PUTIN AWARDS PATRIARCH KIRILL ORDER OF ST. ANDREW THE FIRST-CALLED
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill and congratulated him on his birthday, noting his efforts at strengthening the RPTs [Russian Orthodox Church] and awarding him the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. This ceremony took place in the Kremlin. The patriarch turns 75 years old on Saturday.
"Allow me to heartily congratulate you on your jubilee. You have chosen for yourself the path of spiritual and moral ministry. And you have followed it with dignity, wisdom, and profound understanding of your responsibility for our people and for the fate of Russia," Putin said at the beginning of the ceremony.
The president added that the Russian Orthodox Church has known various times. "But today its voice has again acquired enormous significance. It is heeded and it is trusted. And to a great extent this is the result of your personal efforts and tireless pastoral labors," Putin said.
The president signed an ukase awarding the patriarch the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called for his contribution to the preservation and development of spiritual and cultural traditions. "For his overwhelming contribution to the preservation and development of spiritual and cultural traditions and strengthening of peace and harmony among peoples, I award the order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called to Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill (Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundiaev)," the Kremlin press service reports.
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill (secular name: Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundiaev) was born 20 November 1946 in Leningrad (now St. Peterburg). His father, Mikhail Gundiaev, was a priest and his mother a teacher of the German language in a school. He is the sixteenth patriarch of the Russian church. On 27 January 2009 a local council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected him patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus and his enthronement was conducted on 1 February 2009 in the church of Christ the Savior. (tr. by PDS, posted 20 November 2021)
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