Stuttgart, Germany, September 3, 2026
The murdered Monk Varsonofy. Photo: Svyatogorsk Lavra
If eyewitness accounts of the killing of Monk Varsonofy at the Svyatogorsk Lavra are accurate, then he died a martyr in the truest sense of the word, says His Grace Bishop Job of Stuttgart of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).
Monk Varsonofy, a resident of the Svyatogorsk Lavra, was killed on August 23 at around 11 AM, with two others seriously wounded in the same incident. According to one of the survivors, Ukrainian soldiers encountered the men and shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!”
Fr. Varsonofy responded, “I am a monk. Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ!” He was then shot in the head and stabbed. A novice, Grigory, was beaten, stabbed, and thrown into a ravine, but managed to reach the monastery’s fraternal buildings despite a lung wound and severe blood loss before receiving first aid and being taken to the hospital. A layman, an electrician named Andrei, suffered similarly.
In his statement, Bishop Job notes that the German Diocese of ROCOR has long sent humanitarian aid to the Svyatogorsk Lavra, which cares for numerous refugees. He says this latest tragedy to befall the monastic brotherhood has shocked not only them, but the entire Orthodox world.
At the same time, Bishop Job points to what he calls the relative silence of Ukrainian media and complete silence of German media on the matter. He describes our era as one of unprecedented informational propaganda and warfare, noting that Fr. Varsonofy didn’t belong to the Church favored by Ukrainian nationalism.
Bishop Job describes the killing as a merciless and, he suspects, unpunished act against a representative of a Church that has stood for years on the verge of being banned by the Ukrainian state—reminiscent of the era of early Christianity.
The Holy Church answered this phenomenon long ago, Bishop Job says: the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.
If the eyewitness testimony proves accurate, Bishop Job says, “then Monk Varsonofy is a martyr in the truest sense of the word—a witness, or martys, to the truth of Christ.”
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