Eternal Memory -- the passing of Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia

His Beatitude, Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia (1929-2008)

Our profound sympathies to the members of the Russian Orthodox Church and all Orthodox Christians on the passing of His Beatitude, Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia yesterday, 5 December 2008.


Patriarch Alexiy's history is, like most human histories, checkered. Born of German extraction of parents who were devout Russian Orthodox Christians, he grew up in Estonia during the violent era following the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II of Russia (+1917) by the Bolshevik Revolution which ushered in the communist regime known as the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR).


He was ordained a priest in 1947 and eventually was ordained a bishop, being elected in 1990 to the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia, just as the Soviet Union was collapsing. Patriarch Alexiy was responsible for the resurgance of both the placement and respect of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian society. He also worked diligently with the flegling struggling democratic Russia of Boris Yeltsin and, subequently, Vladimir Putin.

Former President and now Premier Vladimir Putin of Russia embraces Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia during the Divine Liturgy




His Beatitude has been accused of collaborating with the KGB when the USSR was still extant. Some noted that the once secret files of the former secret police force (for which Vladimir Putin worked) have supported this allegation, although there was no arrived conclusion.



Nevertheless, Alexiy worked diligently at re-establishing the Russian Orthodox Church from its debilitated state under the oppressive communist regime. While severely punished in the early days of the Soviet Union, it was more tolerated toward the time of Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s.



One of the successes of Alexiy's patriarchate was the reconciliation and reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church Aborad (ROCA). This body had split with Moscow over the patriarchate's accomodation to Soviet persecution of the Church -- banishment to the gulags and execution of bishops, priests, monks, nuns and laity. The patriarch at the time apparently made concessions to the Soviet government which drew the wrath of Russian expatriots and exiles around the world.



Hence, many formed the parallel Church meant to restore the Orthodox Faith of Russia all the while mistrusting the Church leadership in Moscow as being agents of the KGB. In 2007, Patriarch Alexiy II met with Metropolitan Archbishop Laurus of the ROCA in the partiarchal cathedral in Moscow (with Mr. Putin attending) and signed the official document of reconciliation, embraced with the sign of peace and concelebrated the Divine Liturgy.


Metropolitan Abp. Laurus of the ROCA and Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia at the celebration of reunion and reconciliation in the patriarchal cathedral in Moscow, Russia in May 2007

St. Nicholas of Myra -- Model of Charity and Promoter of Justice

Today, 6 December, the Christian community throughout the world celebrates the memory of our Holy Father Nicholas, Bishop of Myra.



Having lived and served in what is today Turkey, his bones are now interred in Bari, Italy (a rather convoluted history).
St. Nicholas, the "inspiration" for what we call "Santa Claus" and in other countries "Father Christmas" or "Papa Noel", is also a model of charity and a promoter of justice.



Among the most famous of the stories of his life and ministry in 4th century Asia Minor was the rescue he performed -- quietly, behind the scenes -- of the three daughters of an older man who had fallen into financial ruin. As payment for his debt he was going to be forced to hand his three daughters over to prostitution. The holy bishop got wind of it and, under the cover of night, placed three bags of gold secretly for the older gentleman to spare his daughters.



A lesser known story about St. Nicholas was that he had been a confessor (i.e. one who confessed one's faith through persecution without having suffered martyrdom [e.g. imprisonment, torture]) during the last empire-wide persecution under Emperor Diocletian. When Constantine ascended the throne and issued his famous Edict of Milan in AD 313 it paved the way for Christians to worship freely and openly practice their faith.



However, there was also another looming issue in the Roman Empire, especially in the East, and this was the Arian heresy (the priest Arius of Alexandria basically taught a doctrine of Christ that amounted to a denial of his full divinity).



At the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in AD 325 the Council Fathers consented to a Creed (called the Nicene Creed, and later ratified at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in AD 381) that definitively address Christian faith. This is what we in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches profess at our Sunday Eucharists. They also condemned Arius and his doctrine.



According to one tradition, the holy Nicholas of Myra stood up and approached the preist Arius and then slapped him on the cheek and so condemned him! While we wouldn't find that particularly "ecumenical" and certainly not polite in our 21st century Western culture today, it is important to remember that St. Nicholas lived in a different culture, a different time and a different era in human history, even Christian history.



His charity and his justice are demonstrated in his faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, his ecumenicity with the entire Church and his pastoral foresightfulness in responding to a very unjust situation afflicting his flock that would have led one of his people to submit to trafficking in the sexual exploitation of women -- prostitution.