Ganina Yama, Russia, October 5, 2018
Photo: rtr-vesti.ru The previously reported fire that broke out at the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers Monastery on Wednesday-Thursday night is now known to have been a case of arson.
Police have detained a suspect in the fire at the monastery at the Ganina Yama ravine outside Ekaterinburg, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs office in the Sverdlovsk Province reported this morning, according to Interfax-Religion.
The monastery is located on the site where the precious bodies of the Royal Martyrs were disposed of after they were brutally murdered in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg on July 17, 1918.
Law enforcement authorities have established that the suspect is a 20-year-old Ekaterinburg native who has previously been convicted of theft. The young man himself went to the police on Thursday morning to report about supposedly missing documents, and he was detained.
“During the interrogation, he explained that he not only set fire to the church, but also stole money from the donation box, breaking it when he ran away from the scene,” the press service head stated.
While the roof, including a small dome, and some of the interior decoration of the church, including parts of the iconostasis, were damaged, the main sacred objects of the Royal Passion-Bearer’s Church were not damaged, Ekaterinburg Diocese Press Secretary Angela Tambov told RIA-Novosti.
As she explained, a reliquary with particles of the relics of St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess and New Martyr and the Nun Barbara and a reliquary cross that had belonged to the Royal Martyrs were not damaged.
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