Meeting of the Two Patriarchs. Patriarch Alexy I’s Visit to Constantinople (1960)

Abstract

From 23 to 26 December 1960, Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia paid a visit to Istanbul, where he met with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras (Spirou). This was the first ever visit of a Moscow patriarch to Constantinople. The meeting of the two church leaders completed the non-linear route of rapprochement between Moscow and Constantinople. Relations between the Russian and Constantinople Churches have not been easy. In addition to the weight of Cold War settlements, there were ancient disputes. The troubled events in the eastern Mediterranean — the Cyprus crisis (1955) and the military coup in Turkey (1960) — became the background against which the threads of the relationship between Athenagoras and Alexios, reconstructed from archival documents, were knotted. The relationship between the two Orthodox princes is interconnected with the processes that took place in the field of inter-Christian relations: the convening of the Second Vatican Council by John XXIII and the project of the pan-Orthodox meeting carried out by the Ecumenical Patriarch. The choice of the meeting of the two major patriarchs opened a new page in relations between Moscow and Constantinople. However, the dialogue between the two Churches has never been simple and has often followed confusing and contradictory paths. This will be confirmed after the meeting in Constantinople.