861.404/568: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Hamilton ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 22—7:54 p.m.]
1821. Moscow papers for May 21 announce that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church at a meeting on May 15 carried out the arrangements contemplated in the Testament of the Holy Patriarch Sergius concerning the entry of the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, Alexius, upon the duties of Patriarchal Locum Tenens.76
This item also includes a short biography of Metropolitan Alexius. The same issue of Pravda contains a letter dated May 19 from Alexius to Stalin in which he expresses his intention of pursuing the policy of Sergius. Texts of biography and letter follow by airmail.77
- Alexy was invested as the thirteenth Patriarch in February 1945.↩
- Not printed. In his letter of May 19 to Stalin the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, among other things, declared: “In my future activities I will unalterably and steadfastly be guided by the principles which marked the ecclesiastical activity of the deceased Patriarch: observance of the canons and Church regulations, on the one hand, and unalterable loyalty to the country and to our Government headed by you, on the other.” (861.404/575)↩