by Stefano Caprio

In Kiev while Onufryj - leader of the Orthodox jurisdiction still linked to the Moscow Patriarchate - is calling on the Ukrainian government to stop the eviction, antagonist Epifanyj has already appointed a new superior of the Monastery of the Caves. The long history of the forge of the many souls of Russian Christianity developed in the mid-11th century through the enlightened leadership of the son of the first Prince Vladimir, Jaroslav "the Wise."

 

Since March 29, according to instructions from the Kiev Ministry of Culture, eviction operations have been underway at the Kiev Monastery (Lavra) of the Caves, the original monastery of all the spirituality of Kievan Rus' and its heir Orthodox Church. Some monks have already left the buildings, especially those occupied by businesses, complete with all kinds of machinery and tools, but the community's leadership insists on staying.

All the leaders of Russian Orthodoxy and beyond have mobilized for the Lavra, starting with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, and also many hierarchs of other Orthodox Churches scattered around the world.

In Ukraine there is a large concentration of metropolitans, archbishops, archimandrites and igumens, from both the Moscow and autocephalous and Greek-Catholic jurisdictions, all intent on asserting their right to represent the faithful who crowd the doors of the monastery, the main church and the various chapels.

Metropolitan Onufryj (Berezovsky) of Kiev is the head of the Upz Church, which is still formally linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, and in recent days has gathered the local synod to ask the government not to proceed with the eviction.

President Zelenskyj refused to receive him, referring him for jurisdiction to Culture Minister Tkačenko, who while assuring that "no violence will be used," confirmed the eviction order. Another Upz metropolitan, Kliment (Večerja) of Nežinsk, chairman of the synodal department for information and culture, insists that "there is no legal document that obliges the monks to leave the Lavra," challenging the ministry on the legality of the termination of the usufruct contract: "there is no date of March 29, 2023, and therefore neither today, tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow are we obliged to leave."

The most active and impetuous of the Upz metropolitans is certainly Pavel (Lebed), the superior (namestnik) of the Lavra since 1994, a loyalist of Patriarch Kirill, who has never stopped traveling to Moscow to receive instructions and represents the most uncompromising wing of pro-Russian Ukrainian monasticism.

His stances are not only obligatory because of his role, but also reflect his very decisive and politically and socially committed personality. In Ukraine he is known as "Paša-Mercedes" because of his passion for luxury cars, and even this reputation as an "oligarch metropolitan" has been shared with Kirill since the 1990s, when both of them tried to support church activities with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

For this reason, many businesses have been opened in the various buildings of the Lavra, some related to the needs of worship (printing press, production of candles and liturgical garments, icons and art objects), as is often found in large shrines around the world, but also others aimed solely at economic activities, such as furniture factories, technical stores, grocery stores, car workshops and others.

Metropolitan Pavel stated that the community will not move "until all legal procedures and appeals are concluded," about which, moreover, there is no definite news. He too stressed that the usufruct is tied to "an indefinite contract," pointing out that "it is certainly not the case to terminate it in wartime."

Confronted with the compromise proposal, which calls for the exit of only Onufryj, Pavel and the Upz seminary, to which the former seems to be amenable, the latter responded in a martyrological tone that "from the cross you don't come down, from the cross they pull you down." He added that "if we leave Kiev, then they will also kick us out of Počaev [where another large monastery is based], and then they will start picking on women's monasteries as well."

The namestnik recalled that "all the presidents of Ukraine were elected thanks to the prayers of the priests and faithful of the Upz Church," emphasizing the political strength of Russian Orthodox monasticism.

At the same time, he declared that he will "no longer talk to journalists, who start making scandals precisely during the Great Lenten Fast," using for "scandal" the verb buzit, not exactly an elegant expression usually reserved for street brawlers. "Look what's happening at the front, an egg costs 17 hryvnias, they're stealing billions all over the place, and you're picking on the Church, as if monks are guilty of everything," he recoiled.

"I got a shock when you invited me on television: you sit there with your tattoos and earrings, where are you from? From the woods? And you claim to explain to me how one should live? But to you one can only throw anathemas...," shouted the enraged metropolitan, who assures that he has "owned one car for many years, unlike all of you."

On the opposite side of the autocephalous Pzu Church, Kiev Metropolitan Epifanyj (Dumenko) has already asked to draw up a new usufruct contract to replace the Upz, not only for the Lavra, but for all the other monasteries scattered across the country, which are still state-owned.

