Strumok, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, August 12, 2024
Photo: Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese (Facebook) The much-suffering Metropolitan of Bancheny of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is in the ICU after being involved in a car accident last week.
His Eminence Metropolitan Longin was traveling in a car with five other people on Friday, August 9, when his subdeacon-driver lost control due to the rain and veered off the road, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
According to the outlet’s sources, the bishop had been in the hospital the day before, receiving treatment for his ongoing heart problems.
Both Met. Longin and the driver were injured and hospitalized, while the other passengers were mainly unharmed.
The Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese and the Bancheny Monastery have made special appeals for increased prayer for the Metropolitan’s health.
Though officially recognized as a Hero of Ukraine for having adopted hundreds of orphans, the state now considers him an enemy because he staunchly remains within the Orthodox Church. He is accused of “inciting religious enmity”—the same phony charge being brought against a number of Orthodox hierarchs.
His Eminence has suffered several severe health incidents since the state launched its campaign against him. He suffered a stroke last July, and he was admitted to the hospital in December with atrial fibrillation, after which he underwent heart surgery. Later that month, his car was unjustly detained and he suffered a heart arrhythmia due to the stress.
His Eminence was physically attacked in his home in late January and had to undergo emergency eye surgery.
In February, he underwent another heart procedure.
Armed security forces surrounded and searched his monastery in November, scaring the orphans who live there. Furthermore, His Eminence’s previous lawyer, Valentin Sukhari, died from poisoning in November. In early January, his house in in Bukovina went up in flames.
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