Patriarch Alexy II laid to rest

(RT) - Orthodox believers have given a final send-off to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksy II. His body has been buried at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow after a short requiem service. Earlier in the day his funeral at Christ the Saviour Cathedral was broadcast on national TV.

Only senior religious leaders were present for the interment, which took place after a private ceremony.

The public will be allowed to visit his grave from December 10.

Earlier, thousands gathered in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral to pray for Aleksy's soul. The six-hour service was led by Aleksy II's temporary replacement, Metropolitan Kirill. He also headed the commission overseeing arrangements for the funeral.

Paying tribute at the funeral service, Metropolitan Kirill said Aleksy II had inherited the Church “in a weak condition”.

He said the faith had been “unable to achieve its entire potential to bring the word of life to the people… after decades of repressions”.

However, Kirill said, “His Holiness left quite another Church behind him. Our hands and our feet are not trembling because the Church is now together with its people.”

Religious leaders from around the world have travelled to Russia for the event. The Patriarch of Constantinople and the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church have been among those taking part in the ceremony.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have been among the mourners.

Security has been stepped up in central Moscow with 6,000 police and troops drafted in for the funeral.

The burial ceremony is under way in the Epiphany Cathedral on Elokhovskaya Square.

Aleksy II died aged 79 on Friday after 18 years as head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

More than 80,000 mourners have filed past the coffin since it was opened to the public late on Saturday evening.

Pope Benedict XVI said prayers for the soul of the late Patriarch. He said Catholics are united with their Orthodox brothers in their grief. The Pope’s comments, made during his Sunday blessing, show a thawing of previously frosty relations between the two churches.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad will hold the post until a permanent leader is elected within the next six months.

In the days after the funeral, the Holy Synod will decide on a meeting-date for the Assembly of the Hierarchs. It will then be for the National Council of Bishops to elect a new Patriarch.

Meanwhile, President Medvedev has signed a decree suspending entertainment events on the day of Aleksy II’s funeral. The ruling will affect cultural institutions and TV and radio channels.

Revival after the repression: the life of a spiritual leader

Aleksy II will be remembered as the first Patriarch of a new Russia. He led the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church after Soviet repression, and united it with congregations abroad after the 90 year split which followed the Bolshevik Revolution.

Born in Estonia in 1929 to a priest, Aleksy Ridiger began what would become a lifetime of religious and diplomatic work. He drew his inspiration at a monastery in Yikvi, Estonia, where he became a priest at 21.

Ordained in 1950, he returned to Estonia and was later appointed the country’s bishop. But much of his work soon went beyond religion and into politics.

For more than 25 years he worked in a conference of European churches, a body set up at the height of the Cold War to promote dialogue and friendship.

In times of harsh economic reforms and a shift in public values, Aleksy did his utmost to defend morality and faith during the 90s.

He was close to Soviet dissidents like the late Russian writer Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, whose widow Natalya thinks the Patriarch’s death is a huge blow.

“It’s a great personal tragedy for me and my family, we knew the Patriarch well,” she said. “When we returned to Russia from the States, my husband and I had a long meeting with the Patriarch. Not long before his death, Solzhenitsyn wrote to the Patriarch asking for permission to be buried in the Donskoy Monastery. Aleksy gave his consent. So, it’s all very personal for me. The situation is difficult in Russia and the whole world now. And losses like the Patriarch’s death should be a call for unity. Hard times are ahead.”

Aleksy II traveled widely, visiting more than 100 dioceses as Patriarch and encouraging congregations to come back to the fold.

And at the end of 2006 there were more than 27,000 active parishes throughout the old territory of the Soviet Union.

He was active internationally, presiding over the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the one outside of Russia in May 2007. The two churches had separated in the early 1920s.

But relationships with other faiths proved more difficult. Aleksy refused to meet with the Pope, accusing the Catholic Church of aggressive missionary policies in both Russia and traditionally Orthodox former Soviet republics. He in turn was accused of making the church a force for nationalism.

But no Russian would deny he united the country after decades of harsh policies and turbulence. Today two-thirds of Russia’s population are Orthodox followers and are mourning their tremendous loss.