Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church

1. The Monastery is a church institution, living and acting in which is a community of men or women, consisting of Orthodox Christians, who voluntarily have chosen the monastic way of life for spiritual and moral perfection and the common confession of the Orthodox faith.

2. The decision on the opening of the Monasteries shall belong to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and to the Holy Synod on the petition of a Diocesan Bishop.

The monastery can be registered as a legal entity in the order established by the legislation of the country, on the territory of which the monastery is located.

3. The stavropegic monasteries shall be under the supervision and canonical administration of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia or of those Synodal departments, to which the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia shall give his blessing for such supervision and administration.

5. The diocesan monasteries shall be under the supervision of the diocesan bishops.

6. In the event that one, several or all inhabitants of the monastery withdraw from it, they shall have no right on the property and assets of a monastery and shall not make any claims on such.

7. The joining of the monastery or withdrawal from it shall be executed by the decrees of a diocesan bishop on the petition of the father superior (mother superior) or the abbot.

8. The monasteries shall be governed and live in accordance with the provisions of the present Statute, the Civil Statute, the ‘Regulations on the Monasteries and Monastics’ and their own statutes, which must be approved by the diocesan bishop.

9. The monasteries can have their representations. The community of Orthodox Christians in the administration of a monastery and located outside its territory shall be called the representation. The activities of the representation shall be regulated by the statute of the monastery to which this representation belongs and by its own civil Statute. The representation of the monastery shall be in the jurisdiction of the same bishop as the monastery is. In the event that the representation is located on the territory of another diocese, the name of the diocesan bishop and the name of the bishop in whose diocese the representation is located shall be mentioned at the divine services in the representation of the monastery.

10. In the event the monastery takes a decision to withdraw from the hierarchic structure and jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, this monastery shall no longer be recognized as belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church. This shall entail the cessation of the activity of the monastery as a religious organization of the Russian Orthodox Church and the monastery shall be deprived of the right to property, which belonged to the monastery by the right of ownership, use or on any other legal basis, as well as the right to use the name and symbols of the Russian Orthodox Church in its name.