The Nizhny Novgorod sect named after Putin thundered initially of the president’s second time period within the mid-2000s. A sure Mom Photinia introduced that in a previous life she was the Apostle Paul, and started to wish with the adherents on the “myrrh-streaming” icon together with his picture. “Sobesednik” (“Interlocutor”) correspondent Olga Kuznetsova, reporting in June 2023 from the Church of Mom Photinia within the village of Bolshaya Yelnya, Nizhny Novgorod area, discovered what’s now taking place within the monastery.
Tales of Mom Photinia
Mom stated which you could’t kill anybody in any respect, not even vegetation. She had not heard of a legislation punishing the “killing” of uncommon mushrooms, however she would in all probability help it. And he or she additionally jogged my memory, simply in case, that persons are sinful and grasping. She not too long ago constructed a path to her temple for everybody for 95 thousand rubles, arrange a set jar, they usually gave her 105 rubles.
Mom spoke lots concerning the reincarnation of souls, referring to the Bible, saying that John the Baptist was Elijah the Prophet in a previous life. The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t acknowledge this, however varied spiritual pseudo-Orthodox actions and sects usually exaggerate this.
Typically, reincarnation is Photinia’s trick. She believes that in a previous life she was the abbess of the Diveyevo monastery, Maria (she indicators herself “Mom Maria”), Princess Olga (Putin was then Prince Vladimir), and lots of others, however an important factor is that she, in her phrases, is the embodiment of the female the divine precept, the Mom of God herself and Eve.
As a substitute of Putin, the cross is crying
Photinia herself took me to see the temple on the highest ground. Its partitions are additionally painted pink. “That is the colour of affection,” mom defined. There are a number of contemporary flowers and icons in it, and there are additionally previous ones – they had been donated by parishioners when the temple opened. There isn’t a Putin icon amongst them; they are saying Photinia retains the “picture” someplace within the distant bins. After the surge of curiosity within the Putin sect, they in all probability had conversations together with her, and now she doesn’t point out the president’s identify in useless.
The temple wants miracles to ensure that individuals and cash to flock, and now as an alternative of the myrrh-streaming picture of Vladimir Vladimirovich, the cross is crying with peace, whereas the previous icon Mom of God of Kazan is crying “blood” (purple stains are seen, in accordance the correspondent Kuznetsova).
“I perform all of the rituals: I baptize, and I carry out the marriage, and I carry out the funeral service,” Photinia stated. “I don’t conduct unction; the channel for the Lord’s unction has been closed for 2 years now.”
However Photinia conducts rites of exorcism, driving out demons. Lately I “kicked the demon out” of a lady who suffered from gluttony. “It’s important to be very pure, since you take the essence upon your self,” she famous.
It was not Putin who launched the particular operation, however the Heaven
Photinia was in a terrific temper and began speaking. It started with the truth that individuals at this time stay in sin, “are happy with data that’s of no use to us in any respect, they journey to totally different international locations” as an alternative of growing spiritually, for instance, studying non secular literature of its personal manufacturing. Photinia publishes {a magazine}, Temple of Gentle, which is distributed freed from cost by her supporters.
Mom stated that we should “love, be sensible, have compassion for others, not divide the world into strangers and ours, we’re all brothers and sisters,” and moved on to the extra particular subject of the particular operation, which she doesn’t notably approve of.
– However wasn’t it Putin, whom you your self name the Apostle Paul, who introduced it?
It was fascinating how she would get out, however Svetlana Robertovna didn’t blink an eye fixed.
– One individual can by no means do something; there’s a group managing the nation. If we’re speaking about world conflicts, the Patriarch of Russia is certain to participate on this, and now there’s additionally the Duma. “It’s not the president who makes selections,” my mom stated and instructed me the story of the Apostle Paul, who was a really unhealthy man, a pagan Saul, who reached the intense level of darkness, noticed the sunshine and believed in Christ.
– Now Putin is Saul, and he must cross this line (between gentle and darkness – Ed.). “He doesn’t need any [word prohibited by the Russian laws] now; it has dragged on, persons are dying, there’s struggling. However he didn’t untie it, that is heaven. It’s simply time to take the souls of individuals,” Photinia concluded and said that we’ve the ability we deserve.
She says she hasn’t heard about Navalny and people who disagree, however simply in case she prays for everybody, in all probability for international brokers too. Holy girl…
– What to do if an individual was mobilized for this, in your phrases, homicide? – I couldn’t stand it.
Mom got here up with this too: they are saying, you may’t desert, it’s “cowardice” and “a type of delight,” however it’s important to go and pray. One in every of her youngsters, who didn’t wish to go, was referred to as up, however he has been in reserve together with his regiment for a very long time.
The start
Within the village of Bolshaya Elnya, Nizhny Novgorod area, in a non-public three-story home with a turret, the sect “Mom Photinia the Gentle-Bringer” is actively working. The sect gained broad reputation by declaring Vladimir Putin a saint and his icon as a myrrh-streaming icon. Mom Photinia calls herself the reincarnation of “Christ-Eve.”
