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Congratulatory Address by the members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the occasion of his name’s day.
DECR Communication service, 24.05.2025.
The members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church congratulated His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kirill on the occasion of his name’s day.
To: His Holiness
KIRILL
Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’
Your Holiness, Most Holy Master and our Merciful Father,
Christ is risen!
On this holy and exceptional day, when the Church continues to rejoice in the Risen Saviour, it is with special joy that we address you with this Paschal greeting on the occasion of your name’s day.
Again and again in rendering praise to the Maker, we never cease to wonder at his ineffable Providence and the depths of his wisdom. By the all-beneficent will of God you received in your monastic tonsuring the name in honour of the Enlightener of the Slavs the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril, through whose ardent labours our forefathers were able to enter the saving Orthodox faith and become “a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that them may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2.9).
In zealously imitating the deeds of your heavenly protector, you have dedicated all of your life to a self-sacrificial ministry to the Church of Christ and to the establishing of the Gospel truth, and with boldness you have “proclaimed the salvation of our God from day to day”. You heard this call on the day of your ordination to the diaconate and have taken it to be a guide by which to act. These words have emblazoned the banner over your life and many-years labours not only in your vocation as priest and bishop, but also on the lofty Primatial See of the Patriarchs of Moscow and All Rus’.
The Lord has endowed you with the radiant gift of speech – speech which, as Saint Paul says, “is always gracious, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4.6). Your inspired homilies, replete with great spiritual power and wisdom, teach the clergy and the people of God to “remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion” (Acts 11.23) and to “discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12.2). Your strong faith, patience and courage in bearing the cross of Patriarchal ministry, especially burdensome in the current difficult circumstances, provides us with an example of a true “worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2.15).
Like Saint Cyril the Philosopher, “Wisdom was your sister from birth … and she adorned your soul and mind as a precious jewel” (Troparion to the saint), you have displayed profound spiritual discernment when taking important decisions which have a significance for the destiny of the entire of the Orthodox world. Your tireless and sacrificial labours for the spiritual and moral enlightenment of your contemporaries, for the multi-faceted growth of the Church’s mission, for the preservation of peace within the Church and steadfast vigil for God’s truth are genuinely admired not only by us, your humble coworkers and faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also by millions of people throughout the entire world.
Through the prayers of the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril, Teacher of the Slavs, may the risen Christ strengthen you in body and soul, may he grant you the inexhaustible joy of Pascha and his merciful aid in your Primatial ministry in the future.
Eis polla eti, Despota!
of the Russian Orthodox Church
24th May 2025
Patriarch
Sermons
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