Orthodox priest murdered
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM KRASNOYARSK DIOCESE
from Press Service of Department for External Church
Relations
23 March 2000
On the occasion of the ritual murder of monastic
priest Grigory (secular name Gennady Mikhailovich
Yakovlev).
He was born 3 October 1949 in the city of Bodaibo
of Irkutsk province. After eight years of
schooling he finished the Angara technical institute
in 1968 and then served in the navy from 1969 to
1972. Then he graduated in history at Odessa
State University in 1978. The same year he received
holy baptism and began attending the church in
Barnaul. He became an acolyte in the church of
saints Peter and Paul in the city of
Anzhero-Sudzhensk of the Kemerovo diocese.
Then from 1981 to 1982 he served a novitiate in
the Pokrov church in Tobolsk and was a psalmist from
January 1983 in the Dormition church in
Yeniseisk. On 12 December 1986 he was ordained
a deacon and on 13 December of the same year, a
priest. From 5 June 1987 he was rector of the
St. Nicholas church in the village of Listvianka,
Irkutsk province. From 1 May 1988 he was
personal secretary of the archbishop of
Irkutsk. On 5 May 1994 he was entrusted with
the shipment from Moscow of the casket of St.
Innokenty of Irkutsk. He was in our diocese
from January 1995 in the monastery of the Holy
Transfiguration, where he became a monk on 26 March
of that year.
He was the rector in the house of prayer in the
city of Tura (Evenkia) from 4 November 1997. It
was here that he was murdered by Roman Krishnits, a
member of the sect of Krishna Consciousness with whom
he was acquainted. Krishnits declared that he
did this "on ordered of the guru of
Krishna." The ritual nature of the murder
is indicated by the following: a stabbing with
a sharp dagger in the heart and neck, and then
beheading with a knife, following by its procession
around the sanctuary in the church and placement on
the altar.
We consider that this tragedy is the result of the
extensive publicity in the mass media of all kinds of
pseudoreligion, a return to the wild pagan cults of
satanism, and the cultivation of the idea of
polytheism of a new form under the name of Christ
which is now being promoted in contradiction to sober
thought and the holy scriptures, which forbids the
division of the one faith given by God into all kinds
of inventions of charlatans and religious pluralism.
May the Lord receive the soul of God's servant,
the monastic priest Grigory Yakovlev into his
heavenly dwelling, as a true son of the Orthodox
church, forgiving him all his transgressions through
his martyr's death. (tr. by PDS)
AFTER RITUAL MURDER OF SIBERIAN PRIEST, CHURCH
DENOUNCES RISE OF SECTS
by Andrei Zolotov
MOSCOW, March 24, 2000 (ENI) -- Church authorities
in the Russian Orthodox diocese of Krasnoyarsk
in Siberia, more than 3000 kilometres east of
Moscow, have condemned the ritualistic murder
of a local priest, and blamed his death on the
rise of cults in Russia.
"We see the tragedy as a consequence of
extensive advertising of all sorts of
pseudo-religiousness, and the return to the wild
pagan cults of satanism and the cultivation of
new types of polytheism," the church declared in
a statement.
The statement was issued following reports of the
death of 50-year-old Hieromonk Grigory, the
Orthodox priest in charge of a chapel, located in
his house in the Siberian town of Tura.
Police Colonel Ivan Panov, chief of the Evenk
District Police Department, told ENI by
telephone that at 3 am on Tuesday, 21 March, a man
entered the priest's house. He then stabbed
Hieromonk Grigory (whose lay name was Gennady
Yakovlev) in the chest and neck, then cut off his
head with a pocket knife. The murderer, who
later told police his name was Roman Krishnin,
carried the severed head round the altar in the
chapel, leaving a circle of blood on the floor,
and then placed it on top of the altar.
Roman was detained later the same day and
confessed to the murder, according to the
police.
"He said he had had an order from his god
Krishna," Panov said. The case is now
being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office of the
district of Evenk, in the Krasnoyarsk region.
Panov said that the killer's identity could not be
officially confirmed, but police believed he
had arrived in Tura 18 months ago from the Tyumen
region, 1000 kilometres away, where he grew up
in a family of hunters. He had no identity
papers.
Panov added that the priest knew his murderer.
"Father Grigory, the kind soul, may he rest
in peace, had taken him in, given him shelter,
[and] he [Roman] lived in his [the priest's] house
for a long time," the police chief said.
"They had arguments about faith." Panov
said the murder did not appear to be connected
to robbery or any other common crime.
The police chief also suspects that Roman assumed
the last name Krishnin in recognition of the
Hindu god Krishna. But Panov said he found it
difficult to believe that Roman was a follower
of the Hare Krishna group, which worships
Krishna and has world-wide membership. "I read
about this faith, they don't teach violence. He
is more likely to be some sort of satanist."
In Moscow Russian Hare Krishnas have expressed
deep concern about press reports declaring that
the murderer belonged to their organisation. They
said they feared these reports could ignite
hostility between religious groups.
Sergei Zuyev, chairman of the board of the Centre
of Krishna Consciousness Societies in Russia,
issued a statement on 23 March denying that Roman
had ever been a member or employee of the
organisation. The statement stressed that the
group's teaching "excludes any violence not only
towards men, but also towards animals".
Zuyev has flown to Krasnoyarsk to investigate the
case.
Svetlana Valerieva, a journalist in Tura who was
present when police first questioned Roman,
told ENI in a telephone interview that Roman was a
strong young man who did not appear insane.
"In my opinion he is a normal man who
expresses himself well," Valerieva said.
"He said that he had to purify himself,
and killed Father Grigory for the good of
others."
Both Valerieva and Panov said Tura - an
impoverished town of about 6000 residents - was
in deep shock. Many people stood outside the chapel
on 22 March as Orthodox clergy from Krasnoyarsk
held a memorial service. The burial is to be
held today, 24 March.
Hieromonk Grigory had set up the local parish, the
police chief said. "Now, with his death,
he is turning our town to God."
Deacon Dmitry Streletsky, who works at the
Krasnoyarsk diocesan office of the Russian
Orthodox Church, told ENI that Hieromonk Grigory was
a "mild, delicate and benevolent
man".
Published by ENI News Service, March 24, 2000
(posted 28 March 2000)
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