Source: The Tampa Tribune/The Washington Post
http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGB29PNIR0F.html
MOSCOW - Sergei Privalov, a soft-spoken priest who heads the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for Cooperation with the Military, Law Enforcement and the Security Services, is a busy man.
Everyone wants a patron saint.
"It's like a wave we are witnessing," he said. He pulled out a recent letter from the church's patriarch, Alexy II, approving a request from Rus, a special forces police unit long involved in controversial counterterrorism operations in Chechnya, that the legendary 13th-century military commander and saint Alexander Nevsky be named its patron.
Nevsky was already the patron saint of the FSB, Russia's internal security service. Meanwhile, the Strategic Rocket Forces, which oversee Russia's land-based nuclear missiles, have Saint Barbara, the tax police have Saint Anthony, the Border Guards have Saint Ilya Muromets and the Ministry of Interior's troops have Saint Vladimir, among dozens of other examples.
Moribund during the Soviet era, the Orthodox Church has been reborn as a powerful force in Russian life, building congregations across the country.