He was a prominent public person in 14th century Russia, and also a father of monasticism who established multiple monasteries. A friend of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, he tried to persuade him to become his successor as metropolitan but did not succeed. He is also the guardian angel of Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in 1990 – 2008.
The parents of Saint Alexis were dignitaries of the Russian royal court. They gave him a brilliant education and prepared him for court service, but Alexis was not drawn to worldly success and became a monk in his early twenties. Eventually, he became the Bishop of Vladimir, and then the Metropolitan of Moscow, the highest position in the Russian Church that was then under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
He served in the era of the domination of the Tartars over Russia. He travelled twice to the court of the Tartar Khan in the Golden Horde, where he healed the Khan’s daughter, softening the Khan’s heart towards his homeland and preserving the freedom of the Church.
Saint Alexis lived to be seventy-eight. He reposed in 1378 and was buried in accord with his last wishes at the Chudov monastery. His relics were uncovered miraculously fifty years later, after which the memory of the great holy hierarch and man of prayer began to be celebrated.