Queen of Sheba d’Arc
The true identify of “Mom Photinia” is Svetlana Robertovna Frolova. Till 1996, she labored because the director of the commerce and buying base of the Gorky Railway, and in 1996 she was sentenced to at least one and a half years in jail for fraud. After leaving jail, Svetlana Frolova took up therapeutic and shortly acquired a mansion within the heart of Nizhny Novgorod. In keeping with one model, the mansion was bought with revenue from therapeutic; in accordance with one other model, cash remained from earlier instances.
Quickly Frolova expanded her vary of therapeutic companies and declared herself a priest and the reincarnation of “Eve-Christ.”
Again in 2005, Photinia wrote to Putin with a name for non secular perfection and to Patriarch Alexy with a request to ordain her to the priesthood.
There was no reply, and Photinia declared herself a priest. Quickly she senses new spirits inside her:
“Earlier than turning into Photinia and Eve, Svetlana Frolova was the Queen of Sheba, Queen Helena, who discovered the tree of the Holy Cross, Joan of Arc, an Indian guru who communicated with the service provider Afanasy Nikitin, Abbess Maria of the Diveyevo Monastery initially of the 20th century and, lastly, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya,” famous spiritual scholar Roman Lunkin, who spoke intimately with Photinia in 2005.
Income proportion
“Sadly, the sect enjoys a sure reputation and is clearly involved about increasing this reputation. It’s recognized that the creation of a pseudo-religious motion is a really worthwhile enterprise, solely barely inferior in profitability to trafficking in medication and pornography, organizing prostitution and the like,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin feedback on the actions of the sect in a remark to PRAVMIR.
For a number of years, Photinia distributed a periodical by which articles had been signed by the Heavenly Father and Seraphim of Sarov.
On the “worship” they sang “Might there all the time be sunshine” and sat on rugs (borrowed from Islam). Eyewitnesses reported that worshipers at these conferences had been put right into a trance.
Progressively, Photinia synthesized all religions, calling for “asceticism from Orthodoxy, mercy from Catholicism, morality from Islam, and from Buddhism – Buddha himself and reincarnation”.
The sect was not in poverty: in accordance with the testimony of village residents, Mom Photinia invited individuals to her group, promising that the trustees would resolve monetary difficulties. Because the Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Gazette reported, “in accordance with the native police division, Svetlana Robertovna Frolova repeatedly submits requests for monetary help to varied entrepreneurs and organizations, signing herself as “Orthodox group” or “true Orthodox Christians.”
Bob Marley, Barack Obama, Putin
Along with attracting individuals to the group, Photinia is lively in publishing: about 40 of her books, revealed in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, and Ukraine, could be present in on-line shops. By the way in which, typically her creations are present in Orthodox bookstores. To increase the “subscriber base,” Putin was declared a saint, and his “icon” streamed myrrh.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin believes that it is a very pure transfer for the sect: “In fact, this trade is fueled in a sure means. It’s recognized that probably the greatest methods to advertise a brand new spiritual motion is to affiliate it with well-known names. Thus, Rastafarianism was revolved across the names of Bob Marley and the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, in Kenya there’s a pseudo-Catholic sect that declared Bark Obama a saint, and right here they exploit the identify of Putin. There may be nothing unique on this method.”
Press secretary of V.V. Putin, Dmitry Peskov instructed the media that Putin “winces on the cult of devotion fueled by Frolova. In fact, he’s the most well-liked individual on this nation and has his personal fan membership, however it’s not a cult.”
The Nizhny Novgorod diocese has been conducting explanatory work amongst residents for a few years: there have been official statements and publications in diocesan bulletins:
“It has been repeatedly reported within the media, in our diocesan newspaper, that Mrs. Fotinia will not be Orthodox, and the actions she carries out can solely be referred to as sectarian. We hope that legislation enforcement companies will take note of its actions, and the unlawful existence of this spiritual group will probably be correctly assessed,” stated Archpriest Andrey Milkin, who was then the press secretary of the diocese, again in 2005.
Native residents demanded 10 years in the past that Svetlana Frolova be evicted, however the head of the self-government, Evgeniy Polavin, didn’t see any authorized grounds for this.
It’s apparent that within the pre-election months the Photinia sect will considerably increase the variety of adherents, particularly since studies of myrrh streaming are replenished with an ever-growing record of “miracles”: “Folks come to the Nizhny Novgorod village, the place the so-called. Mom Photinia, with requests for therapeutic, longs for fast miracles. Exploiting individuals’s diseases by extorting cash from them will not be a worthwhile exercise,” stated Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin.
Sources in Russian: Assistant Administrator of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese Andrey Milkin: “Mrs. Photinia will not be Orthodox, and the actions she carries out can’t be referred to as something apart from sectarian.” http://www.nne.ru/information.php?id=1615; R. Lunkin. From witchcraft to the creation of a non secular system. Keston Institute Analysis; http://www.keston.org.uk/_russianreview/edition0304/05Fotinya.html.
Photograph: moyhram.org, https://sobesednik.ru/obshchestvo/20230621-ranse-byl-apostolom-pavlom-kak-segod.
