WIFE OF THE PATRIATCH ALEXY FOUND

Evgeniy Sidorenko (MN, 22 May, 2001) gives detailed account on the wife of Alexy Ridiger: Vera Alekseeva, b. 1929, still alive. She was the daughter of Fr. Georgiy Alekseev, in 1950 the dean of the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Tallinn. They've been married on April 11, 1950, and four days later Ridiger was ordained a deacon.

The marriage was not because of love. In 1950 Stalin cancelled postponement of army service for seminarians. The only way for Ridiger to avoid army was to be ordained. He obviously didn't want to become a monk.

The spouses separated the same year. Vera Ridiger married again, now she is Vera Myannik, has two sons, lives in Tallinn.

The are several interesting details. First, official biography of the Patriarchy not only lied through failure to mention his marriage. It lies directly stating that Patriarch didn't serve in the army because of the heart desease.

Second, the wedding was held (because of urgency?) on the Easter week, which is against Russian Orthodox tradition (I don't know how is it in Greece,)

Third, the second marriage of priest's wife according to the spirit of Eastern Orthodox tradiion disparage the priest himself. I am not sure whether this situation can be called literally "uncanonical" but now I understand why Patriarch concealed the whole affair.

Fourth. Ridiger's father-in-law became a widower in 1952, was ordained a bishop of Tallinn. It seems that he didn't like Ridiger: he gave him a small parish far from Tallin. But in 1957 a strange and quick change of fate: bishop Ioann Alekseev made Ridiger a dean of the parish in Tartu (one of the most important towns of Estonia). In 1961 Alekseev was made bishop of Nizhny (then Gorky; he retired in 1963) and Ridiger became his successor. Can it be that Alekseev had yielded to the pressure of KGB which wanted to promote its agent?..