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The Greeks brought sheep for their patronal feast. What should I do?translated

October 10, 2026 · 1 min read

Reader question:

Good evening! We (husband, me and son) live in the south; we recently moved to another diocese in the Krasnodar Territory. On the patronal feast day we encountered a blatant game, in our opinion, and now we don’t know how to behave correctly. During the Liturgy, the Greeks bring rams; this time there were three of them. Two of them were led around the church three times and taken away, and the third was slaughtered on the church grounds. This is their tradition, and there is nothing special about it, so the priest answered us, and the dean blessed us, they have been doing this all their lives, this is their sacrifice to God. But before slaughtering it, they cut off an ear from a living ram and drew crosses on their foreheads with its blood. All this madness took place 10–15 meters from the church, on the church grounds, during the Liturgy. Well, they also donate some meat. All this, to put it mildly, left our family bewildered: what other victims could there be? Please clarify, maybe we are exaggerating, and this is acceptable in some regions, which I doubt.

This circumstance is very sad, and how to behave in this situation, maybe there is some document prohibiting or permitting such rituals.

Ekaterina

Priest's answer:

Archpriest Mikhail SAMOKHIN...

Source: Журнал ФОМА  ·  Read the full story →
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