06.08 Soviet Dissident, Orthodox 'White Raven' Priest Dies From Stab Wound at Age 75
MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) Pavel Adelgeim, the priest apparently killed in the western Russian city of Pskov on Monday evening, was a veteran of the religious struggle against the Soviet regime, and known as one of a few members of the Orthodox clergy willing to speak out against the Church hierarchy.
The last free priest of the Moscow Patriarchy has been killed, prominent theologian Deacon Andrei Kurayev, wrote in a blog entry early Tuesday. What priest, especially one with a family to feed, will now be able to say openly and publicly [to the bishop he is reporting to]: 'Your Eminence, you are wrong!'?
Another theologian, Valery Otstavnikh, described Adelgeim in a blog entry on Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy's website as one of the Church's few "white ravens."
The exact circumstances of Adelgeims death remained unclear Tuesday, but officials said he died from loss of blood after a knife wound to the heart. Police quickly detained a man on Monday evening who they said was subsequently hospitalized for self-inflicted injuries, but would be questioned when he regained consciousness.
The attacker suffered from an unspecified mental illness and had lived with Adelgeim for several days, local lawmaker Lev Shlosberg told Dozhd television. The suspect in police custody was later identified as 27-year-old Sergei Pchelintyev, a graduate of Moscows Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, one of the countrys top film universities, according to Russian media reports.
Adelgeims friends and admirers said Tuesday that the priests life had been marked by a consistent struggle for the truth as he saw it, and a fearlessness of both secular and religious authority.
His open defiance of the Soviet regime meant that, as a young priest, he spent three years in a Soviet prison camp where he lost a leg. And he dramatically marked himself out from prevailing Orthodox opinion as recently as last year, when he called for leniency for feminist rock band Pussy Riot.
Two members of Pussy Riot are serving two-year prison sentences for a protest, which the band called a punk prayer, performed in Moscows Christ the Savior Cathedral shortly before Russias 2012 presidential election.
There is a real confrontation beginning between the Russian Orthodox Church and civil society, Adelgeim told Dozhd in an October interview, two months after the Pussy Riot members were convicted. Instead of sitting down with these girls, and explaining that you have to pray to God in Church, they put them in prison!
Adelgeims position was shared by only a handful of other Orthodox clerics and earned the disapproval of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who said last year that his "heart broke with bitterness" to hear religious people "downplay" Pussy Riot's actions. The Church used Pussy Riot to highlight a threat to the Orthodox faith and rally believers.
You could say that Father Pavel saved the honor of the Russian Church, Anna Shmaina-Velikanova, a professor of religious studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, told RIA Novosti. His remarks meant that non-Church people could say there were priests who stood up for [Pussy Riot].
Adelgeim was also a vocal critic of the Orthodox Churchs alignment with the Kremlin, which has become increasingly marked in recent years, and he advocated greater independence for parish priests.
The Church cannot be governed by vertical power; the Church is
