Soderce, Vrnaje, Serbia, June 16, 2023
Photo: novosti.rs
A church at the Monastery of St. Symeon the Stylite in the Serbian village of Soderce is the latest victim in a recent wave of church attacks in the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Vranje.
Several thousand Serbian dinars were stolen from the church iconostasis on June 12, reports Novosti.
Presumably, the money is from the pious custom of making an offering to an icon after a miracle, often of healing.
The diocesan treasury was robbed on May 14, while His Grace Bishop Pachomije and the majority of the diocesan staff were at the Bishops’ Council in Belgrade. The crook, who stole a significant sum of money, was caught within a few days, but there have been several other acts of vandalism and looting since in the same diocese.
On May 31, vandals broke the iconostasis and stole money from the Church of St. Petka in the Sapranac Cemetery, and a week later, the Church of St. Demetrios in Preševo was vandalized when a women broke a cross and covered the walls with Arabic inscriptions, reports Orthodox Life.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
