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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, sent the following letter of greeting to Baron Tiesenhausen:

Dear Vassily Nikolayevich!

I wholeheartedly greet you with your 80th birthday.

You have devoted the major part of your life to church activity, mainly to the upholding of the Russian Orthodox traditions in France. During many years you were a member of the parish council of the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Parish, a secretary of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe, and stood at the origins of the Movement for the Local Russian Orthodox Traditions.

Your have selflessly worked for consolidation of relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, outbraving persecutions and unjust punishment. ‘For you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit’ (Gal 6:7-8).

On this remarkable day I wish you God’s help, good health and incessant joy in the Lord.

I invoke God’s blessing upon you.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk

Chairman

Department for External Church Relations

Moscow Patriarchate