Jerusalem Bishop: The killers of the monk in Svyatogorsk must be punished
A hierarch of the Jerusalem Church commented to the UOJ on the murder of monk Varsanofiy at the Svyatogorsk Lavra and demanded that the investigation be brought to completion.
Metropolitan Timothy of Bostra (Jerusalem Patriarchate) commented to the UOJ on the murder of monk Varsanofiy at the Svyatogorsk Lavra.
According to him, such violence became possible because years of harsh rhetoric directed at the UOC created an atmosphere of hatred and intolerance toward the Church.
The hierarch emphasizes that behind the tragedy in Svyatogorsk lies a spiritual enmity that destroys love among Christians.
Metropolitan Timothy demands that the investigation be brought to completion and that it not be allowed to be determined by political expediency.
Full text of the comment
I have been following what is happening to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for many years, and I confess I had hoped it would not come to this. It has. At the Svyatogorsk Lavra, on a Sunday, at the walls of the church, monk Varsanofiy was killed, while novice Grigory and Andrei Kirienko, who lived at the monastery, survived apparently only because the attackers believed them to be dead. I offer my condolences to the brotherhood of the monastery and to the entire Ukrainian Church, and I pray at the Life-Giving Tomb for the repose of the slain and for the recovery of the wounded.
I am asked how to understand this. It is to be understood simply. The last words of Father Varsanofiy, as reported by the Lavra, were: "Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!.. I am a monk." The man died without renouncing that to which he had pledged himself at his tonsure, and the Church knows such a death and is able 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 their hand must be established by the investigation, and I will not anticipate its conclusions. But one thing must be said. In recent years, a heavy atmosphere has formed around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: its faithful have often been spoken of publicly in ways unbecoming of fellow citizens and co-religionists, and the harshness of such words has long ceased to trouble anyone. Yet a word never remains merely a word. It gradually changes what people consider permissible, and where enmity becomes habitual, it grows ever harder to hold the line. I will not claim that what happened in Svyatogorsk directly grew from this — that is a matter for the investigation. But I am convinced that a society in which such words are spoken as a matter of course renders itself defenseless against calamity.
And at the root of this stands neither politics nor anyone's party. The Apostle speaks clearly: "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). He who sets co-religionists against one another and leads their enmity to murder is a murderer from the beginning, and his aim is always the same — to extinguish love among Christians.
Therefore I hope — and I think every bishop in my place would hope the same, as would every person who holds the rule of law dear in a democratic country — that the investigation will be brought to completion and that those who committed this act will stand before a court.
The worst outcome here would be silence. A case that quietly fades away tells society that a monk's life was worth little, and once said, such a thing is not forgotten. Therefore it would be desirable for the conclusion of this case to resound as a clear warning, so that no one else would have to mourn their own.
As a reminder, the attack on the residents of the Svyatogorsk Lavra took place on August 23 at around 11:00 a.m. near the St. Nicholas Church of the monastery. A group of unidentified individuals attacked the monastery's residents: monk Varsanofiy (Turyansky) was killed — according to forensic examination, from a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head and neck with damage to the skull bones; novice Grigory sustained approximately four stab wounds, including a penetrating lung wound; Andrei Kirienko — a refugee residing on the monastery's grounds — also received a wound with lung damage.
On August 25, the brotherhood of the Svyatogorsk Lavra bid farewell to the slain: a funeral service was performed, and the body was buried behind the altar of the Dormition Cathedral.
A criminal case has been opened in connection with the attack; the identities of the assailants have not been officially established.
