Subdeacon Franco G. Cerruti from Italy, who signed the certificate for the fragments the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, donated by the owner of the Mutabor club to the Moscow temple, could not confirm or deny the authenticity of the document, writes the Italian La Stampa.
Until 2015, Cerruti was the keeper of a large reliquary of the Curia of Novara and signed dozens of certificates for holy relics — this information was previously confirmed to Radio Liberty journalists in the diocese of the city. Many of the shrines came to Russian churches.
For example, Franco Cerruti certified a piece of the Belt of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in 2011, businessman and member of United Russia Vadim Zhimirov donated to the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. At the same time, the certificate for the relics donated by the owner of Mutabor, Mikhail Danilov, to the Church of the Sign of the Icon of the Mother of God was signed later — in 2018.
After inquiries that journalists sent to the Curia, Cerruti was summoned to Bishop Franco Brambilla and began an internal investigation. La Stampa emphasizes that he may face a church trial — the Vatican, as part of the fight against corruption, officially banned the sale of relics at the end of 2017.
Cerruti did not directly answer questions about his signatures on the certificates, but said they appeared to him to be fake. The subdeacon admitted that the relics of St. Nicholas were indeed kept in the reliquary of Novara and arrived there from Giffa. At the same time, Cerruti hinted that the relics could have disappeared from the vault.
Radio Liberty journalists noticed that the origin of the relics that ended up in Russia, the certificates for which Cerruti signed, was not always Italian: Danilov claimed that he acquired the shrines in the Vatican, and Zhimirov claimed that he brought the relics from Greek Athos.
On December 20, “Mutabor” hosted a “naked” party for blogger Anastasia Ivleeva, which outraged pro-government activists. After this, security forces and employees of Rospotrebnadzor came to the club. A protocol was drawn up against the club's legal entity regarding violation of sanitary and epidemiological requirements due to beer poisoning of a visitor (Article 6.6 of the Administrative Code). On January 10, the court suspended the activities of Mutabor for 90 days.
On Christmas, January 7, telegram channels published a video in which Danilov donates the relics to the Temple of the Sign of the Icon of the Mother of God. “We say that we are against obscurantism, diabolism, we support the church in every possible way,” the entrepreneur noted when he handed over the shrine to rector Mikhail Gulyaev.