In Lavra, reserve staff tamper with holy relics of Venerable Fathers

Museum workers are conducting manipulations with relics. Photo: Telegram channel "Fortetsia Lavra"

On August 19, 2025, employees of the Lavra museum carried out unknown manipulations with the relics of the Venerable Pechersk Saints in the Near Caves, reports the Telegram channel "Fortress Lavra", publishing the corresponding photographs.

In the photos, an unknown man is doing something in an open reliquary placed at the entrance to the Near Caves. Nearby, liturgical vestments are hung on a rope.

"It looks wild, terrible, and disrespectful to our saints. What is happening with the relics is unknown. Since the brethren were banned from accessing the caves several months ago, our saints are in a completely unknown state. The feeling of terrible sacrilege does not leave," wrote the authors of the channel.

As reported, in March 2025, reserve employees, under police escort, broke the locks on the Near and Far Caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Since then, the fate of the saints' relics is unknown.

On March 28, 2025, members of the Ministry of Culture commission for veryfying the "presence of relics", accompanied by the police, broke the locks on the doors leading to the Near and Far Caves and replaced them with their own.

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