13th Patriarch

Solemnly, cautiously, as befits those who come out of the past into the present, the 160-odd delegates filed into Moscow's onion-domed, 17th-Century Sokolniki Church. Wearing the stiff scarlet and gold mantles and the high, crownlike klobuka, the bearded archbishops took their places before the altar. They joined with the clerical and lay delegates from every diocese in the Soviet Union and from the branches of Russian Orthodoxy abroad, in a brief prayer, the moleben: "God bless this act, send down Thy spirit. . . ."

In his huge Russian voice, Nikolai Feodorovich Kolchitsky, Prior and Chief of the Administration of the Patriarchate, called out to each archbishop in turn: "Whom do you choose Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia?" Each intoned the same answer: "Alexei, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod."

Thus last week, by a simple roll-call vote, did Sergei Vladimirovich Simansky (Alexei), 67, become the 13th Patriarch of the Holy Orthodox Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Church. This week he was crowned in the illuminated forest which arc lights and laurel decorations had made of Bogoyavlensk Cathedral. Unseen silver bells tinkled, rose to full tones as the Patriarch entered, wearing a white veil and miter, and a green silk robe with white and red stripes and golden cords over the shoulders. With the end of the elaborate service, Alexei's religious authority over 100,000,000 souls became absolute.

To the rejuvenated Orthodox Church, the Sobor (congress) was a great milestone. It was the first since that of mid-Revolution 1917-18. When the Soviet Union finally lifted its anti-religious pressure in September 1943, much of Russia was still under German occupation, and Patriarch Sergei was elected by a conclave of bishops instead of the full-fledged Sobor.

Patriotic Protege. Balding, handsome Alexei had been Acting Patriarch since Sergei's death (TIME, May 22), and his election came as no surprise. He is popular, strongly patriotic and his predecessor's protege. Said one church official before the election: "We all feel it will be Alexei. . . . It's just like Mr. Roosevelt."

The Mr. Roosevelt of Russian Orthodoxy was born and bred in Moscow. Intending to be a lawyer, he went to Moscow University's Jurisprudence School, changed his mind after graduating, became a monk instead. A bishop since 1913, Alexei became Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod in 1933 during the church's dark days. Ten years later he gained fame as a great Soviet patriot and received the Defense of Leningrad Medal for refusing to leave the besieged city.

English in Clean Alley. Alexei is fastidious, ascetic and persistently optimistic. He lives in monastic simplicity at the Patriarchate on Chisty Pereulok (clean alley), in a ground-floor room filled with ikons, paintings and sculptures.

His day follows an almost unvarying pattern. Rising at six, he washes, makes his bed, meditates, breakfasts on a light tea. In the morning he transacts church business, at 2 o'clock takes a hearty lunch (he eats no meat), likes to spend the afternoon alone. At night he retires to his room to read French, German or English (his chief interest at present), goes to bed at 1 a.m.

Like his predecessor, Alexei will conduct the business of the church according to the two new principles of Orthodoxy: the Church must deal in religion and nothing else; its price of survival is absolute loyalty to the Soviet Government.

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