Bishop Job of Stuttgart issues statement following murder of monk at Sviatogorsk Lavra

DECR Communication service, 01.09.2026

Bishop Job of Stuttgart has issued a statement concerning the events at the Sviatogorsk Lavra.

As previously reported, at around 11:00 a.m. on August 23, a group of unidentified individuals attacked members of the monastic community near the St Nicholas Church on the grounds of the Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra. Monk Varsonofiy (Turiansky) was killed, while Monk Gregory and Andrei Kirienko, a refugee residing at the monastery, were injured.

“For many years, the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) has sent humanitarian aid to the Sviatogorsk Lavra, where numerous refugees are being cared for. The new trial that has befallen the brotherhood of the Lavra has shaken not only them and us, but the entire Orthodox world. We see how many representatives of the Orthodox Churches have responded to what happened with pain,” says a statement by Bishop Job of Stuttgart published on the website of the German Diocese.

The publication also notes the relative silence of the Ukrainian media and the complete silence of the German media on this matter.

“We are living in an age of an unprecedented level of information propaganda and warfare. A monk belonging to the ‘wrong’ Church, from the perspective of Ukrainian nationalism, was killed. The merciless and, I may presume, unpunished reprisal against a representative of a Church that has for many years stood on the verge of being banned by the state in Ukraine takes us in our minds back to the times of early Christianity, when representatives of the religio illicita, the forbidden religion, could and should be destroyed for the benefit of the public,” Bishop Job of Stuttgart states.

“If the testimony of one of the victims cited above corresponds to reality, then Monk Varsonofiy is a martyr in the true sense of the word: he is a witness (martys) to the truth of Christ. And the truth of Christ abides forever and ever: the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church (Mt 16:18),” Bishop Job testifies.

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Bishop Job of Stuttgart issues statement following murder of monk at Sviatogorsk Lavra

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