Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow

Alexy II
Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'
Church	Russian Orthodox Church
See	Moscow
Installed	10 June 1990
Term ended	5 December 2008
Predecessor	Pimen I
Successor	Kirill I
Orders
Ordination	17 April 1950
Consecration	3 September 1961 by Nikodim of Leningrad
Personal details
Born	Aleksei Rüdiger 23 February 1929 Tallinn, Estonia
Died	5 December 2008(2008-12-05) (aged 79) Peredelkino, Moscow, Russia
Buried	Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo
Nationality	Russian
Denomination	Russian Orthodox
Spouse	Vera Alekseeva (1950–1951)
Signature
Coat of arms

Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, Russian: Патриарх Алексий II; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger^[1] Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Ри́дигер; 23 February 1929 – 5 December 2008) was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Elected Patriarch of Moscow in 1990, eighteen months before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he became the first Russian Patriarch of the post-Soviet period.