Why was Prytula let into the Lavra?
Prytula with his daughter in the Lavra. Photo: Prytula’s Instagram
Showman Serhii Prytula, known for raising millions for everything from satellites to drones, posted a photo on Instagram from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra with the caption:
“Our Lavra. Without Moscow priests. Without the Russian world. With comfort, grandeur, and an incredible history! Come! Bring your children, friends, and families!”
- Prytula forgot to add one more phrase about today’s Lavra: “without people.” Since the expulsion of the UOC clergy from the Upper Lavra and the cessation of worship, the once-bustling monastery has become deserted. Now, only the occasional well-heeled sightseer enters, having paid a hefty ticket price.
- It’s paradoxical how Prytula manages to reconcile the “incredible history” of the Lavra with the plain fact that this history was made by the very people he labels as “Moscow priests”. But to speak seriously, they were our ancestors, people who lived on the territory of modern Ukraine. They were the ones who built the churches and monastic buildings that Prytula now admires. They were the ones who restored them after the Soviet destruction. No one ever imported “priests from Moscow” into the Lavra.
- As for the Ministry of Culture and the OCU, currently running the Upper Lavra, they haven’t even built a shed. “Their” Lavra is crosses falling from the temples and shabby and peeling walls of the churches and old monastery buildings.
And yet, even to maintain the monastery in this state, money is needed, but people aren’t bringing any. After all, you drove them away.
Could that be why Prytula was let in, with his catchy slogan: “Come and bring others”? Do you really think it will help?
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