Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed)

Metropolitan Pav el (secular Peter D. Lebed) is a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

Short biography

Metropolitan Pavlo was born on April 19, 1961 in the village of Borbin, Rivne region.

He finished high school in 1978.

He studied at Lutsk Technical College of the Soviet Trade till 1980.

In 1981-1983, he served in the Soviet Army.

From 1984 to 1988 he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary.

In 1986 he was ordained to the diaconate, and in 1986 to the priest.

After graduating from the theological seminary he was sent to serve in Volyn and Rivne eparchy in the village Nizkinichi, Ivanichi district, Volyn region.

In 1989 he was tonsured into monasticism with the name Paul.

In 1992 he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.

On March 30, 1994 he was appointed governor of the Holy Assumption Laura of the Caves in Kyiv.

Scandals

Metropolitan Pavel often had scandals with Ukrainian journalists. In particular, because he does not want to talk about the too luxurious life of the clergy. We are also talking about the metropolitan himself, who uses an expensive Mercedes car, for which he received the nickname "Pasha-Mercedes" in the media.

Journalists who made reports criticizing the Metropolitan or the church were called mentally ill, ignorant, mutts and lunatics. He threatened God's judgment.

During his ministry in the Church of the Assumption in Volyn a unique baroque iconostasis of the XVIII century was destroyed.

The Metropolitan also found himself in scandal because of his constant attempts to participate in the political life of the country, in particular when he participated in elections to the Verkhovna Rada and Kiev City Council.

His words about the Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics, whom he compared to Satan, did not go unnoticed either. The scandal also broke out when the Metropolitan personally "consecrated" the office of then-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

In January 2014, he compared then-President Viktor Yanukovych to Jesus Christ, for which he was criticized by other UOC-MP priests.

The media also reported that the metropolitan received kickbacks from firms that were involved in restoration work at the Lavra. In particular, the director of the Trinity Artel Korneli Borysov said that in 2011 he was directly involved in giving the metropolitan 1.5 million hryvnias.

In addition, according to him, the company "Cosy House" in exchange for the right to carry out works in the Lavra, as a "donation" built Metropolitan Paul a mansion in the village of Voronkov near Kiev.

Coronavirus

On April 4, 2020, it became known that Metropolitan Pavel had a suspected coronavirus. He has already taken a test, but the symptoms of malaise have allegedly already passed.