with the body of Patriarch Alexy was delivered to the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where, at the end of the Sunday all-night vigil, a farewell ceremony was held for the newly deceased patriarch, which lasted until the morning of December 9 (Tuesday); funeral services and continuous reading of the Gospel were performed in the Temple. For believers who wished to say goodbye to the Patriarch, the temple was open around the clock. According to the press service of the Moscow police department, more than 100,000 people took part in the farewell ceremony for the patriarch.

(Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II funeral in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior)

On December 9, 2008, after the funeral liturgy, which was led by the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Kirill, concelebrated by a host of bishops (the majority of the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church served, as well as primates and representatives of other local Churches), and the funeral service, which was led by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the body of the deceased was transferred to Epiphany Elokhovsky Cathedral, where he was buried in the southern (Annunciation) aisle.

(Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II grave in the Elohovsky Cathedral)

Lord, rest the soul of Your servant Patriarch Alexy in the Heavenly Abodes and count among the righteous, and have mercy on us, the unworthy, as Good and Humane!