Ethnic cleansing of the church calendar in the OCU

St Alexander Nevsky is banned. Who is next? Photo: UOJ

On 19 May 2022, the monument to Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, which stood in front of the UOC church consecrated in his honour, was demolished in Kharkiv.

Already on February 2, 2024, the "synod" of the OCU decided to exclude St Alexander Nevsky, the Prince of Kiev and Novgorod, from a host of saints.

The case, to put it bluntly, even in light of the events happening in Ukraine today, is unprecedented. Not only because the history of the Orthodox Church in our homeland has never known anything like this but also because, as we wrote back in May 2022, "there are very serious concerns whether the "victory" over the holy prince will be followed by new "victories" over the "wrong" saints? After all, there is a great deal of work: St Sergius of Radonezh, St Seraphim of Sarov, St. Matrona of Moscow, St Tikhon, etc."

What does this decision of the PCU mean, and what can we expect next?

It is clear that the "synodals" of the OCU, crossing out the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky from their church calendar, were guided by the consideration that this is a "Russian saint". Also, in their opinion, the prince has something to do with the political processes that are now taking place in Russia.

Naturally, both the first and the second statements are absolutely groundless. At least for the reason that St Alexander Nevsky was the Grand Prince of Kiev for 14 years (1249-1263).

Whether someone likes it or not, this man has a direct relation to modern Ukraine. In other words, he is as much a "Russian saint" as, for example, Princess Olga or Prince Vladimir.

Also, to exclude him from the church calendar based on the fact that his personality is particularly popular in Russia is not even foolishness but some spiritual blindness and absolute misunderstanding of what Christianity is.

The point is that holiness has a universal nature in Christianity and is in no way related to national considerations. Moreover, for two thousand years, the Church has emphasised its supranational character (it should be noted that we should not confuse patriotism with nationalism).

"There is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ" – this principle, proclaimed by the Apostle Paul, was directed against Jewish nationalism, against the sense of one's national exclusivity. The apostle wanted to show the Jews that the Messiah came also for other nations because God desires the salvation of all. For this reason, Christians have no "own" or "foreign" saints because in the Body of Christ, we are all one.

Furthermore, the Church has an eternal nature. In its earthly aspect, it will remain until the Second Coming, and in the timeless aspect, its existence is not limited by the end of the material world. The Church, let us remind once again, is the Body of Christ, which is governed by the Saviour Himself, not by any human being. Hence, to reject the veneration of a certain ascetic of piety because his life or some details of it do not meet the requirements of the time is a deeply alien idea to Christianity, because it makes the Church directly dependent on the current political situation.

The Church is eternal, while political preferences are very short-lived. Those who fail to realise this can either be fools or individuals deliberately destroying the foundation of Christianity.

Almost always, the reason for the recognition and veneration of saints was the desire of the Church to provide spiritual guidance to its flock and to set an example of a life dedicated to higher principles. In this sense, the personality of Prince Alexander throughout the centuries has embodied these principles: a ruler who defended the Church and, on his deathbed, took the monastic tonsure.

His life's feat, if one abstracts from the historical situation, transcends national boundaries, embodying universal virtues that resonate in various cultures and epochs. It must be understood that saints simply cannot and should not be pawns in political games because their lives, their examples, are symbols of eternal values that inspire and guide people regardless of their nationality or political affiliation. Thus, any attempts to assess the significance of saints based on national considerations or political expediency destroy the universal character of Christianity, turning it into some kind of "domestic religion" with its own domestic "gods" and "goddesses".

In other words, it creates a new form of paganism that uses Christian terms and even symbols but, in its nature, contradicts the Gospel and the teachings of Christ.

On the other hand, sanctity is not the exclusive property of a particular nationality, and saints do not belong to any one nation – they belong to the entire Church and God.

To exclude saints from the church calendar merely because they are of the "wrong" nationality or because they are "used in the wrong way", is to fragment the spiritual unity of the Church, which transcends national borders and political ideologies.

One cannot subject questions of sanctity to ideological manipulations because the geopolitical context is constantly changing, and there is no need for us to conform to it. In this sense, the sanctity of individuals like Prince Alexander Nevsky should be evaluated through the lens of their spiritual contribution, not through the lens of today’s political realities. Because after the exclusion of one saint from a host of saints, the question of removing another, the third and the fourth one will inevitably arise.

Moreover, such processes are already underway within the OCU. They are very dangerous and fraught with the most unpredictable consequences not only for the OCU but also for the entire Orthodox Ukraine as a whole. It may very well happen that supporters of Dumenko will start demanding the prohibition of those saints who bear the politically unreliable epithets "Moscow," "St. Petersburg", "Rostov", and so on. Do not believe?

Epifaniy Dumenko, in one of his interviews, reasoning that Ukrainians should renounce "Russian saints", literally said the following: "We are not talking about re-baptism. We can talk about changing one or another saint. If we take Xenia, there are other Xenias in whose honour the celebration date can be changed." These words were supplemented with the "explanation" that "historically it turned out that we are trying to cleanse out everything Russian, but this does not concern the saints." This was said just a year ago – in January 2023.

Back then, Dumenko also noted: "If you look into our calendar, which is printed as the official publication of the OCU, there are practically no Russians there. Regarding some revered saints you mentioned: Alexander Nevsky, Xenia of St. Petersburg... At first, we did not include them in the calendar, but we received many requests from our faithful about when to celebrate their name day, as they have one or another Russian saint as their heavenly patron. And we had to leave such well-known revered saints, although we know what role they sometimes played in history. Knowing the history, we left it as a temporary phenomenon due to the requests of our faithful... It's a matter of generation change."

So, a year ago, the head of the OCU did not hide the fact that sooner or later, his organization would undertake the ethnic cleansing of its "church calendar". The first victim of this cleansing was Prince Alexander Nevsky.

But the roots of this cleansing are not only in the anti-Christian sentiments of OCU reps but also in the "provincial" mentality of the ideology that is now being presented as the "idea of the Ukrainian nation". No one can formulate positively what it is about. But in the negative sense, everything is clear: get away from everything "Russian". This ideology not only fights against the "dominance of Russianness" in Ukrainian culture but also narrows the framework of the further spiritual and cultural development of our people, destroying its spiritual code and contribution to the history of human civilization (see the wonderful conversation on this topic by Ukrainian philosopher Andrey Baumeister).

Because not only everything "Russian" but inherently "Ukrainian" as well – from writers like Gogol and Bulgakov to philosophers (such as Nikolai Berdyaev), theologians (Fr Georges Florovsky), and even saints – can be hard-pressed. This is the path of destroying the people and everything good, eternal, and valuable for it. Ultimately, it's the destruction of its roots and history.

As a result, we have to admit that the OCU can offer our people nothing but destruction.

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