PATRIARCH KIRILL TO PERFORM FUNERAL OF VALENTIN RASPUTIN IN CHURCH OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR IN MOSCOW
Portal-credo.ru, 15 March 2015
Patriarch Kirill will perform the funeral of Valentin Rasputin in the church of Christ the Savior in Moscow on 18 March. A civil funeral for the writer is not planned.
The press secretary of the head of the Moscow patriarchate, Deacon Alexander Volkov, reported that the patriarch "is profoundly grieved about the death of the great Russian writer Valentin Rasputin." "The maintained good and warm relations over the courts of many years. The patriarch greatly respected the writer's talent of Rasputin, and today at a divine liturgy in Kalingrad he pronounced a separate memorial prayer for the late Valentin," TASS quoted the press secretary.
A video of this prayer was also shown on the official website of RPTsMP. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 March 2015)
VALENTIN RASPUTIN LIVED AS A REAL CHRISTIAN
Portal-credo.ru, 15 March 2015
The writer Valentin Rasputin died in Moscow in the evening of 14 March at age 77. He lived and worked in Irkutsk and Moscow.
The rector of the church of the Image of the Savior Not-made-by-hand in Irkutsk, Priest Alexander Belomestnykh, told Komsomolskaia Pravda about Valentin Rasputin: "He lived as a real Christian. Correctly, honestly, openly. Therefore today we should view his departure from life in a Christian way and understand that death is a transfer into another world. The Lord calls a person at the moment when he is prepared to leave the earth."
Priest Alexander said that despite the fact that the writer reached great heights, he was able to maintain in himself the chief human qualities: goodness, spirituality, and simplicity.
"He and I met together often," the priest continued. "But I never heard him speak ill of anybody."
From 1996, Valentin Grigorevich was on the trustees' council of the Orthodox Nativity of the Most-holy Mother of God Women's Gymnasium of Irkutsk. One may say that he was at the origin of the creation of the gymnasium. He was a member of the patriarchal Council on Culture. He cooperated in the creation of the Orthodox patriotic newspaper Literary Irkutsk. In addition he did a great deal for the construction of the Epiphany church in Ust-Ude, where Valentin Rasputin studied in high school.
Memorial services for Valentin Rasputin were held on 15 March in churches in Irkutsk.
Before his death, Valentin Rasputin asked that streets not be named for him. Govorit Moskva reported that the chairman of the Union of Writers of Russia, Valery Ganichev, stated this. "A great person, significant person, by all measures, outstanding. I have just now been called; he asked not to give his name to any places or streets, even if someone asks for it. He said, perhaps just a library or school. Extraordinary modesty," Ganichev added. (tr. by PDS, posted 16 March 2015)
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