The Bigorski monastery dismissed allegations that it has violated curfew orders during its Easter celebration. With Macedonians locked in their homes for Easter, tens of thousands from Macedonia and across the world tuned in the live Youtube stream of the Easter service in the monastery.

But some on the left, and some of the Albanian parties, demanded that the monastery is fined for violating the curfew orders. The monastery responded today, insisting that it did not have outside visitors, except for the small crew that prepared the livestream, which had journalism permits.

On top of the monks and nuns, the monastery houses a group of construction workers and artisans, who are part of our family. We also have people who sought treatment here and the volunteers from our four monasteries. We declare that we never violated the rules and the recommendations linked issued by the Government. Even if somebody attempted to come to the monastery during the curfew, the police presence deterred them, the monastery said in a statement.