"It was a very big bomb for us"

The media wrote that in the Holy Aleksievsky desert they pray for Ulyukaev. In the monastery they hastened to refute this

On December 16, the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow sentenced the former Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev to eight years in a maximum security colony and a large fine - he was found guilty of receiving a bribe. The media was found that a woman from the Holy Aleksievsky desert in the Yaroslavl region came to announce the sentence and promised prayer support to the convict. The monastery was extremely painfully responded to these messages.

The reason for the news was a performance in front of the journalists of a woman who was called in different media outlets a novice or parishioner of the Holy Aleksievsky desert-a monastery, which is located in the village of Novoalekseevka of the Yaroslavl region. Several publications wrote that the woman gave Ulyukaev the words of support and a bouquet of white roses, and he in response admitted that he was an atheist. Obviously, the woman inspired the last word of the former minister, where he asked for forgiveness for her mistakes.

The system - it changes a person. [Alexey Ulyukaev] fell into power, wanted to serve the people. And now the moment has come insight - it is very joyful, it is how they gave birth to a person again. We told him that prayer would go for him, prayer support will be in the monastery, and the Lord would not even leave him in the places where he will fall.

Some media outlets based on this performance of the news-for example, Interfax-religion published a note with the heading "In the Holy Alekseevsky Monastery, they promise to pray for Ulyukaev." Two hours later, a refutation appeared on the monastery’s website on behalf of the abbot Hieromonk Peter (Vasilenko), which began with the words “Attention! urgently!" Representatives of the monastery resolutely denied information about the support of Alexei Ulyukaev. The report said that the woman who came to the court is the mother of one of the students acting at the monastery of the gymnasium Elena Malyutin, and all her statements are nothing more than a private opinion. In addition, the authors of the refutation wrote in large letters that "the thief should sit in prison."

The sharp tone of the refutation was the reason for new news notes - a quote from the film “The meeting place cannot be changed” about the thief, many brought to the headlines. The discussion continued on the monastery page in the monastery, where some commentators were surprised by such intonation by the church.

Natalya Legoshina explained the secretary of the rector of the Holy Aleksievsky desert in a conversation with Medusa, why the monastery published such a statement.

“We have no TV, we do not watch news. We did not hold Ulyukaev by the hand - [and we do not know], he is a thief or not a thief. If the court found him guilty, then a person must, as they say, pay for his sins. And the story is that the mommy came to the court of one of our students, who has nothing to do with the desert, except that her daughter lives and studies in the monastery. Nobody in no case blessed her to transfer the brochure about our desert to this Ulyukaev - we generally have nothing to do with it. Moreover, no one blessed her to say that we were praying for him here. She threw such a bomb - just no words. We pray for everyone who really needs it. Especially for those who repent of some of their sins, but when she handed over to the brochure, he [Ulyukaev] generally said “between us, I am an atheist,” you understand? And then they began to write in all newspapers, on the whole Internet, that supposedly we all pray for him - both children and adults. It was a very large bomb for us. Therefore, we tried to refute [and explain] that we have nothing to do with Ulyukaev and to this woman. ”

The Holy Aleksieval monastery is known thanks to his work with children who found themselves in a difficult life situation. The monastery has a classic gymnasium, a labor school, a cadet corps, and an art school. As of February 2014, according to the monastery employees, more than 270 children were trained here.

Alexander Borzenko