Trust in the Patriarch and the Church
According to VTsIOM, the Russian Orthodox Church is supported and approved by 68.8% of respondents. Foma reported this in December 2021.
Earlier, in October last year, pravmir.ru, citing data from a Levada Center survey, reported that 48% of Russian residents trust churches and religious organizations. This indicator has not changed since 2021 and is almost equal to the level of trust in 2012.
Patriarch Kirill.
patriarchia.ru
About Church and State
In February 2009, after his enthronement, Patriarch Kirill called on the church and state to interact. According to him, the parties should not interfere in each other's internal affairs. The church and the state need to respect each other and interact for the benefit of the people, writes RIA Novosti.
“The state takes care of earthly things, the church takes care of heavenly things. It is impossible to imagine heaven without earth and earth without sky. Earth and sky form the harmony of divine existence, divine creation,” the patriarch said.
In addition, Patriarch Kirill stated that the church will take special care of young people. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church confirmed his readiness for dialogue with other churches. At the same time, he emphasized that he intends to take care of the unity of Orthodoxy in the world.
Patriarch Kirill's visit to Antarctica.
patriarchia.ru
The Patriarch's position on the church schism in Ukraine
“Listen to the leaders of the schism. With what hatred they speak! Is this a pastoral word? Is this a word of love? And listen to His Beatitude Onuphry, the hierarch of our Church, who never says anything bad even about schismatics,” ria.ru quotes.
Office of Patriarch Kirill.
Andrey Kuraev at www.facebook.com
Figure in many scandals
The personal life of Patriarch Kirill does not provide as much food for gossip as the professional activities of the hierarch. Let's look at several high-profile cases in which the Vladyka was involved.
- In the early 90s, taking advantage of church tax benefits, Metropolitan Kirill established profitable imports of tobacco and alcohol products. In response to an investigation by Novaya Gazeta journalists, the church stated that this was an attempt to discredit the name of the man of God.
- Having taken monastic vows, Cyril also took a vow of non-covetousness. In 2012, the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church released a photograph in which the patriarch’s wrist was adorned with a watch from the French company Breguet worth more than 30 thousand dollars. Later, the picture was unsuccessfully photoshopped: the watch on his hand was removed, but the reflection in the varnished surface of the table remained. This sparked a wave of internet memes and ridicule. In the end, the editor returned the clock to its place.
- The scandal continued in 2021. Barnaul resident Andrei Shasherin was charged with “extremism” (Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) for posting a cartoon on his VKontakte page. In the picture, Christ asks Kirill what time it is, and he demands to leave him alone. Shasherin was released in January 2021 due to the partial decriminalization of the article.
- The Breguet watch, as well as the apartment in the famous House on the Embankment, is not the only personal property of the patriarch. Expensive luxury yachts, private jets and cars are regularly captured by the press. In addition to the Moscow penthouse, Gundyaev owns a residence in Crimea. For the construction of the latter, a relict forest near Gelendzhik was sacrificed. Now the residents of the town are cut off from the sea and the village cemetery.
- The Church calls on the faithful to forgive their enemies. But Kirill, in response to the performance “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away” by the punk group Pussy Riot, said that the church will not forgive blasphemy. The girls were given 2 years, which served as a precedent for amending Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which “insulting the feelings of believers” faces criminal liability.
- Patriarch Kirill also found himself at the center of international scandals. In March 2021, the hierarch arrived at events celebrating the 140th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke. The Patriarch did not like the speech of the President of the country Rumen Radev, in which he said that different peoples took part in the fight against Turkey. Gundyaev said that Radev humiliated Russia by reducing the country's role in the liberation of Bulgaria.
- In response, Bulgarian Prime Minister Valery Simeonov said that it was not for the “cigarette metropolitan” or the “second-rate KGB agent” to dictate what the head of state should say. Diplomats of the two countries made a lot of efforts to neutralize what the Bishop said and establish friendly relations. However, Bulgaria voted to continue sanctions against the Russian Federation.
- Kirill’s statements against Ukraine are a separate chapter. The hierarch repeatedly spoke about the Civil War in the neighboring country. The provision of the Tomos to the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople infuriated the Bishop.
- In his hearts, the hierarch declared that he did not see the possibility of the Russian Orthodox Church being in Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This deprives Orthodox Christians in Russia of the opportunity to venerate the relics brought from Byzantium.
