On May 23, in the Church Hall of the Cathedral of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, a ceremony was held to elect and award the laureates of the Patriarchal Literary Prize named after the Saints Cyril and Methodius. The short list includes 7 authors, among them - the head of the Memorial House-Museum, S. T. Aksakova, Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Russian Federation, Vice-President of the International Fund for Slavic Literature and Culture, Chairman of the Aksakov Fund, Russian writer and publicist Mikhail Andreevich Chvanov.

Traditionally, the prize is awarded to writers who have made a significant contribution to the establishment of spiritual and moral values ​​in the life of a modern person, family and society, which have enriched Russian literature. This year, for the first time in the history of the Patriarchal Literary Award, the nominees included in the short list, but did not become laureates, were awarded the Patriarchal badge "For contribution to the development of Russian literature."

According to the press service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, 47 applications from regions of Russia and neighboring countries - Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Latvia were received for the award.

According to the results of the voting, Dmitry Volodikhin, Alexander Strizhev and Mikhail Tarkovsky became winners of the 2019 Patriarchal Literary Prize.

    “I wanted to heartily congratulate the winners and nominees of this remarkable literary prize, which is firmly rooted in our cultural life. The very fact of the existence of this award and, undoubtedly, its ever greater and greater attractiveness is a good, kind signal, ”said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

All the nominees of the 2019 Prize were invited to the stage, each of whom was delivered by the Primate of the Russian Church to the Patriarchal Sign "For Contribution to the Development of Russian Literature" and a diploma.