In the meantime, he appointed the new namestnik of the Lavra in Pavel's place, in the person of Archimandrite Avraamij (Lotyš), a monk who a few months ago switched from Upz to Pzu jurisdiction. For this he is called "Brother Judas" by his former confreres, and was immediately excommunicated by the albeit mild-mannered Onufryj. Avraamij immediately invited all the monks to remain in their cells, naturally also passing under the homophorion (the stole of the metropolitan) of Epifanyj.

As if that were not enough, even the senior archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church (Ugkz), Svjatoslav Ševčuk, whom all his people call "Patriarch of Kiev," expressed his desire to at least be able to celebrate some liturgy in the churches of the Lavra, considering himself, not without reason, heir to the great fathers of Christianity of ancient Rus'.

Indeed, it was in the Lavra that the Theological Academy of Metropolitan Petro Mogila was also born in the seventeenth century, uniting the traditions of East and West through the use of Jesuit scholasticism, the origins of modern Ukraine.

As if that were not enough, even the senior archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church (Ugkz), Svjatoslav Ševčuk, whom all his faithful call "Patriarch of Kiev," expressed the desire to be able to at least celebrate some liturgy in the churches of the Lavra, considering himself, not without reason, heir to the great fathers of Christianity of ancient Rus'. Indeed, it was in the Lavra that the Theological Academy of Metropolitan Petro Mogila was also born in the seventeenth century, uniting the traditions of East and West through the use of Jesuit scholasticism, the origins of modern Ukraine.

Monasteries generally are oases of peace, silence and meditation, but this was never the case with the Lavra of the Caves, a hotbed of the many souls of Russian Christianity. It developed in the mid-11th century, thanks to the enlightened leadership of the son of the first Prince Vladimir, Jaroslav "the Wise," who wanted to give Kiev Christianity a greatness that was both spiritual and cultural, social and political.

He entrusted one of the first monks, Nestor the annalist, with the task of writing the "Chronicle of Current Times," the text celebrating the conversion of Rus' to Byzantine Christianity, and another monk, Ilarion, was chosen as the first Russian metropolitan, without waiting for a Greek prelate to be sent from Constantinople, anticipating the Russians' autonomy from the Byzantines. Ilarion left behind the famous "Discourse on Law and Grace," a eulogy of Vladimir and the principality of Kiev, extolling the "new people" born from the baptism of 988, thanks to the "new Constantine" prince, prophet of the new Christian Rome, which Moscow later took as its own definition, that of the "Third Rome."

The first monk to settle on the hill above the Dnipro River was the elder Antonij, who had spent a few years of experience on Mount Athos, the great "monastic republic" that began to form in parallel with the Kievan kingdom, and which formed the model for the set of individual cells, small and large community spaces, for the Lavra of Caves itself.

Antonij dug the first cave to isolate himself from the world and was soon imitated by many other ascetics, until one of them, Phaeodosij, was given the task of putting together a community under a rule, as had been the case with the first monks of the fourth century, Anthony and Pachomius of Egypt.

Russian monasticism thus intended to "return to the origins" of the whole history of anchorites and cenobites, and in general to Christian history, which begins again in Kiev (and later in Moscow). Feodosij imposed the rule of the Greek monastery of Studion, a "classical" variant of the great rules of monasticism of East and West, the Basilian and the Benedictine.

As the Life of Pheodosij recounts, "he chose a vacant place, located not far from the caves, and began to make efforts to make that place habitable: he fenced it off, built many cells, and then moved, together with the brothers, from the caves in the year 6570 [1062]."

The first namestnik "was in the habit of making the rounds of the monks' cells every night, in order to learn how each of them lives." Next to the rule, in fact, the monks used the style of idiorhythmy, the "diversity of vows" in which each one chose the one that suited him best: some in total silence, some painting icons, some even walled themselves in the cell (zatvornyj), and it was not easy even then to get one's head around.

The Paterikon of the Caves, a collection of stories and sayings of Kievan monks from the late 12th century, tells, among others, of the monk Marko, who had the task of preparing the graves of deceased monks by digging them beyond the caves. One day the brethren brought a monk who had died suddenly after an illness, and there was no room in the dug-out loculi. Then Marko said to the deceased, "Brother, wait a little, I cannot give you last rites yet." The deceased got up, sat down, and when it was time he anointed himself, and lay down in the new tomb.

The monks of Kiev are used to waiting, until the time to take the place prepared for them by the Lord. A thousand years later, nothing has changed.

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