On Tuesday, March 21, the entrance to the caves with the relics of saints was closed in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
On March 20, the leadership of the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” sent a letter to the monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate with a message that from now on, access to the Near and Far Caves by the museum will be suspended due to the work of the commission, which will determine the level of preservation of cultural values.
The relics of the saints and other shrines are considered cultural and historical values. Prayer will also be impossible in several churches near the caves – access to the Exaltation of the Cross Church, the Annozachatievsky Church and the Church in honor of the Cathedral of All Saints of the Caves (Warm Church) is terminated.
The head of the Information and Education Department of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan of Nizhyn and Prilutsk Kliment, reported on “the concern of the UOC-MP with the method by which the state of preservation of the incorruptible relics of the “venerable Caves” will be determined.”
During the totalitarian Soviet era, campaigns were widely conducted by the atheist authorities to open the relics to show their state of preservation. These campaigns were accompanied by desecration of the shrine, the relics were removed from the arks, the covers were removed from them for a detailed description and display in museum showcases. The closing of the caves by the reserve without warning is an unprecedented manifestation of the restriction of the rights of Ukrainian believers, who recently travel en masse from different regions in the hope of bowing to the Kiev-Pechersk shrines, the UOC-MP said in a statement.
On March 20, a delegation of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine came to the office of the President of Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky. He did not come out to the priests of the Ukrainian Church affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Recall that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which was suspected in Ukraine of anti-Ukrainian activities, must leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra before March 29. With the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the lease agreement concluded in 2013 is terminated.
The Parliament appealed to the Security Service of Ukraine so that the museum valuables would not disappear during the liberation of the buildings and premises of the Lavra from the UOC-MP. The deputies had in mind the relics and other historically important items that should be returned to the state.
The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko said earlier that there are 800 exhibits on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
Source: Racurs
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