Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow
Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' (1877–1970)
Patriarch Alexy I (Alexius I, Russian: Патриарх Алексий I, secular name Sergey Vladimirovich Simansky, Russian: Серге́й Влади́мирович Сима́нский; 8 November [O.S. 27 October] 1877 – 17 April 1970) was the 13th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) between 1945 and 1970.
Life
Born in Moscow to a noble family, his father was a Chamberlain of the Russian Imperial Court. In 1899, he graduated from Moscow Imperial University with a law degree, was conscripted by the army and served in a grenadier regiment. In 1902, he enrolled at Moscow Theological Academy, and by 1906, he had been elevated to the dignity of archimandrite and was appointed rector of the seminary at Tula.
After the Bolshevik Revolution, he was arrested several times, and in 1922, exiled to Kazakhstan. In 1926, he returned to Saint Petersburg (which had been renamed Leningrad) and was appointed Archbishop of Khutyn, that is, the vicar of the Diocese of Novgorod.
On 29 July 1927, Metropolitan Sergei Stragorodsky, acting as de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church, signed a statement of unconditional loyalty to the Soviet State. The statement was co-signed by all members of the Holy Synod, and Archbishop Alexy of Khutyn.
He ran the diocese for much of the next seven years while Metropolitan Arsenius Stadnitsky was in prison or exile. In 1933, Alexius served briefly as Archbishop of Novgorod (for several months) and then metropolitan of Leningrad.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow” as patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' (1877–1970). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q547702. VIAF identifies the subject as 72851607. The Library of Congress control number is n85344792. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1970, 1945 and 1899.
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