Patriarch Kirill of Moscow - Wikipedia He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009 Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and also Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations
Kirill I | Biography Facts | Britannica Kirill was the first head of the Russian Orthodox Church to be elected after the fall of the Soviet Union He inherited from his predecessor, Aleksey II (reigned 1990–2008), a church that had experienced revitalization and tremendous growth following the end of official state atheism in Russia
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus Metropolitan Kirill put in much effort to the development of bilateral contacts of the Russian Orthodox Church with each of the Local Orthodox Churches He was the first to represent the Russian Orthodox Church in SYNDESMOS - the World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth