Mikhail Vasiliev, a Russian priest who became famous for recently saying that it would be easier for women in Russia to send their sons into battle if they gave birth to more children, died on November 6 in the war in Ukraine .
Source: official website of the Russian Orthodox Church; The Insider, a Latvia-based, Russia-focused media company
Details: The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) website reported that Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev died on the morning of November 6 “in the area of special military operation in Ukraine while performing pastoral duties.”
The ROC said Vasiliev has traveled as a priest on missions to “hot spots” and participated in “peacekeeping operations” in Kosovo, Bosnia, Abkhazia, Kyrgyzstan, the North Caucasus and Syria.
He was Archpriest of the Church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr and Venerable Ilya Muromets, the Garrison Church of the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Armed Forces in Vlasikha, Moscow Oblast.
The insider reported that Vasiliev expressed his opinion live on Spas (Savior) TV channel in October that it would be easier for women in Russia to send their sons to war if they had more children.
The moderator told him about a woman who hid her son on the Canary Islands to avoid mobilization.
“The Lord has permitted every woman to bear many children. And if a woman who fulfills this commandment to ‘be fertile and reproduce’ refuses to use artificial terminations in the broadest sense, then obviously she would have more than one child. And that’s why she wouldn’t find it so painful and terrible to part with her child, even for a while. The devil is not as terrible as he is made out to be. Whom God helps, no one can harm,” said the Russian priest.
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