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House of Orthodox missionary priest burned to ashes in the Yaroslavl Region

Yaroslavl, December 1, Interfax – Unidentified delinquents have burned to ashes a house belonging to the Head of the Yaroslavl missionary department and Pro-rector of the Yaroslavl Theological seminary Hieromonk Serapion (Mitko), the priest himself told Interfax-Religion as he managed to escape fire.

The crime was committed on Friday evening in the Petrovo village of the Yaroslavl District not far from the regional center. Fr. Serapion was staying at the parochial house near St. Peter Church where he is a rector.

According to the priest, he heard someone enter the kitchen, but he thought it was a staff-member of the Church, who came to cook dinner. "Suddenly the lights went off, I smelled the sulfur, and almost at once the whole house was on fire from three sides, in ten minutes the roof was burning," Fr. Serapion went on to say.

The Rector managed to get out. He believes his salvation is "God's miracle."

According to the priest, witnesses later told him they saw a car without license plates with three men in it in outskirts of the village. After the house was burned, these people escaped.

Fr. Serapion doesn't know who can be interested in burning the house. However, he has "no doubt it was an intentional arson."

The priest doesn't exclude a possibility the crime was initiated by Satanists or representatives of other destructive cults, considering that their victim was the head of missionary department and a ritual murder was committed in the town this summer.

Fr. Serapion believes this event testifies to the urgent need to organize Orthodox people's guards in order to prevent such crimes.

The law enforcement agencies haven't commented the event to Interfax yet.

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