Monastery in Crimea faces threat of closure

Russian occupation authorities continue discriminating the monastics of the Stauropegial Monastery of St. Paisius Velichkovsky of the UOC (MP) in the Crimea. First there was an arson attempt. Now the occupants threaten to close the monastery.

It was reported by Metropolitan Oleksandr (Drabinko) on his Facebook page.

Metropolitan Oleksandr said that the Monastery Superior, Archimandrite Havryil (Anisimov) and the monastery dean, Hieromonk Parfeniy (Humyrov), received a call from the “Chairman of the Department for Nationalities and Religious Organizations.” In a humiliating tone the latter demanded the documents of title to the land on which the monastery and the court are located, and threatened to close the monastery because it is under the spiritual authority of the Kyiv Metropolitans.

“After the fire, the so-called “Chairman of the Department for Nationalities and Religious Organizations” Vladimir Ryabykh required documents of title on the land on which the monastery and its courtyard are located. He said that the monastery would be closed, as, according to him, “on the Russian land” any foreign religious communities, especially Ukrainian, cannot exist a priori. "Comrade" Ryabykh called the Ukrainian monastery a “private concern,” the Metropolitan reports.

Note that the Stauropegial Monastery of St. Paisius Velichkovsky was founded by the late Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine (UOC-MP) of the blessed memory.

Its charter and certificate of state registration in the Russian Federation were approved by the occupation authorities, and until recently were not subject to any doubt and denial.