The Russian Church didn't pick a shrinking violet to name a medal after. This is a rather strong message to send for sure.
(mospat.ru) - The medal of St. Mark of Ephesus was instituted on 6 April 2016 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia as an award of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR).
St. Mark of Ephesus, an outstanding defender of Orthodoxy, is an example to the DECR, the eldest Synodal institution of the Russian Orthodox Church. The year 2016 marks the 70th anniversary of the DECR.
The medal will be awarded to the ordained and secular persons for achievements in external church activities; for cooperation between the church and secular authorities in international activity; for upholding consent and civil peace in society; for considerable contribution to the inter-Orthodox cooperation; for support of the compatriots living abroad; for contribution to the strengthening of peace and friendship among countries and nations; for active participation in church and secular diplomacy.
St. Mark of Ephesus, in whose honour the medal was instituted, is commemorated on February 1 (January 19 old style). The medal was designed by artist Sergei Kurakin.
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I'm sure St. Mark is thrilled that he's being handed out as an award for individuals who have been involved in "cooperation between the church and secular authorities in international activity," "upholding consent and civil peace in society" (what on earth does THAT mean in Putin's Russia? :-/ ), "support of the compatriots living abroad" (Russian citizens presumably, odd for a church with such a huge international membership), and "strengthening [peace] and friendship among countries and nations" (how Soviet peace movement that sounds!). Not that any of them are bad necessarily, but it has such a ring of the Soviet era and the Soviet regime's push of the Moscow Patriarchate into ecumenism and the peace movement to it that to associate this award with St. Mark's name rather than a Soviet hero's just seems wrong...
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