Lavra Reserve director says relics work complied with Ukrainian legislation

Kotliarevska with Dumenko and Lotysh. Photo: OCU

Acting director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Reserve Svitlana Kotlyarevska declared that her staff “worked” with the reliquaries of the Venerable Fathers of the Caves, taking into account the laws of Ukraine.

Speaking about the first “liturgy” of Serhiy Dumenko in the Far Caves of the Lavra, the official said “that this day is also the day of completion of the complex of measures for the preservation of the reliquaries with the holy relics of the Venerable Fathers.”

According to her, “this is a great spiritual undertaking of national significance, in which everything had to be taken into account – both the spiritual canons and the laws of Ukraine.”

Kotlyarevska reported that “the reserve worked with the reliquaries (tombs) and fabrics,” and that under her supervision “there are specialists who came to the Lavra as young students back in the 1980s and who have such unique experience of work.” Whether these employees had experience in re-clothing relics, she did not specify.

The official added that during the manipulations with the relics, the reserve cooperated with representatives of the OCU, who “in constant prayer and with regard for all the canons carried out the entire list of necessary actions specifically with the holy relics.” She did not state what this “list of necessary actions” entailed.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in the Lavra, reserve staff had been performing manipulations with the relics of the Venerable Fathers.

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