Tallinn, February 19, 2025
Abbess Philareta and Pükhtitsa nuns outside Estonian Parliament. Photo: postimees.ee
Abbess Philareta and sisters from Pükhtitsa Monastery arrived at the Estonian Parliament building on Monday to submit a petition to maintain the monastery’s current status.
The legislative body is currently considering amendments to the Churches and Congregation Acts that will ban the Estonian Orthodox Church and the monastery if they don’t leave the Moscow Patriarchate. The Church is an autonomous body within the Patriarchate, governed from Tallinn, while the monastery is stavropegial, directly under the omophorion of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Both have repeatedly emphasized that they abide by their respective statutes which don’t permit them to simply change jurisdiction on their own.
The nuns were hoping to meet with Parliament Speaker Lauri Hussar, though she declined on the grounds that they hadn’t scheduled a meeting. The petition was ultimately received by Andre Hanimägi, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, reports Postimees.
Hanimägi noted that the petition essentially repeats what the monastery has stated many times before—that they’re not involved in politics at all and aren’t responsible for statements coming from the Patriarchate in Russia.
Estonian Interior Ministry Representative Ringo Ringvee commented on the monastery’s stance against its forced closure, saying it must “either share Estonia’s values or remain hostage to the Kremlin and present itself as a victim.”
“You’re not victims,” the representative claimed, adding: “Think about the real victims, about what they are experiencing today with your Patriarch’s approval.”
According to the judgment of Ringvee, who is a Rastafarian, the Moscow Patriarchate has “strayed from Christ’s teachings.”
“In a free society, any organization has the right to conduct its activities, but it must conform to the legal order and values of society... Justifying or denying aggression and hostility doesn’t align with these values,” Ringvee continued, though without explaining how the monastery has justified or denied aggression and hostility.
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The monastery’s petition reads:
Dear Chairman of the Riigikogu Lauri Hussar!
We were compelled to address you due to our deep concern for the fate of our Pükhtitsa Dormition Convent.
More than a century ago, precisely 134 years ago, it was founded in Kuremäe, on the Holy Mountain, and since then, whatever storms raged around it, however wars and revolutions shook the world, and however power changed, not for a single day did it cease to shine with love for God. And whatever darkness covered the world, here everything was illuminated by the light of human love for the All-Merciful God. Not for a single day did prayer cease in the monastery.
And now, suddenly, something is happening that defies our understanding and resonates with sharp pain in our hearts. We’re being required to break our canonical connection with the Russian Orthodox Church for the sake of Constantinople. And this is not only a violation of Church canons, it’s like forcing someone to abandon their own mother. She raised him, nurtured him throughout all the days of his life, and now—to reject her? Must we burden our souls with such a sin? And for what? For the sake of our peace and prosperity?
We wish to answer with the words of Christ Who yielded not to temptation: Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve (Mt. 4:10). Time and again we repeat that everything that we’re accused of—these are not our monastic deeds. We, the residents of Pükhtitsa Monastery, have always been alien to politics and have never participated in games in the political arena.
We retreated to our cells from the world, from passions, disputes, and conflicts that the world lives by, from its absorption in the pressing issues of the day. In our monastic life there exists only the Lord, and its foundation consists of prayer and work.
Need we say that any invasion of the world into the monastery, into monastic life causes us pain and makes us look to the future with fear?
The only women’s monastery that survived in Soviet times in the Russian Orthodox Church is Pükhtitsa Monastery. We’ve never forgotten this, and in our daily services we’ve always prayed and continue to pray with gratitude for the country of Estonia, for its authorities and its noble people.
We hope that those in power will finally hear us and that the Estonian Republic will understand our concern. There is no law that would force innocent, law-abiding monastics to abandon Christ’s commandments to please the momentary desires of politicians. Without our consent, we, the sisters of the monastery, are being forced into a realm where new idols reign and truth is sought outside of Christ. We, the sisters of PÜKHTITSA, repeat the quiet words of a great Christian with spiritual joy: “I would rather remain with Christ than with truth outside of Christ.”
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