The Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos and its 118 monks are in confrontation with the authorities in Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for the third time in the last 20 years.
Greek authorities have been trying to evict the monks for years after courts ruled that they were illegally occupying the grounds of the Monastery.
In 2006 and 2013 there were ugly scenes as police forces attempted to remove the monks. A photograph of the 2013 clashes that went viral at the time showed a monk throwing a petrol bomb against the police.
Esphigmenou ranks eighteenth in the hierarchy of the Athonite monasteries and since the early 1970s has been embroiled in legal and ecclesiastical disputes. It is considered amongst the most conservative of the monastic houses on Mount Athos
The latest round of confrontation began earlier in July when the police requested in writing from the Holy Episcopate of Mount Athos for permission to proceed with an operation to evict the monks.
According to reports, hundreds of police officers with heavy vehicles are at a point near the Monastery, ready for a raid.
Mount Athos Monastery: “Orthodoxy or Death”
The monastery has taken a hard stance towards the Patriarchate in Constantinople having cut off all contact. Among other things, the majority of the monks disagree with the meetings with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, and the possibility that the Holy Mountain may open to women visitors.
In 2002 the old brotherhood was declared illegal and the monks were characterized as “squatters” who were ordered to leave the Monastery, and they were excluded from state and European funds. A new brotherhood of Esphigmenou was founded in 2005 in Karyes, the capital of Athos Mountain, which is officially recognized as legitimate.
A protest rally was held on Sunday by supporters of the old brotherhood. The faithful, who arrived in the nearby town of Ouranoupoli from all over the country, shouted “Orthodoxy or Death” and expressed their opposition to any police intervention in the Monastery of Esphigmenou.
Elder Methodios, one of those convicted for the 2013 incidents, told ThessToday.gr that in the event of a police operation “we are ready to defend the monastery to the death.”
“This is our spiritual homeland. This is where we were born spiritually and this is where we will die,” he explained.
“They accuse us of things that are not true, that we train Russians. Whoever comes, we will host him, we will give him a piece of bread to eat.”
He claimed that “our difference with the Patriarch is spiritual. We do not consider him orthodox with what he does, considering that with his actions he is against the Orthodox Church and that is why we do not commemorate him”.
He also claimed that “European money is the Trojan horse that will destroy Mount Athos” as they will allow women to enter the Athos peninsula at the request of the EU.
Related: Mount Athos: A Monastic Community Where Time Stands Still
