Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, May 30, 2025
Photo: YouTube
“I forgive everyone… I love you,” His Eminence Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said to those who slander him during an address on the feast of the Ascension.
Met. Longin is the founder of the Holy Ascension Monastery in Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, which also operates an off-site orphanage where hundreds of the hierarch’s adopted children have grown up. His love for orphans earned him the title of Hero of Ukraine, but he is now seen as an enemy of the state and is a target of personal persecution by the authorities because he refuses to abandon the canonical Church.
The latest provocation against him came on May 21, when a number of Ukrainian outlets published fake materials against him and the monastery and orphanage, based on a “video investigation” by photographer Edgar Kalancha, claiming that the orphanage sold drugs, ran a brothel, severely beat the children, and that the nuns drank alcohol with the children.
The investigation includes statements supposedly coming from a handful of Met. Longin’s children who formerly lived in the orphanage, though at the same time, Kalancha openly acknowledges that his video is a fake. Nevertheless, the police opened an investigation into the orphanage, and that same day an act of arson was committed against the monastery.
But this did not stop hundreds of faithful Orthodox Christians from going in procession to the monastery for its patronal feast on Thursday:
In his sermon, Met. Longin gave a heartfelt thanks to all those who came to the feast to worship and support him and who have remained faithful to God and His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine in the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
He called on the congregation not to take offense at the slander against him and to forgive and love everyone involved, as he does.
His Eminence stated that as a monk, he has no right to justify himself or condemn anyone else, or to take anyone to court. If he were to take someone to court, then how could he go into the altar and serve God, the hierarch asked rhetorically.
“I try to forgive, and to love, and not to lose the Lord God. I have nothing against anyone. I forgive everyone. But everyone knows what we did, who we are. But most importantly—the Lord knows,” the Metropolitan said.
“I’m not a saint, brothers and sisters. I’m a very sinful man,” he said. Nevertheless, “I strive for God, and to reach Golgotha, because sin drove us all out, and on Golgotha, the savior sends us to Paradise again. That’s the most important thing in life. Forgiveness and the salvation of our souls.”
And if the innocent Lord endured all accusations and slander silently, how can we not endure, Met. Longin emphasized.
He continued:
Don’t be offended by those who write about us. I ask you very much. Don’t be offended by my children. I love them very much. And I will love them. They are my children. They wanted to hear from me that I still love them. I’m not interested in what you said. That you were forced. I love you. May God grant that you understand this in time, repent, and always speak the truth. Because truth never hurts—only untruth hurts. And it’s very painful when very close ones betray us.
In conclusion, he again implored the faithful to love and forgive and pray for everyone.
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