Proboinovka, Ivano-Frankivsk Province, Ukraine March 11, 2022
Abbot Titus of Holy Trinity-Dukonya Monastery was abducted and the monastery seized. Photo: dukonsky-mon.church.ua
Since the beginning of the hostilities in Ukraine, a number of churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the western Ivano-Frankivsk Province, and elsewhere, have been seized and sealed by nationalist schismatics and Uniates.
On March 7, the Church of the Conception of St. Anna in the village of Verkhovina was forcefully seized by men armed with machine guns, with the participation of the leaders of the village council, reports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The men forced the Orthodox faithful to write that they were “voluntarily transferring” the church to the village council. Video of the incident was published online:
Reporting on the attack, one local magazine noted that “there remains one monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Dukonya Valley.”
And the very next day, armed men abducted the abbot of Holy Trinity-Dukonya Monastery, Archimandrite Titus, and Novice Trofim.
“Thus ends the 23-year history of Holy Trinity-Dukonya Monastery. Another monastery in the Frankivsk Region is closed,” writes the Diocese of Chernitvsi and Bukovina.
Holy Trinity-Dukonya Monastery. Photo: dukonsky-mon.church.ua
The Church eventually learned that Fr. Titus and Br. Trofim were taken to Chernivtsi, forbidden to live in the Ivano-Frankivsk Province. Yesterday, the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese reported that the monastery had been seized.
Another church—the Church of St. Nicholas in Kalusha—was also seized on Wednesday. Six churches have been seized in Ivano-Frankivsk in just a week.
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