Representatives of the St. Petersburg diocese demand to stop advertising “false relics”

The St. Petersburg diocese is calling for an end to the actions of the Vadim Lurie group, "which distributes false advertising in St. Petersburg about the presence of the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Great Martyr Panteleimon and offers to order prayers in the monasteries of Athos," Interfax reports .

This advertisement appeared on the central streets of St. Petersburg. The church of St. Elizabeth was mentioned as the place where the relics were allegedly brought. Its rector is V. Lurie.

"We receive a lot of complaints from people and have already sent requests to the appropriate authorities demanding to stop the advertising of false relics," said the head of the missionary department of the diocese, priest Georgy Ioffe.

As noted in the diocese, on the billboards advertising the relics, it is not indicated in any way that the organization that installed them has nothing to do with the Orthodox Church, so Orthodox believers pasted leaflets on them with the inscriptions "Caution - a sect!".

Roman Silantyev, executive director of the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People's Council, called the current situation outrageous. "We have previously received complaints that the community of the so-called "Hegumen Lurie" has a pronounced criminal connotation and is supervised by bandits who profit from the funeral of people passing through the morgue and fraud with pseudo-relics, primarily from paid prayer services put on stream," he said. .

Sources

• Petersburg diocese demands to stop advertising of false relics // Interfax-religion. 2008. May 19.