Kiev, March 6, 2020
Four more men gave their lives to God in holy monasticism yesterday, Clean Thursday, at the Holy Dormition Kiev Caves Lavra.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine celebrated the morning services in the Lavra’s Holy Dormition Cathedral together with the monastery abbot His Eminence Metropolivan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl and His Grace Bishop Spyridon of Vishne, during which he celebrated the tonsure of the new monastics, reports the Lavra’s website.
Three of the men were already archpriests—Michael, Vladimir, and Igor, and together with the novice Michael, they received the names Aaron, Eleazar, Melchizedek, and Elisha, in honor of Old Testament prophets, as they took their vows as riassophore monks.
The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has 250 monasteries, where about 4,500 monastics labor for the love of Christ.