Obedience is an indispensable condition for the salvation of monastics and the foundation of all ecclesiastical unity, His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill emphasized.translated

For all who have chosen the monastic way of life, obedience is an indispensable condition for the salvation of their souls, but it is also the foundation of ecclesiastical unity as well, His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill declared.

— Today I would like to particularly speak about obedience as the foundation of ecclesiastical unity and an indispensable condition for the salvation of those who have taken the monastic path and are serving in the monastery, said the First Hierarch on September 23, 2026, addressing the Assembly of Abbots and Abbesses of Monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill emphasized that obedience is "not simply a condition for communal life, but what binds the Church together."

— Obedience removes the deep-seated causes of divisions: self-love, the desire to seek personal gain in everything, and to defend one's own opinion as the only correct one. Obedience instills humility and readiness to listen to each other. If there is obedience in a monastery, then it lives as a single organism; if obedience weakens, the monastic community disintegrates. Obedience is not merely some burden or an addition to other more important aspects of monastic life, but this...