Epifaniy: Patriots must abandon their "Russian" patron saint

Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: pomisna.info

The head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, said that Ukrainians should abandon their saint, in whose honor they were baptized, if the saint is related to the Russian Orthodox Church or Russia.

Answering the question of an lb.ua journalist what should she do if she was baptized in honor of Xenia of Petersburg, Dumenko replied that now we need to pray to some other Xenia: “We can talk about changing this or that saint. If we take Xenia, there are other Xenias in honor of which we can change the date of the celebration.” According to him, if a person wants to give up his saint in favor of some other, he must go to the priest and receive a blessing.

At the same time, Dumenko complains that the OCU believers demanded that the “Russian” saints be left in the calendar.

“We had to leave such well-known revered saints, although we know what role they sometimes played in history,” Dumenko added, speaking of St. Blessed Xenia of Petersburg, Right-believing Prince Alexander Nevsky and other saints.

Epifaniy is sure that the presence of these saints in the calendar is a temporary phenomenon caused by the request of the parishioners, and as the generation changes, the believers will not even remember these saints of God.

“It so happened in history that there was a certain period of time when we were united, were in this spiritual occupation, and it takes time to gradually move away from this Russian tradition,” said the head of the OCU.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the OCU announced a complete transition to a new calendar.

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