Bloody tears flowed from the icon in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Holy Week in Kyiv began with a sign

The Serbian Patriarch, Bishop Sergius of Bikhach and Petrovatsky called the current Kiev-Pechersk Lavra “Golgotha ​​of the Orthodox world”. “The crucified by persecution will be resurrected by freedom,” he believes. In the ancient Orthodox church, meanwhile, the most important time before Easter began – Holy Week. It was marked by two events: a ban for the priests of the UOC to hold services in the temples of the Lavra and the “myrrh-streaming” of the icon of St. Theodosius of the Caves Bloody tears flowed from the saint’s eyes…

The icon is located in the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. Believers noticed tears of a reddish hue on April 9. The image of Theodosius of the Caves, the patron saint of monks, sick and suffering, was painted in the 11th century, the icon is considered miraculous.

The Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, on the eve of Easter decided not to run into a “religious Maidan”. Several officials have already said that the monks will be evicted only after a court decision.

“If we have to wait for the decision of the court, which, I am convinced, will confirm the legality of these decisions, then we should wait so that in the future there will be no problems with appealing these decisions,” said the people’s deputy from the Servant of the People faction, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee for Humanitarian and Information Policy Nikita Poturaev. The same one who a week ago promised to take away from the UOC not only the Kiev-Pechersk, but also the Pochaev Lavra. According to rumors, the Office of the President decided to wait for a court decision, since they are completely confident in the verdict of the judges who agreed to side with the Ukrainian authorities.

In the meantime, the monks, priests and parishioners of the monastery are trying to influence in different ways. For example, it was forbidden to use sound-amplifying equipment during worship. The fact is that for more than a week, services have been held on the street – on the square in front of the temples. The entrance to the cathedrals themselves was closed to the priests of the UOC, representatives of the OCU are in full charge there. Therefore, the picture of morning prayers looks like this: a couple of dozen parishioners of the OCU in churches with their hierarchs, and thousands of Orthodox UOC praying on the street.

And the closer Easter is, the more all kinds of inadequacies are drawn to the Lavra, who literally rush at the believers. Among them are radicals, wrapped in Ukrainian flags, who are chanting “Suitcase, station, Russia,” and some gopniks who call on the devil during Orthodox prayers. Knowledgeable people say that closer to any church holiday, all kinds of mentally ill people are drawn to churches. And now there are so many of them, because mass attention is riveted to the event. And these poor people want to be in the center of what is happening.

But even without “accredited provocateurs” is not complete. These can be identified by their microphones and an urgent desire to capture everything on a camera or phone. On Easter, April 16, the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onuphry prepared a “beautiful picture” for them: he calls on the faithful to go in a big procession from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to the building of the President’s Office. The main thing is that the security forces do not seize the monastery itself at this moment …