Closed the clergy

The news reports the sick metropolitans, bishops, priests and entire monasteries

On the “canonical territory” of the Moscow Patriarchate, the clergy and monks turned out to be one of the most vulnerable to coronavirus infection of social groups. On the eve of Easter and after its onset of the news feed, they were overwhelmed by reports of the sick metropolitans, bishops, priests, entire monasteries and seminaries.

On April 5, Deacon Alexander Gusev, who served in the Western American diocese, was the first victim of Koronavirus in the Moscow Patriarchate. Until April 16, the Koronavirus Working Group under the Patriarch published the daily statistics of sick clergy - but only in the city of Moscow.

By the time of the last such publication in the capital, the diagnosis was officially made 24 clergy, even 31 had symptoms of infection. Koronavirus by that time touched 9 inhabitants of the metropolitan monasteries. On April 17, on Great Friday, the rector of the Elokhov Cathedral (the second most important after the Cathedral of Christ the Savior) was hospitalized with coronavirus, Archpriest Alexander Agniikin. On the 21st, on Tuesday, he left this world.

On the 25th, on the bright Saturday, he retreated to the eternity and protodeacon of this cathedral about. Evgeny Trofimov. The rest of the clergy of the Elokhov temple, who has not yet been hospitalized, switched to strict self -isolation - there is no one to serve in the temple.

Note that it was in this temple and precisely with these clerics on April 3 that Patriarch Kirill prayed after the detour of Moscow with the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Trushing”.

Where the Patriarch himself is and what his condition is now is not known for it.

His last appearance in public was on Easter night on April 19.

On April 24, they took to the hospital with the coronavirus directly from the Novospassky monastery of the head of the working group under the Patriarch, the Office of the Patriarchate and the First Vikaria Kirill, Metropolitan Dionysius (Wait).

After all the central church institutions closed at the end of March and their employees were transferred to distance work (and actually sent on vacation), the working group remained the only real body of the highest church government throughout the Russian Orthodox Church.

Now the remaining members of this group (all of them are 8 people) assure us that Metropolitan Dionysius continues to lead the church from the hospital ward. Novospassky is one of the centers of infection in Moscow, coronavirus there is confirmed by several monks.

Among other injured monasteries are absolutely significant Lavra and Serafimo-Diveevsky monastery for the Russian Orthodox Church, where symptoms appear in many inhabitants. There are only a few people in the laurel, capable of supporting daily services who moved to the only temple - Troitsky, to the relics of St. Sergius.

The Moscow Theological Academy located nearby is closed to strict quarantine. There is no one to serve in many Moscow churches, where coronavirus “picked up” part of the clergy - for example, in the temple of the resurrection of the word on the Assumption Eve in the center of Moscow.

The quarantine regime was introduced in the main shrines of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine: in the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra, Troitsky Ionin and Goloseevsky monasteries of Kyiv. The city of Pochaev, where one of the laurels is located, were forced to completely cordon off due to the rapid spread of the infection, and after the crowded Easter in the Svyatogorsk Lavra of the Moscow Patriarchate blocked all the entrances and exits to Ukraine controlled by Ukraine.

The situation is not easier in Belarus. The Minsk Theological Academy is closed to quarantine. The catastrophic situation in the Holy-Ulisavetinsky monastery of Minsk, where several hundred people came to Easter “under the guarantees” of President Lukashenko.

The apocalypse unfolding in the Russian Orthodox Church is most often confused.

“Covid-dissidents” are becoming less and less, conspiracy versions are increasingly popular.

But among the fears and the search for mystical secrets, repentant notes begin to sound: "Apparently, we did something wrong, since the Lord enables us."