Police preparing to storm Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos

A monk from Esphigmenou. Photo: pronews

The conflict around Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos is flaring up again. Police are preparing to storm the monastery, which houses 118 monks, as reported by Pronews.

On July 16, law enforcement from Karyes sent a letter to the Holy Community of Mount Athos requesting permission to conduct a large-scale operation to evict the monks at the behest of a court executor. The authorities plan to carry out the raid using special equipment.

The conflict between Esphigmenou Monastery and Constantinople began in 1972. The monks took a firm stance against the Phanar, severing all ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and condemning the Phanariots' meetings with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. They are currently in communion with the Old Calendarists of Greece.

Since 2002, the old brotherhood of the monastery has been declared illegal, and to this day, the Greek judicial system characterizes the monks of Esphigmenou Monastery as "zealots," demanding they leave the monastery.

Several monks, referred to by Athonites as the "New Esphigmenou", live in Karyes. The state recognizes them, while the monks protesting against the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are deprived of rights and privileges.

The abbot of Esphigmenou, Archimandrite Methodios, stated that the monks would defend the monastery to the end: "We are ready to defend the monastery to death; it is our spiritual homeland. Here we were born spiritually, and here we will die."

Archimandrite Methodios claims, "We are being persecuted like the first Christians. Not by enemies, but by the patriarch himself, who should be our father, as well as by the Holy Community.

We also do not maintain relations with the Church of Greece. This is because Mount Athos belongs not to the ruling Church but to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Our difference with the Patriarch is spiritual," he clarifies. "We do not consider him Orthodox in what he does, as his actions are against the Orthodox Church, and therefore we do not commemorate him."

The abbot also criticized Patriarch Bartholomew for joint prayers with Catholics, heretics, Protestants, and non-religious people. He stated that Patriarch Bartholomew claims all religions have a part of the truth.

"But this is nothing but a lie. From the Fathers, we learned that the only truth is Orthodoxy and that only there can we be saved," said Archimandrite Methodios.

As reported earlier, in 2020, the Greek authorities began confiscating properties belonging to Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos.

Read also

Interview with His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of ROCOR

The Southern Clergy Retreat and the Growth of Orthodoxy in the South