Investigators have opened a criminal case into the murder of 75-year-old Orthodox priest Pavel Adelgeim in Pskov on Monday, according to the website of the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR).

“According to preliminary data, a resident of the city of Moscow, born in 1986, who was visiting him, may be involved in the crime. At the time of his arrest, the man inflicted knife wounds on himself and was hospitalized,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The motives for committing the crime are being clarified.

The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Pskov region confirmed information about the detention of the suspect. “He is currently in the hospital because he stabbed himself,” the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

The body of a 75-year-old priest with a stab wound was discovered in his home in Pskov on the evening of August 5. on the murder of Pavel Adelgeim on Monday reported Member of the Pskov Region Parliament Lev Shlosberg in his blog. According to him, the alleged killer, “a certain Chelintsev,” lived in the priest’s house for three days at the request of a certain woman from Moscow. “Tonight, during a conversation in the kitchen, the guest grabbed a knife and stabbed Father Pavel in the stomach, after which he stabbed himself twice with the knife,” wrote Schlosberg (spelling preserved). Interfax, citing eyewitnesses, reports that the attacker on Father Pavel shouted that Satan ordered him to kill the priest, and during the arrest he stabbed himself in the chest.

Pavel Adelgeim was born in 1938 and spent his childhood in an orphanage due to his mother’s arrest during the repressions. For a long time he lived in exile in Kazakhstan. In the early 1970s, he ended up in a camp for “slander of the Soviet system” and lost his leg. In 1992-2008 he was rector of one of the churches in Pskov. Known for his criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church and statements against the punishment of Pussy Riot participants. In particular, in March 2012, Adelgeim wrote on his blog: “When citizens who call themselves Orthodox demand revenge and the blood of these girls, their souls are bitter from the self-confidence of this “uncircumcised heart.” Their conceit does not accept the words of Christ the Savior “go and learn , which means: I want mercy, not sacrifice.” Christ calls for mercy, and His disciples, “who have preserved the image of piety and rejected its powers,” forgetting that man is the image of God, call for human sacrifice.”

Until now, one of the most notorious murders of Orthodox priests in Russia was the murder of Father Alexander Men, which occurred in the Moscow region in September 1999 and remained unsolved.

A case has been opened regarding the murder of priest Pavel Adelgeim in Pskov