Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called on teachers at the World Russian People's Council on Tuesday to make pledges of virtue.

"Pedagogy is a sphere of ascetics... this work is associated with deed, with self-exhaustion. People give themselves, their energy, and if necessary, their lives up to it," the patriarch told the World Russian People's Council in central Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

The two-day meeting began earlier on Tuesday and will see a discussion of issues of national education and juvenile justice.

The patriarch said that teachers "should make pledges... to maintain the highest righteousness, the cleanliness of life and the sanctity of matrimony."

Above all, he opined, they should set an example.

The World Russian People's Council, one of the largest international public forums, was first convened in 1993.

MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti)