Patriarch Alexy II's funeral and burial will mirror the repression and revival of his religion, according to plans announced Saturday by the Russian Orthodox Church, with rites to be held in a cathedral rebuilt after Communists destroyed it and in the largest working church in Moscow to survive the Soviet era.Alexy, who died Friday at age 79, led the church for 18 years, from the last year of the officially atheistic Soviet Union through a massive revival that saw it become the world's largest Orthodox church.
Alexy's body was taken Saturday to the huge Christ the Savior Cathedral for three days of public viewing and a Tuesday funeral. Burial is to be at Epiphany Cathedral, the patriarch's choice for interment.
When Alexy became head of the church in 1990, the 19th-century Epiphany Cathedral of sea-green towers topped by onion domes, was the patriarchal seat. The seat had been moved there after the closure of churches in the Kremlin and the destruction of larger cathedrals in Moscow, including the original Christ the Savior cathedral.
That church was blown up in 1931 to make way for a planned Palace of Soviets that was never built.
Christ the Savior was reconstructed on the original site in the 1990s and became the patriarchal seat.
Last year, it hosted the ceremony marking one of Alexy's proudest achievements — signing of a pact bringing the church and the schismatic Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia closer.
Alexy's death, however, left a long-running dispute with the Vatican unresolved.
He often complained that Roman Catholics were using post-Soviet Russia's new religious freedoms to poach adherents among a people who traditionally would have been Orthodox if atheistic Soviet rule had not impeded them.
Yet, he and the church held many discussions with the Vatican, aiming to reach an agreement that would allow the church to accept a papal visit to Russia.
Without Alexy at the helm, the church's initiatives on that question may go dormant for several months.
The church's Holy Synod chose Metropolitan Kirill, the church's foreign relations chief who has had extensive contact with the Vatican, as interim leader, Russian news agencies reported.
But the church says the election of a permanent head may not take place for six months.
The Moscow Patriarchate said Alexy died at his residence outside Moscow, but did not give a cause of death. Alexy had long suffered from a heart ailment, although on Thursday he had appeared comparatively well while conducting services.
Alexy became leader of the church as the Soviet Union was loosening its restrictions on religion. After the Soviet Union collapsed the following year, the church's popularity surged.
Church domes that had been stripped of their gold under the Soviets were regilded, churches that had been converted into warehouses or left to rot in neglect were painstakingly restored, and hours-long services on major religious holidays were broadcast live on national television.
Despite the Vatican-Moscow dispute, Pope Benedict XVI praised Alexy on Friday.
"I am pleased to recall the efforts of the late patriarch for the rebirth of the church after the severe ideological oppression which led to the martyrdom of so many witnesses to the Christian faith. I also recall his courageous battle for the defense of human and Gospel values," the pope said in a message of condolence to the Russian church.
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(Source: AP)