Patriarch Alexy II, memory eternal!

(Guardian) - The head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Alexy II, who played an influential role in denouncing the KGB coup against Michael Gorbachev, has died.

The church said the 79-year-old died at his residence outside Moscow on Friday. It did not give the cause of death, but the patriach had suffered from a heart ailment - and was known to be seriously ill earlier this year.

The outspoken cleric had led the world's biggest Orthodox church since 1990, presiding over a flock that by most estimates numbers two-thirds of Russia's population of 142 million.

Born as Aleksey Ridiger, from a family of aristocratic German immigrants, the patriach presided over some of the most tumultuous times in modern Russian history. He also faced persistent accusations - denied by the church - that he worked for the KGB.

He entered Leningrad theological seminary in 1947 and graduated in 1949. He served as a priest in Estonia - then part of the Soviet empire - and rose rapidly through the clerical ranks, becoming a metropolitan bishop aged 39, and winning election as patriarch in 1990, as the Soviet Union was collapsing.

As patriarch, Alexy II vigorously advocated the return of the Orthodox church to the centre of Russian life and spirituality. He oversaw a major religious revival in Russia, with hundreds of churches built or restored across the country.

He also denounced the coup plotters who tried to topple Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, in August 1991.

This morning, Gorbachev was said to be shocked by his death. "I respected him deeply," Gorbachev said, according to the Interfax agency, adding that he was "so shocked that it is very hard for me to find words on the spot". Russian television immediately began running excerpts from what it said was Alexy's last TV interview at the end of October.

According to the British-based KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, Alexy worked for the KGB for over 40 years - and was mentioned in KGB archives under the codename Drozdov. The Moscow patriarchy has denied this claim - though Alexy II has himself acknowledged that under communism, bishops were forced to compromise with Soviet power.

Alexy's funeral is likely to take place in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour - the monumental church opposite the Kremlin and next to the Moscow river, destroyed by Stalin but reconstructed during the mid-1990s under Boris Yeltsin. The cathedral was the venue for Yeltsin's own funeral last year.