OCU "abbot": Everyone will be allowed into Lavra Caves – regardless of faith

Lotysh and Dumenko in the Lavra Caves. Photo: OCU

“OCU Lavra superior” Avraamiy Lotysh said in an interview with Novyny.LIVE that, in the near future, all who wish will be granted access to the Near Caves and the Faraway Caves of the Kyiv Caves Lavra.

“All the faithful – regardless of denomination, I want to emphasize this – will have access to the Near Caves and the Faraway Caves so that they may venerate our Venerable Fathers of the Caves,” Lotysh promised.

According to Lotysh, the caves are currently “under restoration.”

He assured viewers that even now “mothers come into the caves, falling down before the venerable ones, praying that their sons and daughters return alive, healthy, and unharmed.” How exactly they are getting in, given that access to the Lower Lavra has been blocked to the faithful since 2023, Lotysh did not explain.

Answering a journalist’s question about whom one should pray to in the caves for victory, the “OCU Lavra superior” said that “in principle, you can come to any of the fathers who have reposed, fall down before them, in order to receive spiritual help.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Ministry of Culture is planning to transfer all Lavra churches to the OCU.

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