Photo with the reflection of the patriarch's watch, which caused a scandal
Family and childhood
Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyaev was born on November 20, 1946 in Leningrad. The family comes from hereditary priests. The grandfather of the hero of our story, Vasily Stepanovich Gundyaev (Lukoyanovsky district, 1879) worked as a driver on the Kazan Railway, from 1922 to 1955 he was in exile on Solovki.
The father of the future patriarch, Mikhail Vasilyevich (1907), dreamed of becoming a priest since childhood. After graduating from school, the boy became a church servant, and in 1926 he moved to Leningrad, where he became a free student of the Higher Theological Courses. After 2 years, the NEP ended, the courses were closed, and Mikhail was sent to the army. After serving, the young man became a student at a technical school, and later at an industrial university.
Note: In 1934, Mikhail was arrested as a choir singer, and was also accused of an attempt on I.V. Stalin. The matter did not come to the point of execution, and Mikhail and his bride were exiled to Kolyma, where the young couple spent 3 years.
Mikhail and Raisa Gundyaev - parents of Patriarch Kirill
Raisa Vladimirovna Kuchina (born 1909), as a deeply religious person, sang in the church choir. The young people met there. Raisa earned her living by teaching German. After exile, the couple returned to Leningrad. In 1940, the couple had their first child, son Nikolai. In 1943, Mikhail went to the front.
The man happily returned from the war, and in 1946 the hero of our story, Vladimir, was born. In 1949, the family was replenished with another child - daughter Elena. In 1947, Mikhail Vasilyevich Gundyaev devoted his life to serving the church and was appointed deacon to the Church of the Smolensk Icon of Our Lady on Vasilyevsky Island.
Then the state did not favor clergy, and the family lived poorly, subsisting on donations from the faithful. The father of the future patriarch finished his career with the rank of rector of the St. Nicholas Church at the Bolsheokhtinskoe cemetery in Leningrad. He was buried with his wife there.
Loud scandals
- In 2012, there was a scandal on the Internet around the “patriarch’s watch.” Users discovered that in one of the photos on the Patriarchia.ru website, an expensive wristwatch had been “erased” from the patriarch’s hand. In the photo their reflection can be seen on the polished surface of the table. The next day, the patriarch’s press service apologized for this, RIA Novosti reports.
- Another scandal occurred around the apartment of Patriarch Kirill. A woman registered in the patriarch’s apartment filed a lawsuit against her downstairs neighbor, former Minister of Health, cardiac surgeon Yuri Shevchenko. According to the plaintiff, her apartment was damaged by dust from the defendant’s apartment, where renovations were being done. This legal battle received publicity in the media. The court decided to recover 18 million 947 thousand rubles from Shevchenko, reports lenta.ru.
INTRONIZATION
If the separation of the rite of episcopal I. from the rite of consecration was due to the fact that bishops began to be ordained everywhere not in diocesan churches, but in patriarchal cathedrals, then in the case of the ordination of the Heads of Local Churches, the need for such separation was absent for a long time. Movements of bishops in the ancient Church were rare, and therefore, not persons in the episcopal rank, but priests, deacons, monks or even laymen were often elected to the Patriarchal Sees (such as St. Photius of Poland). Thus, in the K-Polish Church there were cases of replacement of the Patriarchal see by already ordained bishops before the 13th century. were extremely rare; they became the norm only towards the end. XV century In the Roman Church, cases of replacement of the Roman See by already ordained bishops were unknown until the end. IX century, and when they appeared, they initially caused a lot of temptations and controversy (see: Uspensky. 1998. pp. 351-358); etc. Apparently, under the influence of the prevalence of the practice of performing episcopal consecrations separate from the ordination, the corresponding rite was included in the ranks of installing the Heads of Local Churches. However, another explanation is also possible: the rank of Patriarchal I. could be necessary when elevating persons already invested with the rank of bishop to the Patriarchal See. In such cases, there was a need for some kind of sign of the candidate’s entry into the department, which could symbolize the rank of I. However, the blzh. Simeon of Thessaloniki testifies that in his time the ceremony of the patriarchal I. took place both when installing those already ordained to the rank of bishop, and when performing the episcopal consecration of a non-bishop elected to the patriarchate, “for it is necessary that everyone be present at the enthronement of their shepherd and they saw him on the throne, as if our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of the living God, were blessed by him especially then, at the beginning [of his Patriarchate], and received peace from him from the Holy Throne" (Sym. Thessal. De sacr. ordinat. 230 // PG. 155. Col. 444; Russian translation: P. 288).
