Patriarch Aleksii
Aleksii, Patriarch
(before taking monastic vows in 1902, Sergei Vladimirovich Simanskii). Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’. Born Oct. 27 (Nov. 8), 1877; died Apr. 17, 1970. Graduated from the Moscow Lycée, the law faculty of Moscow University (1898), and the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy (1904). Doctor of theology. Made bishop in 1913; metropolitan of Novgorod in 1932, and metropolitan of Leningrad in 1933; he was metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod in 1943–45.
Aleksii was selected patriarch at the Patrimonial Council in Moscow on Feb. 2, 1945. For his services in organizing patriotic work during the Great Patriotic War and for his activity in the struggle for peace, Aleksii was awarded four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, medals of the USSR, and many foreign orders.