A service is underway in Moscow's Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo to mark the first anniversary of the death of former Russian Orthodox Church leader Alexy II.
The patriarch died at the age of 80 on December 5, 2008, after leading the church for 18 years.
The service is being led by Patriarch Kirill.
Alexy II became patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, now the world's largest, in 1990, shortly before the collapse of the atheist Soviet Union, and presided over a religious revival in Russia, with thousands of churches and monasteries being restored and hundreds of new ones built across the country.
MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti)