According to the description of the bl. Simeon, the ceremony of the I. K-Polish patriarchs took place at Sunday liturgy after the end of the chanting of the Trisagion (and consecration, if a non-bishop was elevated to patriarch). Candles were distributed to all those present, the patriarch was elevated by 2 bishops to a high place and seated three times on the high priest's throne. At each of the 3 sittings, the bishops exclaimed: “Axios!” - and this was repeated by the clergy in the altar and the people in the temple (both three times). Then the many years were sung, the patriarch proclaimed: “Peace to all,” the Apostle was read and the Divine Liturgy was performed (PG. 155. Col. 445-449, 453; see also: Sokolov. 2003. pp. 212-216).
As in the case of episcopal I., under patriarchal I., according to the blessed. Simeon, no special prayers were read. According to other sources, such prayers during the elevation to the K-Polish see are unknown. On the contrary, such prayers existed in the Alexandrian Church. According to the Sinait manuscript. gr. 974, 1510, I. of the Patriarch of Alexandria took place after the prayer “From glory to glory it passes ...” (this prayer was read in the final part of the liturgy) and had the same order as the episcopal I., only instead of the words: “... enthrones a brother our name, the most holy and virtuous bishop...” - in the formula “Divine grace...” the words were read: “... enthrones to the throne the holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, the great city of Alexandria, our father (name), the most holy and virtuous patriarch...”; the litany was read by the bishop, not the deacon; finally, the many years were more extensive, and before them the new patriarch publicly read the 1st conception of the Gospel of Mark - obviously, as a sign that he occupies the see of this apostle (Dmitrievsky. Description. T. 2. P. 698-700, also p. 901). Thus, in this rite there was one prayer Δέσποτα Παντοκράτωρ κα Κύριε τῶν ὅλων̇ (“Lord Almighty and Lord of all...”), common to the episcopal and patriarchal I. In another manuscript, Sinait. gr. 1006, 15th century, many of the special prayers are included not in the rite of ordination, but in the rite of “elevation to patriarch,” performed (as can be seen from the text of the rite) over a person already invested with the rank of bishop. We can conclude that the rank of I. Patriarch of Alexandria, according to Sinait. gr. 974, assumed the installation of a non-bishop as patriarch, whereas in Sinait. gr. 1006 prayers, which otherwise would have been included in the rite of patriarchal consecration, were transferred to the rite of I.; Thus, these prayers were associated in the tradition of the Alexandrian Church exclusively with the patriarchal service. Following I. in Sinait. gr. 1006 begins with the ceremony of seating on the patriarchal throne, not described in detail (probably it was performed according to the full Alexandrian rite), followed by many years and prayers: 1) Δέσποτα Παντοκράτωρ, Θεὲ κα Κύριε τοῦ ἐλέους̇ (“Sovereign Almighty, God and Lord of mercy... "); 2) Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων̇ (“Lord God of hosts...”); peaceful litany with special petitions; 3) ?? ᾿Ιήσου Χρίστου̇ (“Sovereign Lord God Almighty, Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ...”); 4) ?? κώβ̇ (“Sovereign Lord God of our fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob...”); here the patriarch was vested in the omophorion, which had previously reclined on St. throne, and the special conceptions of the Apostle and the Gospel were read; 5) Δέσποτα Κύριε ὁ Θεός τῶν δυνάμεων̇ (“Sovereign Lord, God of hosts...”); The rite ended with a formula proclaimed by one of the bishops: “Divine grace, through our humility, elevates you, the most sacred metropolitan [or the most God-loving bishop] named after [in] the patriarch of the city named after”, with many years and dismissal (Ibid. pp. 619-621; see also : Sokolov, 2004, pp. 318-319). Alexandrian origin of this rank, and so on. ranks of the Sinait manuscript. gr. 1006 undoubtedly, but from the fact that the name of the city of which the one being erected becomes patriarch is not indicated in the rank, it follows that at some period the rank could have been used in other regions. But still, the Alexandrian ranks did not spread anywhere besides Egypt and, possibly, Palestine and Cyprus.
