Cyprus, August 22, 2025
Romfea
His Eminence Metropolitan Timotheos of Bostra, the Exarch of the Jerusalem Patriarchate in Cyprus, has issued a strong condemnation of Ukrainian authorities’ actions at the Kiev Caves Lavra, comparing them to Soviet-era religious persecution and calling them a “mockery of faith.”
In a statement to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, the Metropolitan expressed “deep sorrow and indignation” over the Ukrainian government’s escalating campaign against Orthodox Christianity. He stated that state officials are no longer limiting themselves to seizing churches, obstructing religious services, and intimidating clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but have now begun “attacking the piety of all Orthodox Christians through the desecration of holy relics.”
“Such actions constitute a heavy blow to the spiritual conscience of every pious person,” the bishop emphasized, characterizing the museum employees’ handling of the saints’ relics as “blasphemy and the greatest sacrilege, reviving in our memory the sufferings and persecutions of the Church during the dark period of the atheistic Soviet regime.”
The Metropolitan’s statement comes in response to recent incidents at the Kiev Caves Lavra, where state museum employees were photographed and videotaped removing reliquaries containing centuries-old saints’ relics from the caves and handling them outdoors. Museum staff were seen bringing reliquaries into garden areas, with some items hung on nearby fences and cleaning solutions visible near Cave entrances.
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Another photograph has emerged showing an even more disturbing scene: reliquaries containing the saints’ remains carelessly piled together in a cramped space under a staircase in the Lower Lavra, which has been taken from the monks. The image, captured through a window, shows the sacred reliquaries standing pressed against each other in what appears to be a corridor, with cardboard boxes stacked under the nearby stairs and a half-finished cup of coffee visible on furniture—underscoring the casual disregard for these sacred objects.
Met. Timotheos stressed that these actions cannot be characterized merely as an insult to sacred objects, but represent “a flagrant violation of freedom of worship, restricting the right to faith of the overwhelming majority of Ukraine’s faithful Orthodox people.”
“Unfortunately, such events today are being repeated by state institutions of the so-called democratic state under the pretext of alleged ‘cultural management’ of sacred objects,” he noted.
The Metropolitan called upon the international community, human rights organizations, and “every person of good will” to intervene and end what he termed “this ongoing sacrilege and shame.” He emphasized that peace between peoples can only be based on principles of mutual respect for freedom of conscience, religious traditions, truth, and justice.
The monastery’s brotherhood has been denied access to the relics since March 2025, when a government commission arrived to “inspect” them as “cultural values.” The commission, which included various scientists and medical professionals, was tasked with checking the presence of saints’ remains and determining their “historical and scientific value.”
In a related development, lawyers representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have filed official requests to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and the National Reserve demanding explanations for what they call “blasphemous manipulations” of the holy relics. Fr. Nikita Chekman, the monastery’s legal representative, emphasized that such actions constitute “a gross insult to the religious feelings of believers and outright desecration of holy objects.”
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