Persecution of Mount Athos' Esphigmenou Monastery by the EP

[Justin Kissel]

This (unofficial) website for the monastery was posted earlier on the Indiana list: http://www.esphigmenou.com/

[尼古拉前执事]

Police besiege Mount Athos monks

Helena Smith in Athens
Wednesday January 29, 2003
The Guardian

Armed police, bent on expelling a group of maverick monks vehemently opposed to reconciliation between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, last night began blockading their high-walled settlement on the all-male monastic republic of Mount Athos.

In an unprecedented step the holy mount's civilian administrator called for the police as the rebellious monks vowed to defy an order demanding that they leave the far-flung peninsula today.

"We could hold out for two years," declared a defiant Abbot Methodius, who heads the ultra-conservative Esphigmenou monastery. "We are prepared to fight on even though the authorities have cut off our electricity, water, heating and food supplies."

The 117 monks, the most doctrinally rigid of the 2,000 who inhabit an array of monasteries on the semi-autonomous republic, have denounced the Pope as a heretic.

For years they have shrouded their medieval settlement with a banner proclaiming "Orthodoxy or death" while demanding that the Orthodox faith's spiritual leader, Bartholomew I, tone down his overtures towards Rome.

The two main branches of Christianity have been separated since the Great Schism of 1054. But patience seems to be running out with the monks.

Last month Bartholomew - who, as the Ecumenical patriarch, is based in Istanbul - pronounced the monks "schismatics". As such, he said, the clerics no longer represented the spirit of Orthodoxy and should be expelled - a decision that allowed the republic's state-appointed administrator to step in.

Last night, the Greek authorities said police would remain outside the monastery until "every one" of the monks left.

The row comes amid growing demands that Mount Athos lift its centuries-old ban on females, which extends to animals.

[Joe Zollars]

let us besiege heaven for these Holy Monks.

May an army of Saints and Angels come to the aid of this monastery.

One idea I had, if someone had a pilot's license, we could airlift food and medical supplies into the Monastery.

Joe Zollars

[尼古拉前执事]

Besides prayer, which we must do, here is another way to help these monks and help protest women on Athos. The EU takes web petitions at http://www.europarl.eu.int/petition/petition_en.htm

Also one can keep up to date on this monastery at http://www.esphigmenou.com/

[Serge]

Joe,

My views on the monastery and the crisis are open for all to read on orthodoxchristianity.net.

Your reaction has me scratching my head because you're Catholic and the monks are angry because they think their patriarch is too pro-Catholic.

[Justin Kissel]

I'm a bit torn by all that's going on. On the one hand, monks are suppose to be seperated from "the world," and monks fighting with hierarchs is nothing new. This added to the fact that force is being used (or at least they are threatening to use it) to remove them, and it's a very sad scenario. On the other hand, while I admire the zeal to preserve Orthodoxy, I don't necessarily know that I'd agree totally with the monks in what they are saying. If you read through the letter of resistance, for example, you'll find that a great number of people would be unorthodox (or semi-orthodox) according to the monks in question. It seems to me that the "moderate ecclesiology" of ROCOR, Met. Cyprian, Arch. Chrysostomos, et al. would probably not be acceptable to these monks. I could only guess what they'd think of me for having been recently married in an North American Antiochian Parish. But nonetheless, I feel a certain attraction to praying for them. Perhaps it's because few are willing to make so bold a stand in these apathetic days, I dunno. Whatever else it is, it's a sad scenario.

[Justin Kissel]

Do I have it wrong? Would anyone care to discuss the ecclesiology put forth in the afore-mentioned (and linked) letter?