Alexius I.

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Патриарх Алексий I.jpg

Alexius I. ( Church Slavonic actually Алеѯій / Alexy * October 27 jul. / 8. November  1877 greg. In Moscow ; † 17th April 1970 in Peredelkino outside Moscow) served as the 13th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia 1945-1970 Head of the Russian Orthodox Church .

Life

Alexius was born as Sergei Wladimirowitsch Simanski into a wealthy aristocratic family. His father was a lawyer and senior civil servant who retired early. Sergei initially apparently aspired to the same career and studied law at the University of Moscow before he decided to study monasticism and theology. After a time as a teacher and rector of a theological seminary, he was ordained bishop in 1913.

After the revolution he was imprisoned several times, including in exile in Kazakhstan ; From 1926, Bishop of Novgorod , he joined the Metropolitan Sergiy, later Patriarch Sergius I , who advocated cooperation with the Soviet state . He remained true to this line throughout his life. The advocacy of the theologically conservative for cooperation with the atheistic state power can be classified in a corresponding nationally conscious tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church on the basis of many national religious statements.

In 1933 Alexius became Metropolitan of Leningrad . As such, he was one of the church leaders who Joseph Stalin received in 1943 to discuss the reorganization of the church and, among other things, the election of a new patriarch after the patriarchate had been vacant since 1925. Stalin sought the support of the church in the struggle against National Socialist Germany. On February 2, 1945, Alexius was elected to succeed Sergius I as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He held this office for 25 years until his death, making him the longest serving patriarch in the history of the Russian Church.

During his term of office, the renewed intensification of state pressure on the church under Khrushchev fell ; at the same time, however, the Russian Orthodox Church joined the World Council of Churches under his patriarchate . He was a member of the Christian Peace Conference , at whose 1st All-Christian Peace Assembly in 1961 in Prague he participated. He was elected to their advisory committee.

Alexius I died very old, but suddenly and unexpectedly. He was buried in the Uspensky Cathedral in the Trinity Monastery of Sergiev Posad , then in Sagorsk .

literature

  • Robert Stupperich: On the death of Patriarch Aleksij of Moscow . In: Kirche im Osten (14/1971), pp. 11-14.
  • Patriarchs of All Russia . In: The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate . (10/1989), pp. 10–16 (on Alexius I. from p. 14.)

Web links

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predecessor Office successor
Sergius I. Patriarch of Moscow
1945 - 1970
Pimen I.