MOSCOW (AP) – The head of Russia’s Orthodox church has blessed the return of massive bells to Russia that were used at Harvard University for decades.

Alexy II spoke at a ceremony at Moscow’s Danilovsky Monastery, where the bells were taken away in the late 1920s amid Bolshevik purges that saw thousands of monks executed and churches destroyed. American industrialist Charles R. Crane bought the 18 brass bells from the Soviet government in 1930 to save them from being melted down.

They ended up at Harvard University.

Harvard is receiving replica bells cast in Russia and blessed by the Russian patriarch in exchange for returning the original ones.

The first bell was returned to Moscow in September, 2007, and the other 17 on Friday.