{"id":265403,"date":"2026-06-13T10:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T10:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265403\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T10:51:11","slug":"new-york-woman-claims-priest-used-confession-against-her-to-get-her-out-of-church-owned-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265403\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Woman Claims Priest Used Confession Against Her to Get Her Out of Church-Owned Apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">New Yorker Magdalena Max Avramovich claims she was forced out of her rent-stabilized apartment in a church-owned complex in Manhattan after a priest allegedly used information against her that she revealed during a confessional, while in the throes of a psychotic episode, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avramovich, who is schizophrenic, recently filed a civil complaint against the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/news\/world\/americas\/nyc-rent-stabilized-apartment-lawsuit-priest-confessional-b2984656.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:The Independent;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The Independent&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The Independent<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the ex-tenant, she had lived for nearly three decades in the same apartment, where she paid $1,540 a month in rent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avramovich\u2019s court documents state that she had successfully managed her illness until a medication change impacted her symptoms and culminated in a crisis in February 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cMy psychosis concocted paranoia stories surrounding my family, and the need to remove myself from my apartment and leave the country in some nonsensical attempt at helping them,\u201d Avramovich, 56, says in the docs, per the outlet, admitting that she had quit her job, given away most of her belongings and booked a trip to Serbia, where many of her loved ones reside.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\" &lt;span class=&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;&gt;Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava&lt;\/span&gt;\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"1405\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4b7059c6eb387648804eac6cd59c032b.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p> Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avramovich claims she reached out to the church\u2019s Father Zivojin Jakovljevic, \u201cseeking confession and a prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She says on Feb. 10, \u201che formally took my confession, wherein I sobbed uncontrollably about my perceived situation and my paranoid thoughts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cFather Zivojin appeared to console me. The very next day, however, he asked for my permission to share that sensitive information with [the church] board, my landlord.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She adds, \u201cInadvisedly, I assented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The filing states on Feb. 14, the church secretary emailed Avramovich a \u201csurrender agreement\u201d to give up the apartment within five days, which she signed, per the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Abramovich\u2019s attorney calls the move \u201cunconscionable,\u201d \u201cunethical\u201d and \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Abramovich, who maintains she has restarted medication for her \u201cmental health and stability,\u201d is seeking to retain her longtime home, arguing that her mind was \u201cso affected\u201d by her psychosis that she was \u201cincompetent to sign\u201d the agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">St. Sava Cathedral has released a statement on its <a href=\"https:\/\/stsavanyc.org\/public-statement-of-saint-sava-cathedral-in-new-york\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:website;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;website&quot;}\" class=\"link \">website<\/a> saying it \u201ccategorically denies the allegations asserted against it and has retained counsel to defend itself through the legal process. We will not comment on specific allegations while this matter is pending in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This story <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalenquirer.com\/new-york-woman-claims-priest-used-confession-against-her-to-get-her-out-of-church-owned-apartment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:New York Woman Claims Priest Used Confession Against Her to Get Her Out of Church-Owned Apartment;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;New York Woman Claims Priest Used Confession Against Her to Get Her Out of Church-Owned Apartment&quot;}\" class=\"link \">New York Woman Claims Priest Used Confession Against Her to Get Her Out of Church-Owned Apartment<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalenquirer.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:National Enquirer;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;National Enquirer&quot;}\" class=\"link \">National Enquirer<\/a>. Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.yahoo.com\/brands\/national-enquirer\/\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:National Enquirer on Yahoo;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;National Enquirer on Yahoo&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Enquirer on Yahoo<\/a> so you don\u2019t miss what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorker Magdalena Max Avramovich claims she was forced out of her rent-stabilized apartment in a church-owned complex&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15901,102819,9,11,10,9170,102818],"class_list":["post-265403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-court-documents","tag-magdalena-max-avramovich","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-yorker","tag-serbian-orthodox-cathedral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}