Metropolitan Longin (Zhar)
Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny
secular name: Mykhailo Zhar
Since 1996, with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he has been engaged in the construction of the Holy Ascension men’s monastery in the village of Bancheny. The monastery was consecrated in 1998 by Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
Since 1999, also with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the UOC, he has overseen the construction of a convent in honor of the Boyany Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Boyany.
Alongside the construction of the monasteries, he was engaged in building a shelter for orphaned children. The shelter was initially located at the Holy Ascension Bancheny men’s monastery and was later transferred to the village of Molnytsia in the Hertsa District of the Chernivtsi Region. There, a new complex of buildings for the orphanage was constructed and consecrated on September 29, 2002, by Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) of Kyiv and All Ukraine.
In December 2008, he was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine for adopting more than 400 orphans with developmental disabilities.
Metropolitan Longin is widely known in Ukraine and in Orthodox countries as a hierarch devoted to the care of orphaned children.Through his labors, hundreds of children with disabilities and special needs have found a home at the Holy Ascension Bancheny Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The persecution of the hierarch began on May 22, 2023, when officers of the Security Service of Ukraine informed him of a notice of suspicion. Metropolitan Longin is accused in connection with a sermon in which he criticized the violent seizures of UOC churches carried out by raiders affiliated with the OCU.
In particular, referring to their criminal actions, the Metropolitan called them antichrists.
The SBU charged Metropolitan Longin under Part 1 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – incitement of interreligious hatred.
Court hearings continue to this day. The court imposed a preventive measure in the form of a personal obligation.
The proceedings are ongoing amid the hierarch’s steadily deteriorating health condition.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН