Kiev, April 8, 2025
Photo: spzh.eu
Voices of protest are rising from across the Orthodox Christian world as religious leaders and monastic communities condemn the Ukrainian government’s recent decision to conduct scientific examinations on the sacred relics of saints in the Kiev Caves Lavra.
The controversial examinations, conducted by a commission that included anatomists, biologists, and even a veterinarian but no Church representatives, have sparked accusations of blasphemy and comparisons to Soviet-era persecution of the Church. As the Ukrainian authorities claim to be evaluating the “historical and scientific value” of these venerated relics, Orthodox leaders, in addition to those within the Ukrainian Church itself (see 
The Saints Are Being Mocked Along With Millions of BelieversGod is not mocked. The saints are above all the blasphemies committed against their relics.
“>here and UOC hierarchs: Saints of the Kiev Caves will defend themselves, this will end poorly for the blasphemersOn Friday, a state commission was sent to the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra to “inspect” the incorrupt relics that lie in the Near and Far Caves. The group cut off the locks to the Caves and installed their own in order to block the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from accessing the Caves.”>here), are calling for immediate intervention to protect what they consider vessels of Divine Grace and witnesses to the resurrection.
Bulgarian Church
On April 4, His Eminence Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech headed a priestly conference of the Troyan Deanery. Various issues were discussed and the clergy adopted a letter in support of the persecuted Ukrainian Church, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Regarding the relics of the Kiev Caves, the clergy, led by Met. Gabriel, who is a Constantinople’s decision is against the canons—Bulgarian Met. Gabriel of LovechThe decision of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, announced on Thursday, October 11, does not correspond to the canons of the Church, and the problems arising from it must be discussed at a pan-Orthodox Council, His Eminence Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church said in an interview with TASS on Friday.
“>staunch defender of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine, includes a prayer to God and the saints of the Caves not to allow the desecration of their relics and for their relics to be returned to the canonical Church under the omophorion of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
The clergy also expressed sympathy for the brutal attack on and seizure of the Archangel Michael Cathedral in Cherkasy that took place Violent seizure of Orthodox cathedral in Cherkasy leaves dozens injured (+VIDEO)The anti-Orthodox schismatics and nationalists of the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine” (OCU), founded by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, finally managed to violently seize the Archangel Michael Cathedral in Cherkasy after several attempts.
“>in October and called for the perpetrators to be punished and for the church to be returned to the UOC diocese.
Mt. Athos
Monks from Athonite cells condemned the examinations being undertaken by various scientists, likening it to the persecutions of the Soviet era.
“Away with this blasphemy” the monks exclaim. They explain the veneration of relics in the Orthodox Church, which the state’s commission seems to know nothing about:
We remind that the Orthodox Church considers the holy relics vessels of Divine grace, and according to Orthodox Patristic theology, we give them reverent veneration. St. Gregory Palamas (Archbishop of Thessaloniki) clarifies that just as the divinity of Christ didn’t abandon His human body during His three-day burial and Resurrection, so the grace of the Holy Spirit doesn’t abandon the bodies of the saints after their biological death, which is why as Orthodox we reverently kiss the holy relics to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit that dwells in them. The existence of the holy relics confirms the hope of Resurrection and eternal life, the truth of the Gospel, and the experiential experience of deification.
Any faithful Orthodox Christian would call the examinations “a pure blasphemy by the Ukrainian authorities not only against the Orthodox brothers of the canonical Orthodox Church,” the monks are sure.
The eagerly await the judgment of the Local Churches, and first of all of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. “It’s no longer possible to pretend that nothing tragic is happening in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its holy places.”
The monks also call on the Sacred Community—the governing body of Mt. Athos—to respond to what is happening with the Kiev Caves relics.
The Athonite fathers close with a prayer to the Kiev Caves saints and a question: “How, and especially why, determine the scientific value of the holy relics? Perhaps these actions are being taken to see how Orthodox Christians around the world will react to an additional conscious blasphemy?”
Church of Greece
From within the Church of Greece, Fr. Anastasios Gotsopoulos, who has continually stood up Greek priest under fire for supporting Orthodoxy in UkraineA priest of the Orthodox Church of Greece who is known as an outspoken critic of ecumenism and supporter of Orthodoxy in Ukraine is being threatened with defrocking by his ruling hierarch.
“>in defense of the persecuted UOC, sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew and other primates and hierarchs, calling on them to speak out against what is happening with the Kiev Caves relics.
“With feelings of holy anger and indignation, Orthodox Christians throughout the world are witnessing the desecration of the holy relics, dozens of incorrupt holy relics, of the Kiev Lavra by the Zelensky regime,” he begins.
The commission members are “desecrating the saints” with their research, he warns.
Pat. Bartholomew and the other primates who have recognized the schismatic OCU should warn Zelensky about what happens when you fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31), he writes.
“We make a most fervent appeal to your Episcopacy and we ask and beseech you: Raise a voice of denunciation and protest so that the desecration of the saints of our Orthodox Church may stop,” he pleads, lamenting their silence about the abuse of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“This silence of pan-Orthodoxy has emboldened the barbarians of Kiev, and they’re now proceeding to rape and abuse even the triumphant Church of the firstborn, and the saints which are written in Heaven (Heb. 12:23).
Silence in this matter equals consent, the Greek priest warns.
ROCOR
In an interview with the American branch of the Union of Orthodox Journalists, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem accused Ukrainian authorities of “trying to put a scientific face on the defacing of Orthodox holy things and the Orthodox people.”
“You have myrrh-gushing skulls there—how do you [scientifically] explain that?” Fr. Roman asked rhetorically. What the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture is doing today is no different than the “research programs” of the Soviet regime of the 20th century, which seized and destroyed relics under the guise of “scientific inquiry,” he added.
“This is the devil, bringing out his full armies against the Church, the same as they did in the 20th century,” he said, “and we as Orthodox Christians seem to have learned very little from our past, and we just continue to follow the ways of this world, forgetting the one thing needful.”
Patriarchate of Jerusalem
And on Saturday, April 5, following the Liturgy for the Salutations of the Mother of God, the abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod, who is still being held under house arrest away from his monastery, had a video chat with the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos conveyed his blessing and expressed support for Met. Pavel and the Lavra brotherhood.
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Source: Orthodox Christianity
