Η
ιστορική Ιερά Μονή της Λαύρας του Ποτσάεφ στην Ουκρανία..το καστρομονάστηρο της
Ορθοδοξίας πάνω στο οποίο συνετρίβησαν τα στίφη των Τούρκων..των Τατάρων..του
Πάπα και της Ουνίας..η εικόνα είναι από την σωτηρία της Ι.Μονής από την επίθεση
50.000 Τούρκων το 1675..σήμερα κινδυνεύει από τους ναζί του Κιέβου και τους
ουνίτες οι οποίοι το πολιορκούν.. όσοι εκ των αδελφών έχουν κουράγιο μπορούν να
διαβάσουν το κείμενο στα αγγλικά http://orthochristian.com/110006.html
In the post-Maidan period, the Ternopil deputies of
the Provincial Council have repeatedly initiated the transfer of the Pochaev
Lavra with all of the surrounding territories of the regional historical
reserve, arguing that the Lavra is a “national treasure,” and therefore the
Greek Catholics, the schismatics of the false patriarch Philaret, and the
non-canonical “autocephalites” (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) have
the right to worship in it. In essence, this means depriving the canonical
Church of a great Orthodox holy site. Thankfully, the head of state has not yet
responded to the requests of the Ternopil deputies. Although a wave of
takeovers of parish churches has swept throughout the province and other
regions of Western Ukraine with the allowance and support of the local authorities.
Over the last several years, more than forty churches have been seized, mainly
in the Western regions of Ukraine. But there’s a striking fact: The captured
churches are practically empty, and many “activists” of the raids have suffered
all sorts of misfortunes, as the faithful of these villages testify.
We spoke with Metropolitan Vladimir (Moroz), the abbot
of Pochaev Lavra, about all of this.
—Vladyka, an historical parallel involuntarily arises,
given that after the 1917 revolution the Bolsheviks supported the
self-proclaimed “Living Church,” transferring Orthodox monasteries and churches
to it. Likewise, there is an obvious political component now in the activities
of the Ukrainian schismatics—capitalizing on the national idea. Moreover, the
surge of aggression from raiders has fallen during the peak of political
aggravation and crises in the country. How dangerous are these initiatives of
the followers of the so-called “Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate”
today?
—You know, history is the best teacher. All these
“initiatives” from politicians bring their people nothing but harm. How can we
preserve unity and peace in our country when schisms in religious life are
being supported? What does it mean to take a church from one confession and transfer
it to another? It’s a crime. But the initiators of such methods should also
remember that they are taking churches not just from the people, but from God,
for it says in Scripture: My house shall be called the house of prayer (Mt.
21:13).
You see, in Soviet times there was such a powerful
atheistic machine at work, and yet it couldn’t manage to close the Pochaev
Lavra. Remember the 1960s, when in the period of the Khrushchev persecutions
local authorities declared a real war against our Lavra—the monks were
forcefully driven into the forest and fields, deprived of their residency
permits, thrown in jail and psychiatric hospitals, and their cells were flooded
by hoses. But the Mother of God did not allow a closure; the Lavra endured.
—After all, the Turks, Tatars, and Uniates have wanted
to close the Pochaev Lavra many times.
—There’s an historical episode depicted on the walls
of the Dormition Cathedral: a blockade of the Lavra, with Tatars releasing
hundreds of arrows. But above the monastery is the Most Holy Theotokos, and the
arrows are being turned back, striking the invaders. They are put to flight;
and this is not a fairytale—it’s a real testimony to God’s intercession. This
event is preserved in the chronicles and other documents. That’s how it was. In
August 1675, Mehmed IV, the Turkish sultan, was determined to take revenge on
Poland for violating the Buchak Accords, and for the defeat at Khotyn. He sent
50,000 Turkish-Tatar troops with horses under the command of Nureddin, the
Tatar sultan, to attack the king. As usual, the Tatars left a scorched earth in
their wake. And lo and behold, on the path of this bloody army was the small
and unprotected Orthodox monastery of Pochaev. Approaching it, the Turks had
already burned the neighboring buildings; they killed two of the brethren and
began to prepare for an assault. From the army’s point of view, the siege of
the monastery was not a major operation: At that time, the monastery had
neither fortress walls nor watchtowers, as is depicted in later engravings, and
behind its wooden fence hid many civilian refugees. They expected no help from
anywhere. The abbot of the monastery Fr. Joseph (Dobromirsky) blessed the
brothers to appeal to their sole protectress—the Mother of God—and to the
blessed God-pleaser, St. Job of Pochaev.
Early in the morning of August 5, the Turks stormed.
The monks responded by serving an Akathist before the miraculous Pochaev Icon
of the Mother of God. They had only just begun to sing the first kontakion, “To
Thee the Champion Leader,” when the Queen of Heaven herself appeared above the
Holy Trinity Church with an outstretched omophorion in her hands, and with the
Heavenly angels and St. Job. The Turks saw them and began to release arrows at
these Heavenly protectors, but the arrows returned and struck the bowmen
themselves. The attackers were terrified and bewildered, panic seized them, and
they took off running. According to the Lavra’s chronicles, several of the
captives remained in the monastery after that, adopted the Christian faith, and
remained there until the end of their days in monastic obedience. This event is
forever imprinted in the memory of Pochaev and of the whole Church.
Thanksgiving to the Heavenly Queen for this miraculous salvation is offered
daily before the miraculous Pochaev Icon and before the reliquary of St. Job.
