Traditionally, in many local churches, on the second Sunday after the Day of Holy Trinity, the Council of local saints is commemorated. So, in particular, on this day, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine celebrates a holiday in honor of all the saints of the Ukrainian land, in Bulgaria they honor the saints of the Bulgarian land, and on the Holy Mountain Athos, they glorify the fathers who shone in the feat on Mount Athos. Such a celebration is a kind of national identifier in continuation and concretization of All Saints’ Day, which is accordingly celebrated a week prior to it.
Representatives from the so-called UOC MP, unlike all others, on this day celebrate the memory of all the saints “who shined in the Russian land”. This is evidenced by the official press release of this religious organization, where it is noted that it was the saints of the “Russian land” that were glorified by the church superior in the Lavra.
A similar celebration was held in many dioceses of this Church, quite revealingly, emphasizing precisely this title. Presumably, this is how the hierarchs and ministers of this religious community tried to show “the historical heritage of Ukraine and ancient Russia.”
However, in some places, the instructions even reached the point of frank absurdity. In particular, on the website of the Nizhyn Diocese, it was indicated that on this day they celebrated “the day of remembrance of all the saints of the Russian Church”.
All these messages look quite sarcastic, as does the very name of the holiday, against the background of claims about the UOC-MP’s full independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. One can long argue about who should be considered the saints of the “Russian Church and Land”, however, what is surprising is not so much the name itself, as the fact that in the so-called independent “Ukrainian Church” over the 30 years of autonomy and independence, the second year into Russia’s full-scale invasion, and a year into the “complete break with the Russian Orthodox Church”, no holiday was established in honor of all the saints of the Ukrainian land!
In order to explain the necessity and importance of establishing such a holiday, and to avoid the criticism of the apologists of the UOC-MP, we will quote the reflections on the topic by one of the most odious hierarchs of this religious community, namely Metropolitan Luka Kovalenko of Zaporizhzhia.
Thus, back in 2015, Luka, thinking about establishing a day of remembrance of all the saints of the Ukrainian land, claimed that such a holiday would help “overcome the temptation to see veiled nationalism or some imperial ambitions in these celebrations.”
Also, in his opinion, “the initiation of the Day of Remembrance of the Council of the Saints, who shone our Motherland, is an urgent requirement of today. The day of their memory will be a day of unity of our nation, a day of reconciliation and unity of all in Jesus Christ.”
Oddly enough, at that time Luka did not even care, and neither did he see anything wrong about the fact that “many saints who could enter the Council of All Saints which shone in the Ukrainian Land,” are already included in the Council of All Saints, which shone in the Russian land.”
Even more interesting and quite important was the metropolitan’s opinion about the historical reference point for the list of saints. “The reference point should be the historically recognized date of the Baptism of Rus, but at the same time, we should not forget those who were the harbingers of this event, such as Apostle Andrew the First-Called, Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duchess Olha, and others,” Luke wrote.
Separately, it should be emphasized that even various historical reformattings in civil history, according to Luka,too, could have only “secondary importance”.
And also in his reflections, Metropolitan Luka of Zaporizhzhia made the correct and apt conclusion as never before, “that the Day of their memory (of all the saints of the land of Ukraine – DFU) will give our Church a new impetus in the matter of reviving and affirming the Orthodox faith, restoring national-historical healthy reason”.
However, unfortunately, none of Luka’s fellow brothers listened to his thoughts, and he himself, contrary to his own thoughts, celebrated the memory of all Russian saints on the same Sunday as all his fellow priests.
This is the cunning of Luka and his clergy, which, although they refer to themselves as the “Ukrainian Church”, still celebrate the saints of the “Russian Church and Land.” It is a pity, but many conscious priests and laymen who still remain in this Church are suffering from such cunning of the higher hierarchs. It is a pity that due to this behavior of the higher hierarchs, the cause of unity in a single Local Church, in which all the saints of the Ukrainian land would be glorified, becomes even more distant from the realities and needs of today.
