It turned out to be a protest of the local Belarusian diaspora to draw the attention of the authorities and market’s organisers to the stand of the Minsk-based St. Elisabeth Convent.
A couple of days later the media reported about the closure of the stand and stoppage of cooperation of Szczecin authorities with the Convent.
“In the Polish city of Szczecin, Orthodox nuns who were selling icons, crosses and other religious items were thrown out at a Christmas fair. Ukrainian devilry has reached neighbouring Poland” – that’s how Russian propaganda described the situation.
But what was the reason for all that?
Holy tax evasion
The main point here are the activities of the St. Elisabeth Convent of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In Belarus, for a long time already, it has the image of both a citadel of the “Russian world” and an enterprise earning big sums of money, evading taxes and sponsoring the war of Russia against Ukraine.
It and people connected to it have been the objects of media attention and media investigations.
The Convent can be described as a holding with an advanced structure, organised hierarchy, tough management and aggressive ideology, being implemented at all levels.
Established in 1999 in Navinki district of Minsk, the monastery has grown to a structure including 7 legal entities in Belarus and Russia with approximately 1,600 employees.
It possesses 12 churches, 70 church pews in Minsk, women's and men's courtyards, more than 10 workshops and owns more than 300 hectares of land.
According to the information of “Bureau” media, the Сonvent keeps double-entry bookkeeping in order to avoid taxes and contributions.
The official salary in the monastery is only 15% of the actual one. The rest is paid as a “charitable donation for church obedience”.
Donations are indeed not subject to income tax, and you don’t have to pay contributions to the pension fund from them.
Indoctrination of “Russian world”
But that’s only the economic part of the story. Speaking about the cultural activities, the Convent includes a private school “Ikhvis”, a Sunday school, a patronage service, a pilgrimage center, the “spiritual and educational” centre “Ark”, the youth organisation “Eagles” and the “Sisterhood in honor of Saint Elizabeth”.
“Ikhvis” school uses its pupils to promote and finance the war in Ukraine. On July 4, 2023, the Convent held another edition of a concert called “We Do Not Abandon Our Own”, where both children and adult singers performed Russian military songs against the background of pictures of Russian soldiers and DNR militia members.
In September 2023, “Ikhvis” pupils performed at the “Joy” festival in Minsk to raise funds “in aid of Donbass”.
In February 2024, the Convent called on children to record “military-patriotic” musical compositions for the “Z” warriors – Z being the infamous symbol of the Russian war against Ukraine.
On February 23, 2024 – the day of the Russian army – the “Ark” centre hosted an event with the participation of “Ikhvis” pupils under the Russian flags with Z letters.
The same way of indoctrination is used in the “Eagles” youth movement.
For example, in April 2023, the Convent organised a contest of children’s drawings on pro-Russian and pro-war topics – the drawings had to be sent to the frontline of the war of Russia against Ukraine in order to “support Russian soldiers”.
Military nuns of the Kremlin
Starting from 2014, the St. Elisabeth Convent is gathering what it called “humanitarian aid for the people of Donbass”, that is, the people in Russian-occupied Donbass.
However, after the start of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, the Convent stopped hiding behind these phrases and is openly gathering and sending funds for the Russian soldiers – the initiative is called “Aid for brothers”.
On September 28, 2023, the YouTube channel of the Convent published a video including the report of one of the nuns from her trip to Moscow, where she visited the wounded PMC Wagner mercenaries in a hospital.
On September 8, 2024, at a “sisters’ meeting” of the Convent, which was broadcasted on YouTube, one of the nuns reported about her “business trip”: “I was there for a week in Donetsk (...), and I’m still there with these people, with our fighters. There, you know, is all of Russia... I saw real front-line brotherhood... I told them that we are very, very grateful to them for their protection and also for the fact that we have the opportunity to serve them”.
The head of the Convent, Andrei Lemeshonok in his interviews openly declares support for the Russian war against Ukraine and on March 26, 2023, he even boasted about the Convent’s workers going to the front: “One of our brothers from the courtyard went to war. And he said this in a kind of godly way, and he was so eager to go, you know... He said, well, I'll fight for a year, then they'll probably kill me, so you carry out all ceremonies for me, and make sure there are nuns there... And he said it beautifully! Well, is it possible to defeat such people?”
According to the sources of the Belarusian independent “Christian vision” community, Lemeshonok regularly reports about some “brothers” going to the war against Ukraine from this very “courtyard” he operates.
When Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko visited the Convent on January 7, 2023, he praised Lemeshonok for the campaigns in support of Russian soldiers.
Money from Europe to support Russian soldiers
At the moment the St. Elisabeth Convent is still trying to sell its production (mainly icons, souvenirs, candles, herbs, books, the objects of religious use, etc.) in the countries of the European Union.
The representatives of this organisation have been noticed in France, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Slovakia.
However, their possibility to earn money has been significantly decreased by the activities of the Belarusian diaspora, successfully drawing the attention of local religious authorities to the Convent’s policy, which resulted in ban on any cooperation with this organisation from the side of the biggest Christian communities.
For example, lately they were banned by the ones from Poland, Slovakia and France.
At the same time, St. Elisabeth Convent seeks to continue its business tours over the EU with the help of smaller, split away religious groups.
This past holiday season, the Convent representatives participated in the three Christmas markets in Belgium, held by the Orthodox Church of the Gauls – a self-governing Christian church formed in 2006.
According to Bernard Goublomme, the priest at Saint Athanase et Saint Amand Church in Lillois, the cooperation with St. Elisabeth Convent won’t be interrupted, because he found no evidence of this organization supporting the war of Russia against Ukraine.
It is necessary to say that in the West the St. Elisabeth Convent never speaks about its activities, political position and ideological work. They usually tell people that the money gathered from their trade at fairs and markets goes to “support the people in Ukraine”.
However, they don’t tell which people precisely. It looks like somebody forgot at least about the words “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another” (Leviticus 19:11).