Jerusalem bishop on Sviatohirsk: A society that kills monks is defenseless

Metropolitan Timotheos. Photo: UOJ

His Eminence Timotheos (Margaritis), Metropolitan of Bostra (Jerusalem Patriarchate), commented to the UOJ on the killing of Monk Varsonofiy at the Sviatohirsk Lavra.

According to him, such violence became possible because years of harsh rhetoric against the UOC have created an atmosphere of hatred and intolerance toward the Church.

The hierarch stressed that behind the tragedy in Sviatohirsk lies a spiritual enmity that destroys love among Christians.

Metropolitan Timotheos called for the investigation to be pursued to its conclusion and warned against allowing political expediency to determine its course.

I have been following what has been happening to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for years, and I confess that I had hoped it would never come to this. But it has. At the Sviatohirsk Lavra, on a Sunday, outside a church, Monk Varsonofiy was killed, while Monk Gregory and Andriy Kyriienko, who was living at the monastery, apparently survived only because the attackers thought they were dead. I offer my condolences to the monastery brotherhood and the entire Ukrainian Church, and at the Life-Giving Tomb I pray for the repose of the slain monk and the recovery of the wounded.

I am asked how this should be understood. The answer is simple. Father Varsonofiy’s last words, as reported by the Lavra, were: “Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!.. I am a monk.” He died without renouncing what he had vowed at his tonsure, and the Church knows such a death and knows how to call it by its proper name: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 115:6).

Who exactly raised a hand against them is for the investigation to establish, and I will not anticipate its conclusions. But one thing must be said. In recent years, a grave atmosphere has developed around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: its faithful have often been spoken about publicly in ways one should not speak about fellow citizens and fellow believers, and the harshness of such rhetoric has long ceased to trouble anyone. Yet words never remain merely words. Little by little, they change what people consider permissible, and where hostility becomes commonplace, it grows increasingly difficult to maintain boundaries. I do not presume to say that what happened in Sviatohirsk directly grew out of this – that is for the investigation to determine. But I am convinced that a society in which such words become commonplace leaves itself defenseless in the face of tragedy.

At the root of this lies neither politics nor any political party. The Apostle says plainly: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:12). The one who sets fellow believers against one another and drives their hostility to the point of murder is a murderer from the beginning, and his aim is always the same – to extinguish love among Christians.

Therefore, I hope – and I believe that any hierarch in my place, indeed anyone who values the rule of law in a democratic country, would hope the same – that the investigation will be pursued to its conclusion and that those who committed this crime will be brought to justice.

The worst outcome would be silence. A case that quietly fades away tells society that a monk’s life was worth little, and once such a message has been sent, it is not forgotten. I therefore hope that the conclusion of this case will serve as a clear warning and that no one else will have to mourn their own.

The attack on residents of the Sviatohirsk Lavra took place on August 23 at around 11:00 a.m. near the monastery’s St. Nicholas Church. A group of unidentified individuals attacked Lavra residents. Monk Varsonofiy (Turiansky) was killed – according to the forensic examination, from a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head and neck that damaged the bones of the skull. Monk Gregory suffered about four stab wounds, including a penetrating wound to the lung. Andriy Kyriienko, a refugee living on the monastery grounds, was also wounded and suffered lung damage.

On August 25, the Sviatohirsk Lavra brotherhood bid farewell to the slain monk. His funeral service was held, and his body was buried behind the altar of the Dormition Cathedral.

Criminal proceedings have been opened over the attack. The identities of the attackers have not been officially established.

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