Moscow, March 16, 2026
Photo: ippo.ru His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the 50th anniversary of his episcopal consecration on Saturday, March 14.
That day, he prayed at the Divine Liturgy at the skete of St. Alexander Nevsky in Peredelkino in the Moscow suburbs. The service was celebrated by his secretary, His Grace Bishop Alexei of Ramenskoye, reports Patriarchia.ru.
The future Patriarch was elected Bishop of Vyborg, vicar of the Leningrad Diocese, on March 4, 1976, by decree of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen of Moscow and All Russia, and 11 days later, he was consecrated to the episcopacy in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).
Pat. Kirill had been tonsured a monk and ordained a hierodeacon and hieromonk seven years prior in 1969.
“Being a bishop is a feat that demands the whole person, for a bishop does not belong to himself, but to the Church,” he said 50 years ago at his consecration.
Before his election to the Patriarchal throne, he served as a vicar bishop in Vyborg, then as ruling bishop in the Diocese of Smolensk and Vyazemsky, then in the diocese of Smolensk and Kaliningrad. He was elevated to the rank of Archbishop in 1977 and to the rank of Metropolitan in 1991.
He served as rector and professor of Patrology at the Leningrad Theological Academy from 1974 to 1984, when he was sent to serve in Smolensk.
Pat. Kirill served on numerous Church commissions over the years of his episcopacy, most notably as Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations from 1989 until his election as Patriarch.
Following the repose of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II on December 5, 2008, then-Metropоlitan Kirill of Smolensk was elected to the Patriarchal throne by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on January 27, 2009. He was enthroned as primate on February 1.
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