The mother takes the child from the hands of the Russian priest, who almost lost her life on the day of the baptism

A Russian Orthodox priest is the most hated man on social media. The "man of God" known as Photios in the church of the city of Gatchina, about 40 kilometers from Saint Petersburg, has become the protagonist of a baptism that could have almost caused the death of a small child. It was the child's mother who avoided the tragedy.

Priest Vasily Necheporenko, who serves in this small church, took the child, about 1 year old, to baptize him in the basin of holy water. According to the Russian Orthodox tradition, a child must be immersed three times in holy water in order to be baptized.

The action was not liked very much by the child, who started crying. This angered the priest, who dipped him many more times so that the child would stop crying.

But even this method was not enough, with the priest also starting to use force. At that moment, the intervention of the child's mother was needed to stop the strange action of the priest, who commented on the action as something normal.

"The baby did not suffocate and did not hit its head on the pelvis. I have 26 years of service in the church and I always try to do baptism in that way," said Necheporenko.

The toddler's mother, Anastasia Alekseyeva, told Russian media that the atmosphere was tense from the start. The priest did this, since she did not know the prayers.

"After the first dive, I realized that the baby was drowning. I started to pull her from the priest's arms," ​​the woman explained, adding that the little girl had been mistreated during the ceremony.

As a normal action, the Church Administration in Gatchina has also commented, saying that despite the fact that the footage has gone viral, there is no official complaint against the priest and therefore they have no right to take measures against him.

This is not the first time that the baptism ritual has gone viral on the Internet, mainly from Orthodox Christian countries such as Georgia and Cyprus. Last year, a priest in Russia's southern Stavropol region was punished with a six-month suspension for an act similar to the video below. /oranews/