Farewell to the confessor of Patriarch Kirill took place in Optina Desert

The farewell to the confessor of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Archimandrite Elijah (in the world Alexei Nozdrin) took place on March 17 at the Optina Pustyn Monastery in the Kaluga region.

The Izvestia footage shows that the queue of those wishing to say goodbye to the archimandrite stretched across the entire courtyard of the monastery.

The death of Patriarch Kirill's confessor at the age of 94 became known the day before. It was noted that the monk was also the confessor of the Optina Desert brotherhood.

Ilya was born in 1932 in the territory of the modern Oryol region. In 1966, he took vows, lived in the Pskov Caves Monastery and on Mount Athos, and in 1989 became the confessor of the newly restored Optina Desert. In 2009, he was elected confessor to Patriarch Kirill.