Biography of Patriarch Alexy 2

The name Alexei is baptized in childhood in honor of Alexy, the man of God. The patriarch comes from the German noble family von Reidigers, having Courland origin. From the pedigree of the patriarch, we know that his ancestor, Courland nobleman Friedrich Wilhelm von Ridiger, during the reign of Catherine II, moved to Russia and accepted Orthodoxy under the name of Fedor Ivanovich.

It was he who became the founder of the Russian line of the Ridigers clan. The father of the future Patriarch, Archpriest Mikhail Alexandrovich Ridiger, was born in St. Petersburg, but during the October Revolution he was taken out by his parents to Estonia, where he received a priestly San Estonian Orthodox Church. Mother Alexei, Elena Iosifovna Pisareva is the daughter of a colonel of the tsarist army shot during the revolution.

The desire to become a priest with Alexei appeared from early childhood when he willingly helped his father in the temple. During the Great Patriotic War - GG. Alexey with his father visited camps for displaced persons in which there were Soviet people stolen for forced labor in Germany. According to Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia, Kornili, who was 5 years older than Alexei and helped the readigers in this difficult matter, they managed to rescue several priests from the camps and arrange them in Tallinn temples.

At fifteen, Alexei became a hypodiacon, served in various temples of Tallinn, and in the year he entered the third grade of the Leningrad Theological Seminary. In the year, he was ordained a deacon, and then to the presbyter, and was determined by the Epiphany Church of the city of Yykhvi. During the years of his ministry in the Epiphany Church, Alexei continued his studies at the Leningrad Theological Seminary and received the title of candidate of theology in the year.

In the year, he was erected to the rank of Archpriest. After the death of his mother in the year, Alexei decided to accept monasticism, and on March 3, he was tonsured monks with the name Alexy, in honor of Alexy, Metropolitan of Kyiv, St. Moskovsky. The episcopal period in the biography of Hieromonk Alexy began in the same year when he was erected to the rank of archimandrite and was appointed Bishop of Tallinn and Estonian by the decision of the Holy Synod.

Bishop Alexy headed the Tallinn department for 25 years, from for a year, including managing it, already a patriarch. The biography of Bishop Alexy is rich in international events in which he was directly involved. In the year, Alexy takes part in the World Council of Churches, participates in theological dialogues with other Christian faiths. For more than 25 years he was an employee of the apparatus of the conference of European churches.

He took an active part in the work of Soviet and international peacekeeping organizations. In the year, he received the degree of a doctor of theology by writing a three -volume work “The History of Orthodoxy in Estonia”. After the death of Patriarch Pimen, a local cathedral was convened in the year to select his successor on the patriarchal throne. The new patriarch was chosen in two rounds of votes and the main applicants for the throne were Metropolitan Alexy, Metropolitan of Rostov and Novocherkassky Vladimir Sabodan and Metropolitan of Kiev and Galitsky Filaret Denisenko.

With a small margin from Metropolitan Vladimir, 23 votes, Metropolitan Alexy, was elected new Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. During the patriarchate of Alexy II, the Russian Orthodox Church experienced the period of rise and strengthening of positions in society. Temples were actively built and a qualitatively new relationship was established between the state and the Church.

The church intensified not only catechizer, religious, educational and educational activities in society, but also got the opportunity to expand the framework of its social ministry. Patriarch Alexy II paid much attention to the establishment of relations between various Orthodox churches and cooperation with other Christian faiths. And already at 11 o’clock the next day, December 5, the head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Vigilyansk, announced the death of the patriarch in his residence in Peredelkino.

The cause of death was acute heart failure, which was the result of coronary heart disease, which the Patriarch suffered in the past few years. He suffered several heart attacks and periodically underwent a course of treatment abroad. The Patriarchate resolutely refuted all the rumors associated with the unnatural nature of the death of the Patriarch. The farewell ceremony with the newly -trained Patriarch was held on December 6-19 in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

The funeral service of the Patriarch was on December 9 in the Epiphany Cathedral of Moscow. On the same day, the deceased Patriarch was transported for burial to the Annunciation of the Elokhov Cathedral of Moscow, where he was buried in the southern "Annunciation" chapel. Patriarch Alexy II was awarded many state, church, public and international awards, was an honorary citizen of 12 regions and cities of the Russian Federation.The biography of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II contains many controversial moments, and the assessment of the value of the period of his patriarchate for the development of the Russian Orthodox Church may be different, but it should be noted that it was during the period when the Russian Orthodox Church was headed by Patriarch Alexy, the church became a strong structure, which is in close interconnection and cooperation with the state.

See all portraits here.