There are innumerable examples of the intercession and
help of the Theotokos, and every pilgrim and parishioner of the Lavra still
experiences this aid. The Mother of God also appeared here in 1240 in a pillar
of fire and left her footprint on a rock. She, like the burning bush, bore
witnesses that this place is holy. She is the abbess here and the patroness of
this land…
—Vladyka, tell us about the tragedies that befell
those who carried out the Khrushchev persecutions here, in Pochaev.
—It’s a tragic story. There was a first secretary of
the district committee in Kremenets named Andrei Ichansky who had the goal of
closing the Lavra by any means. He gathered information on the monks and
reported it to the KGB. When they closed the monastery’s Holy Trinity Skete, he
was personally present for the dismantling of the antique iconostasis and
nearly spit on the icons, blaspheming the saints. One of the women said to him,
“Do you not fear God and His punishment?” “Who is He? Let Him punish me!”—he
laughed and left. And that same day, his daughter who was studying chemistry in
Lvov University was doing some experiments in the laboratory when a flask with
acid exploded in her hands and burned her face and eyes; she was blinded, and
then died… She was buried in the village cemetery not far from the Lavra. Then
this communist wept bitterly and kept saying, “O God, O God, why have you
punished me so harshly…?” They say he then repented and believed in God.
—I wonder, do today’s persecutors know about these
events you have mentioned?
—They’re hardly interested. We can only pity these
people: They consciously commit these crimes, attacking the holy places, and
that never goes unpunished. The question is—what is their purpose? What do they
want? To fill up the measure of iniquity, to repeat the path of their
predecessors, the persecutors of Christ? If they are believers (and they
present themselves as defenders of the faith), then the Lord does not teach us
to act this way. Moreover, they think that monks are weak-willed people. But
monks are not at all weak-willed: They are confessors and are ready to lay down
their lives for Christ at any moment.
Therefore, I pity our countrymen, our contemporaries
who dare to assault the Church of Christ, interfering in the realm of the
spiritual life, being completely ignorant of it, and thereby drawing upon
themselves nothing but the punishment of God. We must perceive the spiritual reason
in all of these anti-Church phenomena and various political initiatives. In the
words of Dostoyevsky, Satan fights with God, and the field of battle is the
heart of man…
Festal Divine Liturgy in the Pochaev Lavra’s Holy
Transfiguration Church, August 5, 2017, the day of the Pochaev Icon of the
Mother of God
Festal Divine Liturgy in the Pochaev Lavra’s Holy
Transfiguration Church, August 5, 2017, the day of the Pochaev Icon of the
Mother of God
—However, a new wave of seizures of Orthodox churches
has swept through in recent years…
—Clergy from neighboring districts where there were
church seizures come to see me. What is the result? People don’t go to these
churches; they are empty. Let’s take, for example, the famous Katerinovka,
where a real massacre was committed near the church. The supporters of the
“Kiev Patriarchate,” having secured the support of “The Right Sector,”
forcefully seized the Church of St. George on September 15, 2015. The invaders
used force—batons and tear gas, and twenty people were injured, including
defenseless women. Now the faithful of Katerinovka Village are building a new
church and praying in it. If you go there and speak with the priest, he will
tell you what consequences befell the raiders, what happened over the course of
these three years with these aggressors. Some have died, others have seriously
hurt themselves in various situations, one has gotten sick with tuberculosis,
another with jaundice, another was injured by a horse while plowing, another
got into an accident…
—What must be done so that peace could reign not just
in the religious life, but in Ukraine as a whole?
—The Lord has said, By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (Jn. 13:35). This is the main
condition for any peace—in families, in society, in government—the fulfillment
of this commandment of Christ. Why is there not mutual understanding between
people? It is because the desire to understand, respect, love, and rejoice in
one another has disappeared; and as a consequence—the growth of lawlessness.
St. Seraphim of Vyritsa said that in our times, people will perish from envy,
thirst for profit, and love of money. For the sake of money, they will sell their
family values, their conscience, their morality, and all that is truly valuable
for the sake of greed. Comfort is advertised as the ideal of human perfection,
in which we all desire to live, and modern man dies spiritually in pursuit of
this comfort. Man walks into such a jungle in the spiritual plane that he is
unable to leave on his own, he is already bound hand and foot to the forces of
evil, and Satan will not let go of his sacrifice. Man thinks: Just one more
step, just one more deal, then I’ll think about my soul… And so on until old
age, and then there is neither time nor energy for it.
—I would like, Vladyka, to finish our conversation on
an optimistic note. How should believers behave in these conditions?
—We must remember that the Lord is with us, and that
the thorny and narrow path leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. We are given
freedom, therefore we must use it more on prayer, and protect ourselves with
the Sign of the Cross more often, that the Lord would not deprive us of His
mercy, and that the Spirit of God would instruct us and inspire us that we
would remember that the path of patience, humility, and love leads to the
Heavenly Kingdom. It’s very difficult for Christians now, but the Lord sees and
knows our needs, and will never leave us without His protection and help. It
was no accident that He said, Fear not, little flock! (Lk. 12:32). We must have
the faith of the saints as an example—to, figuratively speaking, be deaf and
dumb to the temptations of this world.
Sergei Geruk spoke with Metropolitan Vladimir (Moroz)
or Pochaev
Translated by Jesse Dominick
Pravoslavie
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