The monastery has been sharply criticized by human rights activists and independent media in Belarus for disregarding the safety of nuns and parishioners. The Holy Elizabethan Monastery in Minsk will be closed for visitors for two weeks from Thursday. This information is published on the website of the monastery.
Thousands of believers attended the Easter services in the temples of the monastery, despite the information about the spread of the corona virus among the nuns and priests. “Services in our monastery will be conducted by the monks without parishioners,” reads the message posted on the monastery’s website.
On Thursday evening, the Primate of the Belarusian Orthodox Church issued a statement warning of the severest punishment for clergy who continue to violate sanitary norms. The confessor of St. Elizabeth Monastery still maintains that it is “absolutely unreasonable” to deny parishioners the opportunity to come to church.
On Wednesday, the Russian service of the BBC published an article reporting on the situation in Belarusian spiritual institutions, including the Minsk St. Elizabeth Monastery, which remained open to believers despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Svyato-Elisavetinsky Monastery is an impressive monastic complex on the outskirts of Minsk, consisting of eight temples and several workshops. Thousands of people work in its various subdivisions. The convent is home to 130 nuns. The monastery provides assistance to drug addicts and the homeless, and successfully engages in commercial activities.
The closure of the monastery during the quarantine was confirmed by Sergei Lepin, the press secretary of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC – an exarchate within the Russian Orthodox Church), who previously admitted in an interview with the BBC that the safety of the nuns and temple visitors had not been guaranteed. Previously, the monastery had been sharply criticized by human rights activists and independent media in Belarus for failing to ensure the safety of nuns, monastery staff, and numerous parishioners.
Thousands of parishioners attended Easter services in the monastic temples. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. эпизоды – Episodes
The end of the story: Promotional Podcasts “The services are continuing, and those sisters who do not have symptoms should undergo obedience – distributing food and doing work around the convent,” human rights activist and theologian Natalia Vasilevich told the BBC. There were reports of sick nuns, including their own.
An internal quarantine for those with influenza was established in the monastery “because of the ORVI epidemic,” but it was later discovered that both the sick and the healthy attended services together and shared meals in the common dining room. The spiritual father of the monastery, Protopriest Andrei Lemesheonok, denies reports of a coronavirus outbreak in the monastery, calling the coronavirus a punishment for godlessness. Despite the decision to close the monastery, its spiritual director continues to insist on the importance of “communal prayer”.
The exact number of sick nuns and their conditions remain unknown. Despite the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, no quarantine has been implemented in Belarus, and information about infections in various institutions and enterprises is provided mainly by volunteers and human rights activists. The Ministry of Health of Belarus provides only general figures for the country, without commenting on the outbreaks that worry social networks and volunteers. Neither the monastery itself nor the press service of the Belarusian Orthodox Church provided any information about the epidemiological situation in the monastery. “There is no information about the number of COVID-19 cases in the monastery, and there will not be,” said a representative of the Belarusian Church.
On Thursday evening, a statement by the Primate of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Pavel, was published on the church’s website. In it, he expressed his views on church ministers who do not want to follow with due attention and obedience the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and the calls of the church leadership.
According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, neglecting sanitary norms during an epidemic is a crime against others and therefore against God. “We did not close the temples and monasteries for visits during the Easter holidays and urged everyone to observe the sanitary norms and precautions, but the careless attitude to our calls and often the irresponsible attitude to follow the instructions for prevention of disease by individual clergy has led to cases of infection with the coronavirus among a number of clergy, monks and lay people, both among the workers of the parishes, students of theological schools and ordinary parishioners,” the statement said.
Metropolitan Pavel urged not to forget that any person can be a carrier of the virus, even with a mild or asymptomatic illness. They can infect others, and for someone to interact with a symptomless sick person can be dangerous and even deadly, the first hierarch reminded. He urged people to refrain from attending worship services, visiting temples, and congregating if they felt the slightest sign of illness.
According to the Metropolitan, carelessness or deliberate non-compliance with sanitary norms, as well as any calls to ignore the instructions of Church authorities during the epidemic, are not a sign of faith or “standing in the truth,” but a crime against others, and therefore – against God. “Each guilty person will be held accountable for these crimes before God according to the law of the Gospel and before people according to the laws of the state. In case of blatant disregard of sanitary norms, clergymen will be subjected to the strictest canonical penalties and may be brought before the ecclesiastical court,” summarized the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 14 thousand cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Belarus as of April 30. 89 patients “with a number of chronic diseases and confirmed coronavirus infection” have died, according to the ministry’s website. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claims that there is “not a single death from COVID-19 alone” in the country. According to him, people are dying from chronic diseases aggravated by the virus. Despite the sharp increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus, no quarantine has been imposed in Belarus. Many places of worship, including some churches and monasteries, remain open, and their clergy refer to the disease as “punishment for godlessness.