On loneliness and pastoral ministry
“Loneliness, apparently, is something that will really accompany me as a patriarch until the end of my days. It accompanied all my predecessors. Perhaps what I will say now is very personal, but I want you to understand me correctly: the patriarch cannot have friends, he has a flock. <…>
All the patriarch’s strength goes into being a shepherd for everyone. Friendship presupposes a select circle of people, certain favorites, those who are closer to the Patriarch than others. The patriarch must be open to everyone,” pravoslavie.ru quotes Patriarch Kirill.
Mistakes made by Photoshop masters: the patriarch's clock
www.novate.ru/
Personal life
As a member of the black clergy (monk), Kirill is prohibited from starting a family. Insiders claim that one exists. The scandal, dubbed the “Dusty Case” in the press, began in March 2012.
A certain Lydia Leonova, living at the address: Moscow, st. Serafimovicha, 2, filed a lawsuit against her downstairs neighbor, who was doing renovations. The lawsuit stated that the tenant had dusted books and furniture in the apartment, causing them to become unusable. Leonova sued her neighbor for 20 million rubles - an unheard of amount, without precedents! - for the damage caused.
It was not the dust that interested the media, but the personality of Lydia Leonova. According to documents, the apartment belongs to... Patriarch Kirill. As His Holiness later justified himself, Y. Luzhkov gave the living space to the hierarch, but he did not live there for even a week, but moved there “his father’s library, dear to his heart.” Two second cousins of the patriarch allegedly live in the apartment.
As we found out, Lydia Leonova is the daughter of the personal chef of the head of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU. The press was also interested in a photo taken in 1988, where Gundyaev stands with Lydia Leonov and a boy about 10 years old. The photo gave grounds for the press to call the patriarch an “exemplary family man” living with his wife.
Photo of the alleged common-law wife of Patriarch Kirill and their son
The second “second cousin” who lived in the house on the street. Serafimovicha, 2 - the sister of Lydia Leonova - a very famous person. This is Elena Kholodova, deputy. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ROC Peresvet Bank, whose activities became the topic of an investigation by the Dozhd TV channel in 2021.
Note: Patriarch Kirill himself says about the family that the entire flock are his children.
Biographical information and career
The Primate of the Moscow Patriarchate (Vladimir Gundyaev in the world) was born in 1946 in the city on the Neva. His entire family are true Orthodox Christians. Grandfather, Presbyter Vasily, for the fight against the renovationist schism of the Orthodox Church more than once served sentences in prisons and exiles, and spent 18 years in camps. Father, Archpriest Mikhail, was sent to the Kolyma camps in 1934 for his desire to serve the Church and God. Since 1947, he preached, gaining the love and respect of parishioners, and served as rector of several churches. The elder brother Nikolai is the rector of the Transfiguration Cathedral and a professor at the theological university, sister Elena runs the Orthodox gymnasium.
The Gundyaev family lived a difficult life financially - the Soviet government imposed an exorbitantly large tax on Father Mikhail for permission to preach. After 8th grade, the youngest son is forced to start working, combining it with school. Having received a certificate of secondary education, he entered first the theological seminary in his hometown, and then the academy.
In 1969, Vladimir was tonsured a monk with the name Kirill and received the rank of hierodeacon, and 2 months later he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1970 he graduated from the university with honors and an academic degree of candidate of theology and moved on to teaching. At the same time he serves as secretary to Bishop Nikodim of Leningrad.
In 1971 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and at the age of 27 he became the rector of two spiritual, at that time Leningrad, educational institutions - a seminary and an academy. He has held this position for 10 years, taking an active part in the work of international ecumenical organizations.
Just like his father and grandfather, he is not afraid to speak out against the anti-religious policies of the USSR, for which, according to some sources, in 1986 he was transferred to the position of bishop and sent to the periphery. In 1991, he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan, after which he held a number of responsible posts in the Holy Synod. After the death of Patriarch Alexy II in 2008, the Holy Synod elects the Metropolitan as interim Patriarch. 2 months later, on January 25, 2009, the Council of Bishops takes place, at which by a majority vote he is elected as a candidate for the patriarchal throne, and 2 days later the Local Council elects him as the 16th Patriarch.
