December 10, 2011
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Thursday evening, the police in Hajnówka was informed about the devastation of the Saints Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev Skete in Odrynki.
Press officer of the Police in Hajnówka asp. Irena Kuptel reported that there were destroyed, among other things, seven hives, trees at the footbridge, the cross from the dome at the entrance gate to the Skete. The main power cord was cut and the Skete’s tractor was pushed into a pond.
Father Gabriel, the Abbot of the Skete, would like to thank all those who support him, are helping in organising the Skete and those who guarded the Skete all night after the incident. He also asks everyone for prayers.
Saints Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev Skete in Odrynki (northeastern Poland) was founded in 2009 by Archimandrite Gabriel (Giba), the former Abbot of the Annunciation Lavra in Supraśl. It is under the spiritual guidance of the Supraśl Lavra. The choice of the place to create the Skete was not accidental. From XVII to XIX century there was Ascension Monastery in there. According to local tradition that area had been also inhabitted by hermits even before. It’s currently the only one Skete in the Polish Orthodox Church.
It was the following act of intolerance in the Podlachian Voievodship in the last few months. Synagogues in Orla and Krynki, Lithuanian-language road signs (communities with 20%+ residents belonging to ethnic minorities are allowed in the EU to have road signs in their own languages) in Puńsk and the monument commemorating the Jews murdered by the Poles in Jedwabne were smeared with paint, there was a burglary into the Islam Culture Center in Białystok, someone also tried to set the flat of Pakistani-Polish marriage in Białystok on fire. There were many more ‘minor’ incidents too.
