It’s not just mere mortals that the Louis Vuitton monogram or Gucci’s iconic interlocking snakes induce inordinate amounts of lust in – apparently, even the men doing God’s work can’t resist the lure of a statement bag or a logo-emblazoned pool slide every now and then, either.

Step forward Vyacheslav Baskakov, a Russian Orthodox priest who, this week, was reprimanded by the church for dropping immodest amounts of money on designer clothing and flexing far too hard on the ‘gram – giving a whole new meaning to the term swag Lord in the process.

Although Baskakov’s IG account has since been deleted, a number of screenshots were published in a report by The Moscow Times, featuring everything from a bamboo-handle Dionysus bag and matching buckled boots to LV’s classic luggage.

The posts were blasted by the church, and said to be in ‘poor taste’. “The life of a priest cannot be divided between the personal and public and no clergyman can act like a priest in a church from the morning until lunch and then be whoever he wants from lunch until evening,” a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill said in a statement.

Kirill himself is no stranger to the odd designer shopping spree, however, given he dropped £24,000 on a Breguet watch back in 2012. He was caught out on the purchase when aides #Photoshopfailed at editing it out of official church pictures. Lol.

Baskakov apologised for his inappropriate IG posts in a letter released on Sunday, stating he would “suffer penance and shut down the Instagram, since I can’t behave myself humbly and adequately.” However, he went on to explain his posts were an attempt to be ‘open’. “I posted everything that was pleasant and not sinful,” the letter read. “I tried to be an open person. I was warned (against it), but I fought for this freedom.”

The priest also went on to deny he actually owned any of the items, saying he had just been trying them on in the store, and added that he had occasionally sewn buckles and trims onto what were actually cheap shoes: “So they’re inexpensive, but they look festive.” He also claimed he suffers from neuralgia and that doctors had told him wearing different clothes could help alleviate his symptoms. “So that’s what it came to, changing what I could – my shoes and scarf.”