Metropolitan Onufry celebrated the Liturgy on the feast of the Holy Trinity in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

MOSCOW, June 4 – RIA Novosti. On the feast of the Holy Trinity, the Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), Metropolitan of Kiev Onufry and All Ukraine celebrated the liturgy in the church of St.

Metropolitan Onufry congratulated the faithful on the feast of the Holy Trinity. Despite the persecution of the Ukrainian authorities against the UOC at this time, the temple was full of parishioners.

Over the past year, Ukrainian authorities have orchestrated the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the country’s recent history. With the support of the authorities, the separatist OCU carries out raiding seizures of churches, nationalists and separatists attack the clergy and believers. Local authorities in different regions of Ukraine made decisions to ban the activities of the UOC, and a draft of its de facto ban in Ukraine was submitted to the parliament of the country. The Security Service of Ukraine launches criminal cases against the UOC clergy, carries out “counterintelligence measures” – searches bishops and priests, churches and monasteries in search of evidence of “anti-Ukrainian activities”. Many members of the clergy were arrested and some were subject to state sanctions. In March, Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, implied the schismatic OCU, saying it “should be the only Ukrainian church” in Ukraine and called for “physically purging” the canonical UOC.

Also, Ukrainian authorities are trying to expel the UOC clergy from Russia’s oldest monastery, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. It was expropriated by the Soviet authorities, then in the 80s of the XX century its buildings were gradually put into use, but not in the possession of the Church. And in 2023, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine terminated the lease with the monastery and began to choose temples. Now the Lavra’s abbot is under house arrest, and the monastery has been sued by the Ukrainian authorities for alleged illegality of breaking the lease. Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said that the canonical UOC monks can stay in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra if they transfer to the schismatic OCU.

Trinity Day, the “twelfth”, is one of the 12 main church holidays. The date is lively, celebrated on the 50th day after Easter. According to the Bible, after his Resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to people and then ascended to heaven (the feast of the Ascension of Christ). As the Scriptures say, Christ preached that it would be better for the apostles to go, because otherwise “the comforter (Holy Spirit – Ed.) will not come to you” (John 16:7). The Church says the Spirit descends on Trinity Day, ten days after Ascension and fifty days after Resurrection. Hence the second name of the holiday – Pentecost. After that, the apostles spoke in different languages ​​and spread the teachings of Christ to the world. Therefore, the Trinity, the descent of the Holy Spirit, is considered the birth of the Christian church.