Confessor of Patriarch Kirill fell ill with COVID-19 Schema-Archimandrite

The confessor of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', Schema-Archimandrite Iliy, has contracted the CORONAVIRUS, the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church reported.

“The condition of Father Elijah is satisfactory. The clergyman is under constant medical supervision,” the message says.

Schema-Archimandrite Elijah (Aleksey Nozdrin) is 89 years old. While studying at the Leningrad Theological Seminary, where he entered in 1961, he was tonsured a monk under the name Ilian, later he was given the rank of hierodeacon and hieromonk. In 1966 he entered the Pskov-Caves Monastery, where he carried out obedience for ten years. Then he was sent to the Russian Athos Monastery of St. Panteleimon, and then, as a confessor, to Optina Hermitage, where they already gave the name Elijah. For 20 years he served in this monastery. In 2009, he settled in the Patriarchal Compound of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow. In April 2010 he was elevated to the rank of schiarchimandrite.

In October 2020, Patriarch Kirill himself was quarantined after coming into contact with a coronavirus patient. He later took a test for covid-19 , which came back negative. In March 2021, the patriarch was vaccinated. The HEAD of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media, Vladimir Legoyda, said that the patriarch was vaccinated with one of the three available Russian vaccines and felt good after the vaccination.