ABSTRACT
Enthroned amidst great pomp and ceremony at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow on February 1, 2009, the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Kirill (Gundyaev) took the new title “Great lord and our father the Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kirill.” 1 For Kirill to become the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009 was not surprising. There were other viable candidates for the post, 2 but there was nobody more prominent in all arenas than Kirill, and no one known beyond the boundaries of the Russian Church more than Kirill.
