A resident of Gatchina, Leningrad Region, a pensioner Galina Kozhevnikova told 47news , which in December she bought pasta at the local Cathedral of St. Paul, which was sold to her under the guise 30 candles.
The Russian woman discovered the substitution on December 31, when the electricity went out in her house. “I started to set fire to it – it doesn’t burn. The second one doesn’t burn. The third one is the same,” Kozhevnikova recalls. Later, she showed the “candles” to her granddaughter Xenia, who bit one of them and realized that it was actually pasta.
In the church, Kozhevnikova’s granddaughter was advised to figure it out on her own. The church shop at the cathedral told 47news that they could not help because the woman did not remember exactly when she made the purchase. They also assured that they did not sell pasta, and suggested that the pensioner simply mixed up the packages. The parishioner, commenting on these arguments, noticed that her head was working well.
The cost of 30 candles in a church shop, according to 47news estimates, can reach three thousand rubles.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia , speaking at the diocesan meeting of the capital in December, stated that dioceses should purchase candles only from the Sofrino factory, the main supplier ROC , and not from third-party vendors. At the same time, the patriarch admitted that the quality of Sofrine candles leaves much to be desired.