His Eminence Metropolitan Cornelius of Moscow and All Rus' has sent official condolences to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's widow, expressing particular thanks that the well-known writer not only defended and praised the Old-Ritualists but shed specific light on the disaster of the seventeenth century.

Memory Eternal!

Fr. Serge

[From the website of the Old Believers' Metropolia of Moscow:]

An expression of sympathy on the occasion of the repose of A. I. Solzhenitsyn, to his
widow and those close to the departed:

Deeply respected Natalya Dmitrievna,

Please accept our most sincere and profound sympathy in connection with the repose of
Aleksandr Isaievitch.

Our native land has borne a loss that cannot be filled. The scale of Aleksandr Isaievitch's
personality is so great, that even the most lofty words about him would seem superfluous
and inappropriate. In the grateful memory of the Old Ritualists, Aleksandr Isaievitch will
remain, not only as a compassionate investigator of the reasons for the catastrophe of the
17th century, not only as a great witness of the millions of victims of the Gulag, but also
as a thinker, who like no one before him in Russian literature, pointed out the church
schism as the great tragedy of the 17th century.

May the Lord grant rest to his soul in the habitations of the just!

The Most Reverend Cornelius, Old-Rite Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russias

Alexandr

Since Alexander Solzhenitsyn, although sympathetic to the Old-Ritualists, was not one himself, one should appreciate the courage of Metropolitan Cornelius in expressing the hope that Solzhenitsyn may find rest among the just!

Similarly, throughout the sovietshchyna, the Old-Ritualists had a Panikhida every year, without fail, for Tsar Nicholas II and the Imperial Family on the anniversary of the murders.

Fr. Serge