The Head of the House of Romanoff congratulates Metropolitan Kornilii of Tallinn and All Estonia on his 90th Birthday

From the Head of the Russian Imperial House

To His Eminence Metropolitan Kornilii of Tallinn and All Estonia

Your Eminence, my dear and deeply-respected Metropolitan,

I send you my heartfelt congratulations on your 90th birthday. As a descendant of a renowned family that distinguished itself in military service, for which it was granted many honors by my ancestor, Alexander II the Tsar-Liberator, you have since birth been raised in the spirit of Orthodoxy and traditional values, which have been conveyed to you by your ancestors.

For more than 70 years in your long and eventful life, you have served the Holy Church, rising from church reader to revered Hierarch, who now ministers to the Orthodox flock in an independent state.

The Russian Imperial House especially honors you for your struggles for the faith. In the years of atheistic persecution of the Church, you endured the crucible of an unjust prosecution and imprisonment, and bore all the suffering that fell upon you with genuine Christian feelings of love, patience, and forgiveness. Having been a prisoner yourself, you always found the strength to comfort and support those who, like you, had to endure great suffering, and to instill in their hearts hope and trust in God.

Once freed, you immediately returned to your pastoral work at a time when the clergy and the faithful were undergoing a new wave of persecution and oppression. At the very time when the Church was beginning to be liberated from persecution and was beginning again to participate in the life of the nation, you were called upon to take monastic vows and assume the episcopal rank. You became the successor of the ever-memorable Patriarch Alexis II in the Tallinn and Estonian See; and from that time on, with the deepest faith, kindness, and wisdom, you have labored to strengthen and expand the Orthodox Church in Estonia, to preserve Church unity, and to develop the spiritual and cultural connections between our two brotherly nations. 

I prayerfully wish you good health and many years of service to your Estonian flock and to the entire Russian Orthodox Church.

My son and heir, the Grand Duke George of Russia, also sends his congratulations.

Asking your archpastoral prayers and blessing, I remain ever yours in devotion,

H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Maria of Russia

Madrid

June 7/19, 2014