Alexy II of Moscow

Patriarch Alexy II was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Alexey Mikhailovich Ridigers father Mikhail Ridiger , born in Saint Petersburg, was a descendant of a Baltic German family. His ancestor Captain Heinrich Nicolaus Rdinger, the commander of a Swedish fortification in Dnamnde, Swedish Livonia, was knighted by Charles XI of Sweden in 1695. After Swedish Estonia and Swedish Livonia became part of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of the Great Northern War in the beginning of the 18th century, another forefather of Alexy II, Friedrich Wilhelm von Rdiger , adopted Orthodox Christianity during the reign of Catherine II of Russia. From the marriage with Darya Fyodorovna Yerzhemskaya was born the future Patriarchs greatgrandfather, Yegor von Rdiger .

Source: Wikipedia