Anti-church activists: foolhardiness and folly

Bolsheviks nationalize church property. Photo: open sources

The Commercial Court of Ternopil Oblast has ruled to transfer the churches and monastic cells of the Epiphany Monastery in Kremenets to the state. The judge’s signature has, in effect, sanctioned the destruction of a monastic community where nuns had been praying for Ukraine, for Ukrainians, and for peace upon our land. Now those prayers will cease. Liturgies will stop, parishioners will no longer be able to confess or receive Communion.
Will life in the country become better, more beautiful, or more prosperous? No, it will not.

But that’s not the point here.

On September 5, 2024, during the inventorying of the Epiphany Monastery’s property, Natalia Kalenikova – head of the Department for the Protection, Operation, and Restoration of Monuments of the Kremenets-Pochaiv State Historic Reserve – suddenly collapsed and died. She was just 42 years old.

On April 8, 2023, during the seizure of the Nativity of the Theotokos Church of the UOC in Lypovets, Kyiv Oblast, an OCU activist, Ivan Semtsov, suddenly collapsed and died. His death came just after he tore a cross off a priest and threw it to the ground.

On August 20, 2023, just hours after a campaign to “transfer” the Nativity of the Theotokos Church in Dovzhok, an OCU activist drowned. She had suffered a pulmonary embolism.

These are only a few recorded cases of people who set themselves against the Church and died. Soviet archives preserve many similar examples – Komsomol members and Communist officials who blew up Orthodox churches and destroyed icons often met similarly tragic ends.

We are not trying to frighten anyone. God does not take revenge. He loves those anti-church activists who perished no less than He loves the saints. But at the same time, the Holy Scriptures say very plainly: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Of course, one can brush this all off as priestly tales and say that the deaths of anti-church activists are pure coincidence. But every person who chooses to go against the Church should ask themselves a very simple question:

What if it’s not a coincidence?
Then what?

Is the cost of testing that question not too high?

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