The vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, swore in court that he would not run anywhere from the territory of Ukraine.
“Someone will say that I will run away. Here’s a cross for you: I won’t run anywhere. I want to lie here in my native land,” – TASS quotes him.
He thanked those who pray for him, as well as local churches that are actively interested in his fate.
Recall that on the morning of April 1, Metropolitan Pavel was charged with committing criminal offenses, after which he was summoned for interrogation and searches began in his house.
As representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) reported, the reason for the accusations was criticism of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), as well as the Patriarchate of Constantinople, to which the OCU is subordinate.
Ukrainian publications reported that after the interrogation of the rector of the Lavra, they were placed under house arrest. After the court session, Metropolitan Pavel ended up in the hospital.
On April 1, a court in Kyiv ordered the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan of the canonical UOC Pavel, to serve house arrest away from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Pavel himself, at a court hearing in Kyiv, turned to the judge with a request to send him under house arrest to a monastery or allow him to go to services, but was refused.
According to the court decision, the vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra must serve the house arrest at the place of residence – in the village of Voronkov in the Borispol district of the Kyiv region, which is located 42 kilometers from the monastery.
