It has been repeatedly stated that the aggressor is resorting to a religious form of promoting the “Russian world” in occupied Crimea, including by sending all kinds of “shrines and relics of the Moscow Patriarchate” to the peninsula. It is quite well known that the “Crimean tour” of “Gift of the Magi”, organized for the money of the terrorist Konstantin Malofeev, preceded the beginning of the occupation. A less well-known fact was the importation of the relics of the blessed Matrona of Moscow to the peninsula on the eve of the occupation in the fall of 2013, on the initiative of the permanent Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea Lazarus (Shvets).
The political outline of this event ten years ago was simple: Matrona, who died in 1952, allegedly “predicted the victory of the Soviet Union” in World War II and, in general, her image corresponded to the chimera of “Soviet Christianity” from apologists of the “Russian world.” At the same time, Matrona was canonized in 1999 as a locally revered saint of the Moscow diocese and thus had and does not have anything to do with Crimea and Ukrainian Orthodoxy in principle; her demonstrative glorification by the Crimean clergy was a clear manifestation of his “true devotion”.
It is not surprising that over the past nine years, it was the relics of Matryona that were brought to Crimea four times, but the current, fifth delivery of them to the St. Nicholas Cathedral of occupied Yevpatoria on September 14 has become quite symptomatic since it coincided with the most “striking events” including explosions for the local population and the hottest ones for the occupying soldiers. Now local residents are lively discussing what other “relics” the invaders will bring in a vain attempt to “save the Russian world” in the once significant children’s resort and what other interesting things will happen in the town after their delivery.
