A priest of the Georgian Church commented on the desecration of relics in the Lavra

The rector of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Vake (Tbilisi), Father Shalva Kekelia, commented on the events at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where employees of the reserve removed the reliquaries with the relics of the Kiev-Pechersk saints from the caves and performed certain actions with them, which the priest considers unacceptable. He emphasized that “desecration of icons and relics is unforgivable.” He gave his comment to the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

“Since the beginning of the Dormition Fast, I have not been watching television or social media. If this happened, it is very bad,” said the priest. “Something similar happened even under the communists—icons and relics were taken out of churches, and we all know what state the country was in,” said the priest.

Father Shalva emphasized that desecrating holy sites is a serious sin: “A person who even unintentionally damages icons or relics commits a grave sin and puts himself in a difficult moral position.”

Recall that Archbishop Ion (Cherepanov) of Obukhov commented on photographs published on the Telegram channel “Fortress Lavra,” which show museum workers and representatives of the so-called state church engaged in “re-dressing” the relics of the Kiev-Pechersk saints. According to the bishop, what is happening is a terrible blasphemy, because the re-dressing of relics has always been done exclusively by the brethren of the Lavra in holy orders. They were taught this by monks of the old, post-war tonsure, who in turn adopted the tradition from the pre-revolutionary inhabitants of the monastery.