The Shepherd, July 2005
NEWS SECTION, 2
TRAGIC MURDER OF A ROMANIAN NUN
EVEN in the West pictures of the funeral of a nun, Sister Irina, who was accused of being possessed and then subjected to a form of crucifixion, starving and gagging which led to her death, have found their way into the press. From halfway across Europe, one can hardly judge the merits of the case (especially knowing how the press often misrepresents religious matters), but it appears that the priest who was largely responsible for this tragedy was inexperienced and using means that were far from Orthodox. Perhaps the only encouraging note in the reports is that both the ecclesiastical authorities and the civil ones are investigating the matter and the priest and four other nuns have been taken into custody.
SOUMELA MONASTERY TO BE RE-OPENED
THE ANCIENT MONASTERY of Soumela in Pontus, in what is now Turkey, was founded in the earliest years of the fifth century by two monastic saints, Barnabas and Sophronius, and was greatly restored and adorned in the seventh century by St Christopher of Trebizond. Its most prized possession was an icon of the Mother of God, attributed to the hand of St Luke. In the 1920’s, with the euphemistically referred to “Exchange of Populations,” the monastery was closed. The monks left and the icon was hidden with other treasures. In 1931, the political situation eased somewhat and the Icon was retrieved and taken to Greece, but was at first placed in the Benaki Museum for safe-keeping. Twenty years later, after many upheavals in Greece which had earlier prevented this, a new monastery was founded in the Macedonian part of Greece, in the village of Kastania where the icon was enshrined and where it remains to this day. Now the Turkish authorities have agreed to the re-opening of the original Soumela Monastery. The report which has reached us states that this is not being done as a favour to the Œcumenical Patriarchate or the Greek peoples, but rather because it is estimated that thousands of pilgrims would swarm to the monastery from Georgia and Russia, and thus bring financial benefit to the area. If such are the base reasons for this decision, one can only hope that, as so often happens, God nevertheless takes something base and unworthy and transforms it, and that the Soumela Monastery will once again become a place of spiritual comfort for the faithful.
MYRON-STREAMING ICON OF ST ANNA
IN NOVEMBER last year, an icon of Saint Anna holding the infant Theotokos began to stream a fragrant myron in the church of Our Lady, Joy of all Who Sorrow, in Philadelphia. The parish was visited by Metropolitan Lavr with the ancient miraculous Kursk Root Icon on 5th November, and he placed the icons side by side, and the Metropolitan blessed the pastor of the parish, Igumen Athanasy, to visit other parishes with the newly myron-streaming icon. Fr Athanasy, a convert to Orthodoxy, had always had a great love of St Anna, and had had the present icon painted by the sisters of the Mount of Olives Convent in Jerusalem. Miracles of healing have been recorded of those who have been anointed with the myron.
PRIEST INTERROGATED & THREATENED
THE PRIEST, Fr Leonid Plyats, of the village of Zabolotye in Belarus, was visited by members of the commission of the State Committee of Nationalities and Religions in Belarus and other officials on 17th May. He was accused of “illegal, underground religious activity,” and interrogated. He was told that his house was to be searched to find evidence that there were “accommodations for conducting underground illegal liturgical prayer.” Fr Leonid belongs to those of the faithful in the former Soviet Union who have attached themselves to the Synod of our own Metropolitan Lavr for reasons of conscience. Later in the day he was questioned by the police inspector. On 23rd May, his house was again visited by officials, who, finding Fr Leonid out, questioned his matushka and a lady guest. When Fr Leonid came home, he was examined, and it became clear from the questioning that somewhere “much, much higher,” a directive had been issued that at any price the presence of his “underground religious sect” was to be proven and Fr Leonid to be punished. At present the penalty for “illegal religious activity” is a fine of $3,500 in a country where the average monthly wage is between $100 and $150. On 24th May warrants were issued demanding that Fr Leonid and two of his tenants, who are believers, appear at the regional offices of the chief of police, on which occasion he was officially warned that his alleged activities in conducting Catacomb divine services would be punished. 
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