RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH LEADER ALEXY II DIES
RIA Novosti
15:22 | 05/ 12/ 2008
MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) – Patriarch Alexy II, who led the
Russian Orthodox Church for 18 years, died at the age of 79 in his
residency near the Russian capital on Friday morning, the Moscow
Patriarchy said.
A senior church official said heart failure was believed to be the
cause of death. The patriarch was known to have suffered from health
problems in recent years.
Alexy II became patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, now the
world’s largest, in 1990, shortly before the collapse of the atheist
Soviet Union, and presided over a religious revival in Russia, with
thousands of churches and monasteries being restored and hundreds of
new ones built across the country.
Under his leadership, Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family
shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918, were canonized as well as many New
Martyrs who suffered under communism.
Alexy II openly objected to then Pope John Paul II’s visit to Russia,
accusing the Catholic Church of attempts to poach converts in Russia
and neighboring Ukraine.
In 2007, he signed a reunification act with Metropolitan Laurus,
head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), after
almost 90 years of separation. The foreign branch broke away in 1921,
after accusing fellow clergymen in Soviet Russia of collaboration
with the country’s communist regime.
Alexy II voiced his open support for fellow Orthodox Serbs during
the Kosovo conflict and called the declaration of independence by
the Albanian province "an anti-historic event."
Alexy II also sought closer contacts with political leaders. The
country’s leadership, including Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev,
attended church ceremonies led by the patriarch in Moscow’s main
cathedral.
Following news of the death, President Medvedev postponed a visit
to Italy, due to have started on Saturday, and will return to Moscow
from India later on Friday, the Kremlin said.
"The rise of the Russian Orthodox Church, the real establishment of the
principles of freedom of conscience and faith are directly connected
with him and his name," the Kremlin quoted Medvedev as saying.
Speaking in Armenia, Prime Minister Putin said: "He was a fair man,
his death is an enormous loss, a tragic event."
In a statement on the patriarch’s death, the Vatican said Alexy
II had led the Russian church at a time of great change, and his
leadership had helped the church withstand the hardships of post-Soviet
transition.
Alexy II suffered a severe stroke in 2002. In April 2007, media
reports said he was in a Swiss clinic in a serious condition or even
dead. Church officials then confirmed the patriarch had undergone
medical treatment in Switzerland, but denied the condition was serious.
On Thursday evening, Alexy II held a church service in one of Moscow’s
central cathedrals to mark a major religious holiday.
The church’s ruling body, the Holy Synod, is due to gather for an
urgent meeting in Moscow on Saturday to pick an acting leader and
make arrangements for the funeral, Bishop Mark, deputy head of the
patriarchy’s foreign relations department said.
The patriarch, Alexei Rediger, was born on February 23, 1929, in
the Estonian capital, Tallinn, into the family of a Russian Orthodox
priest of German descent. He became a priest in 1950.