MINSK, January 6. /TASS/. The Belarusian police have detained a woman suspected of murdering the prioress of the St. Ksenia Monastery near Minsk, spokeswoman for the Minsk Region branch of the republican Investigative Committee Tatiana Belonog told TASS on Friday.
"As part of a criminal case instituted on charge of ‘murder,’ the suspect has been detained. A psychological and psychiatric expertise has been appointed for her," the spokeswoman said.
The investigation "is thoroughly studying the circumstances of what happened on the territory of the monastery," the spokeswoman said.
"Investigators are working with the participants of the tragic event and the regional branch's heads have placed the probe under their control," Belonog said.
According to the web portal of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, "it is preliminarily known that stab wounds were inflicted by a 29-year old woman, a citizen of Kazakhstan, who had been temporarily sheltered in the monastery to help her resolve her worldly problems."
"During her stay in the monastery, the young woman’s psychic disorder was observed and this was the cause of her horrible act," the exarchate said.
Mother Vasilissa was found dead on the Monastery’s territory. Representatives of the exarchate of the Belarusian Orthodox Church were immediately informed about the incident.
"Unfortunately, this is true. The prioress of the St. Ksenia Monastery is dead," Chairman of the Synodic Information Center of the Belarusian Orthodox Church Archpriest Sergei Lepin said.
According to Belarusian media, Mother Superior Vasilissa came to Belarus from Ukraine. In 2001, she was a novice at the St. Elisabeth Monastery near Minsk and subsequently she took her vows.
From 2004, she became the prioress of the St. Ksenia Monastery in the village of Baran in the Borisov district with the blessing of Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret.