Moscow Patriarch Kirill continues to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine by relying on dubious “prophecies” and fabrications that are presented as the legacy of Orthodox ascetics. One of the key elements of the ideology of the “Russian World” has become the phrase: “Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus are Holy Rus.” Kirill regularly attributes these words to Saint Lavrentii of Chernihiv, presenting them as a spiritual justification for the unity of the three peoples.
However, there is no reliable evidence that Lavrentii of Chernihiv ever uttered such words. Moreover, this phrase appeared only in a 1994 publication, decades after the saint’s death. It contains a comparison of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus with the Holy Trinity: “Just as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cannot be divided, so Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus cannot be divided.” From a theological perspective, such a comparison is unacceptable because it transfers the attributes of the Divine Trinity to earthly states and effectively sacralizes a political ideology.
This idea became one of the most important myths of the “Russian World.” It creates the image of a special “sacred civilization” that supposedly cannot be divided by state borders. As a result, a political project receives religious justification, and the war against Ukraine is presented as a struggle to restore some form of “historical unity.”
The origins of these fabrications are linked to the self-proclaimed “schema-archbishop” Cheruvim (Dehtiar), who in 1994 published a revised version of the life and teachings of Lavrentii of Chernihiv, incorporating previously unknown “prophecies.” Dehtiar himself belonged to the sectarian movement of the “Sekachevites,” which a number of researchers have associated with Soviet security service efforts to control the religious underground. Despite his image as an ascetic recluse, media reports stated that when his home was robbed in 2013, large sums of money were stolen, approximately one and a half million U.S. dollars in various currencies. This only intensified doubts about his reputation as the author and disseminator of texts upon which the ideology of the “Russian World” would later come to rely.
The same book also introduced other politicized “prophecies” concerning a future Orthodox tsar, Russia’s special mission, the forthcoming unification of the Slavic peoples, and the exceptional role of the Russian state in world history. These ideas later spread widely among supporters of the “Russian World” and became part of the ideological arsenal of Russian propaganda.
Significantly, the contemporaries and spiritual disciples of Lavrentii of Chernihiv rejected the authenticity of such texts. According to their testimony, the elder avoided political topics, did not associate the Church with state projects, and did not express the views later attributed to him. The nuns of Chernihiv who had personally known the saint described the new insertions into his hagiography as inventions and falsifications.
An additional argument against the authenticity of the disputed “prophecies” is their obvious connection to the realities of the early 1990s. The text introduces themes and church-political conflicts that emerged only after the death of Lavrentii of Chernihiv. Linguistic studies have also pointed to differences between the original text and the later additions.
Thus, this is not the legacy of an Orthodox ascetic but an ideological construct created in the post-Soviet period. At first, fabricated quotations and “prophecies” were used to promote the concept of the “Russian World,” and later they became part of the religious justification for Russian aggression against Ukraine. In effect, Moscow transformed falsified texts attributed to respected ascetics into an instrument of political propaganda and the justification of war.
It is quite telling that Russia’s post-Soviet ruling elites, consisting largely of former KGB officers who in the USSR were involved in anti-religious persecution and repression, together with a significant part of Russian society, have become increasingly immersed in the intoxication of pathological militaristic madness and draw inspiration precisely from such pseudo-spiritual surrogates invented by a deranged sectarian. Marginal sectarianism and spiritual and psychological deviations lie at their foundation. This is a clear sign of the marginalization and degeneration into sectarianism of both the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the segment of Russian society prepared to accept and consume such spiritual substitutes.
Yesterday’s atheists and persecutors of the faith, having changed their colors and disguised themselves as “Orthodox believers,” under the leadership of “Chekists in cassocks,” are attempting to rebuild the “Tower of Babel.” Pathological falsehood is embedded in the foundation of their ideology of the “Russian World.” It is precisely about such people that Christ says in the Gospel: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Through the sacralization of forgeries and falsehood under the deceptive outward appearance of “Orthodoxy,” a subtle internal substitution is taking place in Russia at a deeper level. In essence, this is an attempt to assume the role of the so-called “Antichrist,” who, according to the warnings of Saint Ignatii (Brianchaninov), Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Father Kliment (Leontiev), and others, may appear precisely in Russia. The ancient Greek word “anti” (Greek ἀντί) means not only “against” but also “instead of,” that is, the replacement of one thing with another, falsification, substitution. Consequently, “anti-Christianity” is not merely that which is “against Christianity” but also that which replaces it while deceptively cloaking itself in the outward appearance of Christianity. This is precisely what we are now witnessing in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate with its anti-Gospel “theology of war,” the mass militarization of church consciousness, and the “sacralization” of killings and the genocide of Ukrainian civilians.
Serhii Shumylo,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Doctor of Theology (ThDr),
Director of the International Institute of Athonite Legacy.
