OCU raider: Seraphim of Sarov is “our Ukrainian saint”

After the Seraphim of Sarov Church joined the OCU, the saint himself was suddenly declared “Ukrainian.” Photo: Hryshchuk’s Facebook

On May 20, 2025, Roman Hryshchuk – a serial raider affiliated with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), who has forcefully and deceitfully “transferred” numerous UOC parishes in Bukovyna to Dumenko’s structure – gave a speech at the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, whose priest had recently joined the OCU.

In welcoming the priest’s decision, Hryshchuk unexpectedly declared that St. Seraphim of Sarov is a Ukrainian saint.

“With great joy and reverence, we prayed together today in this beautiful, wondrous church. We prayed to our Ukrainian saint, among others – Seraphim of Sarov, who served as a novice in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, who grew in faith and brought light where there was none,” Hryshchuk proclaimed.

He also asserted that Church Slavonic “is ours too – we shouldn’t give it up to the Moskals.”

It should be recalled that Hryshchuk previously referred to Russian Orthodox saints Xenia of Petersburg and Matrona of Moscow as “Russian nutcases.”

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