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Almost his first act when he was made Patriarch in 1925 was to proclaim that the main job of the Church is the salvation of souls and not politics. He also assured the Soviet Government of his Church's loyalty. Success has not ended all the criticism of Sergei. Here & there are still sceptics who call him a stooge of the Soviet Government. His policy lends itself easily to this charge. But the most intelligent members of the Russian-Orthodox Church agree that few patriarchs in history have done more for the Church than Patriarch Sergei.
Patriarch at Work. Success has made little change in Sergei. He now lives in former German Ambassador von der Schulenburg's house on Chistyi (bright or clean) Street in midtown Moscow. Sergei's second floor room is of monastic simplicity. His ground-floor office is a blend of old & new Russia. The walls are covered with age-old ikons and the latest war maps.
Sergei rises at seven, prays until nine —alone in his room or in the special little Patriarch's chapel which was blessed last fortnight. At nine, Sergei drinks his break fast — tea — and reads the newspapers. Then he studies his personal Bible, which is in Hebrew (Sergei also reads Greek, old Slavonic, some Latin and Finnish).
From ten till two, Patriarch Sergei sits in his office, attends to Patriarchal busi ness, gives interviews. Then, if the weather is good, he walks in his garden for an hour. Dinner consists of a dish of mushrooms or fish. His only known eating vice is a pas sion for boiled onions. As he receives the same food rations as a commissar, there is usually enough left over for other mem bers of his household.
Despite a weak heart (two Russian specialists attend him), Sergei is very severe with himself, practices the ascetic customs of the Russian monks. But his associates consider him warm and friendly, almost saintly. He is even-tempered, loves to talk and joke. During the air raids on Moscow two years ago, he refused to go to an air raid shelter, but sat and read through the bombing. "At my age," he said, bomb." "a cold Later is he much was more evacuated serious to than Ulyanovsk. Last fall he moved back to Mos cow in time for the Government's recognition of the Church, his own confirmation as Patriarch and the visit of the Arch bishop of York (TIME, Sept. 21).
Patriarch Sergei is also obliging. Since the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, so that Christmas Day comes during the first week in January, Sergei celebrated a special Christmas service for TIME'S Correspondent Lauterbach just to show him how it goes. For two and a half hours Correspondent Lauterbach stood (Russian churches have no pews) and shivered (Russian churches are unheated during the war) in the Bogoyav-lensky Cathedral. The service was sumptuous. The cathedral was packed with 5,000 worshippers, including many men, many young people. But though Patriarch Sergei wears heavy underwear under his gold velvet vestments brocaded with red and green flowers, last week he was in bed with the grippe.