Alexius I. – Wikipedia

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Patriarch Alexius I of Moscow and the whole RUS

Alexius I. (Kirchenlavisch actually But / Alexij ; *27. October jul. / 8. November 1877 greg. in Moscow; † April 17, 1970 in Peredelkino near Moscow) was the 13th patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia from 1945 to 1970 head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Alexius was born as Sergei Vladimirowitsch Simanski into a wealthy nobility family. His father was a lawyer and a higher civil servant who set out early. Sergei initially strived for the same career and studied law at the University of Moscow before deciding on monasticism and theology studies. After a time as a teacher and rector of a theological seminar, he was consecrated to bishop in 1913.

After the revolution, he was in custody several times, including In exile in Kazakhstan; From 1926 Bishop of Novgorod he joined the Metropolitan Sergij, the later patriarch Sergius I, who came for a cooperation with the Soviet state. He has remained true to this line throughout his life.
The entry of the theologically conservative for cooperation with atheistic state power can be classified into a corresponding national-conscious tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church due to many national religious statements.

In 1933 Alexius became Metropolit from Leningrad. As such, he was one of the church leaders that Josef Stalin received in 1943 to discuss the reorganization of the Church and, among other things, the choice of a new patriarch after the patriarchy had been vacant since 1925. By accommodating the Church, Stalin sought support in the fight against National Socialist Germany.
On February 2, 1945, Alexius was voted Patriar of Moscow and all of Russia as the successor to Sergius’ I. He practiced this office for 25 years to his death and was the longest reigning patriarch in the history of the Russian church.

Patriarch Alexius I as a metropolitan of Leningrad

During his term, the renewed tightening of state pressure on the church under Khrushchev fell; At the same time, however, the Russian Orthodox Church under its patriarchy joined the ecumenical council of the churches. He was a member of the Christian Peace Conference, in whose I. all -Christian peace meeting in 1961 he participated in Prague. He was elected in their advisory committee. On December 16, 1969, the Moscow Patriarchy had the approval of the Catholics to all sacraments of the Russian Orthodox Church with the exception of the sacrament of ordination. [first] The corresponding instruction is the “most important” step “which was ever made by the Russian church in relation to the approach to Rome,” said a Catholic ecumenist. [2]

Alexius I died highly, but suddenly and unexpectedly. He was buried in the Uspenski Cathedral in the Trinity Monastery of Sergijew Possad, then Sagorsk. Johannes Cardinal Willebrands took part in his burial as a representative of the Vatican. [3]

  • Robert Stupperich: On the death of the patriarch Aleksij von Moscow . In: Church in the east (14/1971), S. 11–14.
  • Patriarchs of All Russia . In: The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate . (10/1989), pp. 10–16 (about Alexius I. from p. 14.)
  1. ↑ Johannes Chrysostomus: Moscow and Rome, in: Una Sancta 25 (1970) 90–92, here 92.
  2. ↑ Johannes Chrysostomus: Moscow and Rome, in: Una Sancta 25 (1970) 90–92, here 92.
  3. ↑ Johannes Chrysostomus: Moscow and Rome, in: Una Sancta 25 (1970) 90–92, here 90.