"I am aggrieved to see monuments to soldiers who liberated Estonia from nazi occupation desecrated in certain parts of the country. More than that, monuments are built to commemorate those who fought Soviet troops [on the nazi side]," said the Patriarch as he was answering newsmen's questions in Moscow today.
"I have lived through World War Two, and through liberation. Those days are evergreen in my memory. After our soldiers liberated Tallinn [Estonian capital], the Church regained St. Alexander Nevsky's Cathedral, 1945. I was one of those who had the honor of preparing it for re-consecration."
At this year's last session, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church passed a program for V-E Day 60th anniversary celebrations. It envisages commemoration liturgies served for all who laid down their life for Motherland, added the Primate.
Estonia is native country of Patriarch Alexis (Alexei Ruediger, in the world). He was born in Tallinn, February 23, 1929, into a pious family. Mikhail Ruediger, his father, was for sixteen years senior priest of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tallinn, consecrated to the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Kazan. Alexei was an altar boy since tender age.
He finished a secondary school with Russian for tuition language in Tallinn, and went on to the Leningrad Theological Seminary. After graduation and ordination, Father Alexis was appointed senior priest of a church at Johvi, Tallinn diocese, and later senior priest of the Dormition Cathedral at Tartu, Estonia's second-largest city and known university centre. After he took monastic vows, Father Alexis was ordained Bishop of Tallinn and All Estonia and, later on, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, to retain the Tallinn see. The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected him Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, June 7, 1990.
