Authorities in Lviv Region refuse to permit OCU monument to ROC metropolitan

Site of the monument in Sambir. Photo: Leopolis

A conflict is brewing between the authorities and the OCU in the city of Sambir, Lviv Region. According to Leopolis, representatives of Dumenko’s organization began building a pedestal for a monument to Saint Pavel Koniushkevych – Metropolitan of Tobolsk and All Siberia of the Russian Orthodox Church – without obtaining the required authorization from the city authorities.

Several months earlier, Fr. Oleksandr Shvets, rector of the local OCU parish, had appealed to the authorities requesting permission to erect a monument to Saint Pavel Koniushkevych on St. Paul’s Square in Sambir.

The executive committee of the Sambir City Council replied that, under the established procedure for erecting monuments and memorials, the petition must be accompanied by a justification of the monument’s expediency within the locality, along with an expert opinion from the Department of Culture, Nationalities and Religions of the Lviv Regional Administration.

However, the OCU parish failed to submit the required documentation, and therefore the city executive committee did not grant authorization for construction.

Nevertheless, preparations for the monument’s unveiling continue actively.

According to Leopolis, local residents are angered by the construction of a monument to a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. They argue that the fact that the saint was born in Sambir and that his parents came from the nearby village of Luka is not, in itself, sufficient grounds for erecting a monument.

The issue has sparked heated debate on social media. OCU cleric Fr. Arsenii Revtov wrote that in western Ukraine, people “want to put up monuments only to Uniates, traitors to the Orthodox faith.” “All you want is to shove your Sheptytsky everywhere, but Ukraine was and will remain Orthodox,” Revtov commented.

Saint Pavel (in the world – Petro Koniushkevych) was born in 1705 in Sambir. He studied and later taught at the Kyiv Academy. In 1758 he was appointed Metropolitan of Tobolsk and All Siberia of the Russian Church. He died in 1770 and was canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2008. His relics rest in the Far Caves of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. He was also “canonized” by the former Kyiv Patriarchate.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in Zhytomyr, the historic Intercession Church, which has been under the OCU’s control for ten years, is falling into ruin.

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