Metropolitan of the Bulgarian Church Condemns the Desecration of Relics in the Lavra
Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech has condemned the desecration of relics in the Lavra and the violent seizure of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Cherkasy.
April 4, 2025—Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, during a clergy conference in the city of Troyan, read a letter from the Bulgarian clergy addressed to Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy, according to the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) of Bulgaria.
The letter, adopted by the clergy of the Troyan region, expressed deep sympathy in connection with the barbaric takeover of the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael. It included a call for the perpetrators to be held accountable and for the church to be returned to its rightful owners — the Cherkasy diocese under the leadership of Metropolitan Theodosius.
The conference participants also offered prayers to God and to the venerable saints of the Kiev Caves Monastery, asking that no further desecration of their holy relics be allowed, and for the swift return of these sacred treasures to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophorion of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
Earlier, UOJ-America reported the remarks of monks of the Holy Mountain calling upon Constantinople to condemn the "examination" of the Lavra's relics, as well as the condemnation of these actions by Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky) of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem of the ROCOR.
