The invasion-supporting leader of the Russian Orthodox Church needed medical treatment after giving a speech condemning the West.
Known for his close ties to the Russian president, Patriarch Kirill has been internationally criticized for providing a religious justification for Vladimir Putin‘s war on his neighbor and refusing to unequivocally condemn the killing of people in Ukraine.
In March, he approved a document deeming the full-scale invasion a “Holy War” during a congress of the World Russian People’s Council at the site of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at the State Kremlin Palace on November 28, 2023, in Moscow, Russia. He fell ill during a speech in St Petersburg, Russian media reported on September 12, 2024.
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He revisited his anti-Western theme during a speech in Alexander Nevsky Square in St. Petersburg, where a religious procession had been held in honor of the transfer of relics of Nevsky, a 13th century prince who is a key figure in Russian history and was canonized in 1547.
The idea that in other countries “there are better shops, more fun,” and that life was “better” was an “illusion,” he told the faithful, but history shows that “the truth is on our side.”
But after the religious procession, the patriarch fell ill due to the heat and had to be escorted to an ambulance, according to St Petersburg news outlet Fontanka.
“Everything is fine, doctors helped him and he left in his car,” a source told the publication. Newsweek has contacted the Moscow Patriarchate for comment.
Patriarch Kirill has been condemned globally for his backing of the invasion. At the start of the war, he said Ukraine and Belarus were part of “Russian lands” and called the Ukrainians who were defending themselves against Russian aggression “forces of evil.”
The U.S.-based Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC), has previously condemned Putin’s invasion and the primate’s “un-Christian support” of it, calling in 2023 for church leaders, clergy and the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate “to resist Kirill’s slavish submission to the Putin regime.”
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has also cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. However, last month Ukraine’s parliament banned the UOC which it has accused of spreading pro-Moscow propaganda.
UOC spokesman Metropolitan Klymenthas denied the church had any links with “foreign centers and told Ukrainian media it would “continue to live as a true church, recognized by the vast majority of practicing Ukrainian believers and churches of the world.”
