Sviatohirsk Lavra bids farewell to murdered Monk Varsonofiy

Funeral service for Monk Varsonofiy (Turianskyi). Photo: Sviatohirsk Lavra

On August 25, 2026, the brethren of the Sviatohirsk Lavra bid farewell to Monk Varsonofiy (Turianskyi), who had been killed two days earlier in an attack by unknown assailants on members of the monastery community. The monastery press service reported this.

The newly departed monk’s body was brought from the morgue and placed in a coffin in the middle of the Lavra’s Dormition Cathedral. The monastery brethren concelebrated the funeral service, and before the burial Archimandrite Theophan delivered a eulogy for the departed monk.

After the rite of the final kiss, Monk Varsonofiy was buried behind the altar of the Dormition Cathedral – next to the graves of Archimandrite Galaktion (Vuichenko) and Monk Aristokliy (Khashchyna), who were killed during shelling of the Lavra in 2022. The Lavra brethren expressed their deepest condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones.

The attack that claimed Monk Varsonofiy’s life took place on August 23 near St. Nicholas Church at the Lavra. According to the medical death certificate issued by the Sloviansk branch of the Donetsk Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, Father Varsonofiy died from a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head and neck, with damage to the skull bones, sustained in an attack with intent to kill using a handgun.

The brethren found the monk lying in a pool of blood on a landing of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius staircase. His last words were: “Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!.. I am a monk.” Criminal proceedings have been opened over the attack, and the investigation is ongoing.

Monk Varsonofiy, born Vasyl Turianskyi, was born on July 22, 1973. He earned two university degrees and worked as a design engineer before joining the brethren of the Sviatohirsk Lavra in the summer of 2013. On January 1, 2015, the monastery’s abbot, Bishop Arseniy, tonsured him as a rassophore monk with the name Eusebiy, and on April 23, 2019, Metropolitan Arseniy tonsured him into the monastic rank with the name Varsonofiy.

At the monastery, he carried out obediences in the refectory, flower garden, and greenhouse. On the day of his martyr-like death, he had received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

As the UOJ reported, on August 23, a memorial service was held at the UOC’s Sviatohirsk Lavra for Monk Varsonofiy (Turianskyi).

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