UOC hierarch: The Church came out of the catacombs to come back there again
Speaking of the life of the brethren and refugees in the Sviatogorsk Lavra during the hostilities, Archbishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshivka noted that the hardships, which they had endured, bonded them with the monastery. He said this during an interview with Ruslan Kalinchuk, a journalist for the First Cossack channel.
"There was a time when nothing, not even water, could be delivered to the Sviatogorsk Lavra. Then everyone was very worried. The holy archimandrite of the Lavra, Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol just cried, because he has been in Donbas for three decades, he built it all with God's help – the Lavra, the temples. What was it like for him to see these shrines, which were built with the sweat and blood of people to glorify the name of God, destroyed by shells? To date, we’ve transferred to the Lavra the most necessary things to support not only the brethren, but also the IDPs based there," says the Archbishop.
According to the hierarch, many refugees, who took refuge in the monastery from the horrors of war, do not want to leave there, because the Lavra has become their home sanctuary, because this is where they found shelter in the most terrible moment of life.
"They spent their most difficult moments here, under the protection of the Mother of God, with prayer on their lips. Even if the prayer was not in the temple, even if it was in the cellars, it was the most sincere prayer they had done in their lives. There is a statement that the Church came out of the catacombs, and it can end up in the catacombs," added the hierarch of the UOC.
As the UOJ reported, Archbishop Victor spoke about the spiritual life of Orthodox Ukrainian refugees.
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