The Church of Sweden has officially warned all its parishes about the activities of nuns from the Belarusian St. Elizabeth Convent (Minsk), who are already being referred to in the local media as ‘Z-nuns’ and even ‘Kremlin spy nuns’.
According to information from the Swedish Lutheran Church, nuns visited up to 20 churches across the country during the pre-Christmas period, selling handmade items — knitted goods, icons, wooden souvenirs — allegedly for charitable purposes. However, according to an official statement by the Church of Sweden, the funds raised are not going to help those in need, but rather to:
support Russian nationalism,
finance Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,
and activities related to the monastery’s close contacts with Russian military intelligence.
The monastery is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and has openly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine since its inception. After 24 February 2022, the nuns were nicknamed ‘Z-nuns’ because of their public display of the Z symbol — including in photographs with Russian military personnel in the occupied territories of Ukraine, where they posed in bulletproof vests and participated in ‘morale-boosting events’ for Russian troops.
The Church of Sweden has called on all parishes to completely cease any cooperation with representatives of the Holy Elizabethan Monastery, calling their claims of charity ‘lies.’
Experts view such trips as part of hybrid operations: creating an image of ‘innocent religious sisters,’ spreading pro-Russian narratives, and potentially gathering information under the guise of cultural and charitable activities.