Pochaev Lavra monks received salaries from Russia - religious scholar Sagan

Oleksandr Sagan, a lobbyist for the interests of the OCU in the media and head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, stated that during the Russian Empire, the monks of the Holy Assumption Pochaev Lavra, as well as the clergy of Volyn, received increased salaries from the imperial treasury. In his opinion, this was done in order to create a “stronghold of the Russian world” in Volyn in general and in Pochaev Lavra in particular. The religious scholar said in an interview with “Suspilne”.

“We need to start from the times when it was declared a Lavra and why it was declared a Lavra. It was a Greek Catholic center for 110 years, a center of enlightenment and spiritual, and quite famous. And when the Russian power or the Russian Empire entered this territory, it decided to use the potential of the Lavra, which had already been built up over the centuries. It was a printing house, an educational center, and many other centers. In order to make it a stronghold of the Russian world in Volyn. Volyn, at that time, Volyn province was quite large. It reached as far as Kiev and it was a powerful center, and it received the status of a lavra. And in fact it was made a powerful center of Russification of the region”, – said Sagan.

The religious scholar added that in order to strengthen the “Russian world” in Volyn, the government of the empire paid the monks of Pochaev Lavra and priests of Volyn province double their salaries.

“The Russian state paid the monks a salary. And in the same way the priests were paid salaries, because it was part of the state apparatus. Monasteries were divided by rank and depending on this they received this or that amount. So in Volhynia priests received almost one hundred percent extra pay for the Russification of the region. And the center of this Russification was Pochaev Lavra. And until now it has remained a stronghold of the Russian world. It formed a certain circle of people with a distorted understanding of Orthodoxy as such and the history of Pochaev Lavra”, – he added.

We will remind, earlier the head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko said that he would not allow representatives of the UGCC to perform religious rites and events in the Holy Assumption Pochaev Lavra. Dumenko is convinced that Pochayiv Lavra is an Orthodox shrine, so there is no place for Uniates there.