Alexy (Simansky), metropolitan in 1933-1945

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
ALEXY (born Sergey Vladimirovich Simansky) (1877-1970), religious figure, Doctor of Theology (1949). After graduating from the Faculty Of Law of Moscow University in 1899, he entered Moscow Theological Academy where he took monastic vows in 1902 under the name of Alexy. On graduating from the academy in 1904 he was appointed Rector of Pskov Theological Seminary. From 1906, he served as Rector of Tula Theological Seminary, in 1911 he became Rector of Novgorod Theological Seminary and Prior of the St. Anthony Monastery. In 1913, he was made Bishop of Tikhvin and Vicar of Novgorod Eparchy. In 1921, he was ordained as Bishop of Yamburg and Vicar of Petrograd Eparchy with his residence in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In the early 1920s Alexy was arrested several times, and from 1922 to 1926 he lived in exile in Kazakhstan. In 1926, he was made Archbishop of Khutyn, and served as Archbishop pro tempore of the Novgorod Eparchy from 1926 until 1932. In 1927, he was appointed a permanent member of the Provisional Patriarchal Synod. In 1932, he was assigned to serve as Metropolitan of Staraya Russa, in August-October of the following year he was Metropolitan of Novgorod; in 1933-43, he served as Metropolitan of Leningrad and Gdov. In 1943-45 he was Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod. In Leningrad, after he was evicted from his apartments in Novodevichy Convent, he lived for some time in the belfry of the Cathedral of St. Prince Vladimir, then in St. Nicholas’ Naval Cathedral. He never left Leningrad during the siege of 1941-44, and initiated fundraising for the Dmitry Donskoy Tank Regiment. In May of 1944, he handed over his suburban summer-house to be rebuilt as a children's home (for children of soldiers and officers who died during the war). He served as the Locum Tenens of the Patriarch from 1944, and was eventually enthroned as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in 1945. He was elected Honorary Member of Leningrad Theological Academy in 1952.

References: Очерки истории Санкт-Петербургской епархии. СПб., 1994. С. 263-267; Manuil (Lemeљevskij). Die russischen orthodoxen Bischцfe von 1893 bis 1965: Bio-Bibliogr. Erlangen, 1979. T. 1. S. 157-167.

A. I. Razdorsky. Alexy (Sergey Vladimirovich Simansky), Metropolitan
Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Prince
Очерки истории Санкт-Петербургской епархии. СПб., 1994
Manuil (Lemesevskij) Die russischen orthodoxen Bischofe von 1893 bis 1965: Bio-Bibliogr. Erlangen, 1979 Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Novodevichy Convent
Cathedral of Prince St. Vladimir
St. Nicholas' Naval Cathedral