The Ukrainian authorities demanded that the monks leave the premises before March 29.
Thousands of people have gathered at Kiev’s Monastery of the Caves to attend what would likely be the last Sunday mass conducted by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, considered an autonomous part of the Moscow Patriarchate.
“A strong prayer resounds in the holy monastery. The world does not live by conversations, but by prayers. I ask you, brothers and sisters, to pray for brotherhood so that they can exercise their service here and also offer their prayers for the future“, declared Metropolitan Onufrio, addressing the believers.
The religious ceremony took place a few days after the monks were forced to leave the convent, their main headquarters. On March 10, the Kiev Monastery of the Caves national park, which depends on the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, demanded that the monks leave the premises before March 29.
This Monday, Metropolitan Onufrio and members of the Holy Synod went to the Office of the Ukrainian President, Vladimir Zelensky, to convey to him the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding the Monastery of the Kiev Caves. However, Zelensky ignored them and, after waiting in the street for several hours, the priests had to leave. On the same day, the Ukrainian authorities prevented the monks from accessing the relics of the saints in the aforementioned monastery.
For its part, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which for years lives under a wave of pressures from kyivwith temple searches in search of alleged anti-Ukrainian activitiesdescribed the notice as an “ultimatum”, specifying that the park administration reported “without giving explanations for the rupture of the rental agreement.”
Earlier, Ukraine’s Culture Minister Alexander Tkachenko said that the ministry will conduct an audit of museum artifacts, including the relics of saints, housed in Kiev’s Cave Monastery, one of the oldest in Ukraine.
Source: RT
