Esphigmenou Monastery - Controversy

Controversy

Esphigmenou along with other Mt. Athos monasteries, sketes and monks, had been involved in a long dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The dispute no longer exists, since there is a new Esphigmenou brotherhood, yet the situation has turned to the occupation of most of the Esphigmenou buildings inside and outside Mount Athos by a team of 60 persons who claim to be orthodox monks, but lack any official/ecclesiastical recognition.

The monastic community of Mount Athos is under the direct spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch and all Athonite monks are canonically required to commemorate (Greek: να μνημονεύουν) the Patriarch. However, since the 1970s, Esphigmenou, along with other Mt. Athos monasteries, had accused the the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of being ecumenist and had refused to commemorate him. These complaints mainly consist of canon law prohibiting Orthodox from praying with heretics, i.e. the Patriarch having common prayers with the Pope of Rome, the conciliatory approach that has been adopted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate towards the Roman Catholic Church as manifested by meetings of the ecumenical patriarch with the pope.

In early 1970's the monks of the monastery were self-cut off from the rest of the monastic community on Mount Athos. The monks who currently dwell in the Esphigmenou premises do not participate in the common meetings and prayers at Karyes, the administrative center of Athos, due to their spiritual communion exclusively with a certain sect of Old Calendarists, who are not in communion to any local Orthodox Church. They neither participate in common orthodox services (liturgies) around Mount Athos. These monks were officially named as schismatic and are not recognized as orthodox monks by the rest of the monks of Mount Athos. Many consider them as simple "cassock-bearers", and not proper monks, since they belong to a group of Old Calendarists. Their current leader is Mr. Papalambrakopoulos, who has never been canonically tonsured as an orthodox monk, priest or abbot. They are generally self-styled as zealots and referred to as schismatics by the Hagiorite authorities and the outside world, while they regard themselves as the only "Genuine Orthodox Christians", seeing other Athonites (commemorators of the Patriarch) as ecumenist heretics, while using as their motto the phrase Orthodoxy or Death. There is a decades long controversy between them and other Old Calendarists. The canonical and legal Esphigmenites are currently the monks of the newly elected brotherhood, which is recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and every local Orthodox Church. A lot of confusion and turbulence has been caused inside and outside Mount Athos, because of the stance of the occupants or zealots and their constant presence at Athens and Thessaloniki mass media.

The relationship between the current occupants of Esphigmenou monastery and the Ecumenical Patriarchate has greatly deteriorated since 2002, when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople declared them as being in schism from the Orthodox Church (using a rule that many believe was created to keep Roman Catholics out of the Holy Mountain). Since the Constitution of Greece prohibits schismatics (or Roman Catholics) from dwelling in Athos, the occupants of Esphigmenou were ordered by a Thessaloniki court to leave the monastery, however they refused to comply. The case was taken to the Greek Supreme Court and the occupants lost the case.

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate reacted by declaring the schismatic monks inside Esphigmenou illegal, and sanctioned the formation of a new Esphigmenou brotherhood, under the spiritual guidance of Archimandrite Chrysostomos Katsoulieris. Esphigmenou again gained global attention in December 2006 when members of the new brotherhood tried to force their way into the monastery's offices in Karyes. The occupant monks in the building reacted violently repelling the canonical monks with crowbars and fire extinguishers. In the ensuing clashes seven monks were severely injured.

In January 2007, the district attorney of Thessaloniki pressed charges against the occcupant "cassock-bearers" or monks of Esphigmenou ("σχισματικοί ρασοφόροι") for embezzlement of over 150,000 euros and the estate belonging to the monastery.

The BBC interviewed the Greek governor of Mt Athos, George Dalacouras about the case.

Until 2011 the occupants have not given up and still illegally remain inside the premises of Esphigmenou. No resolution has been given to the situation by the Greek police or the authorities on Mount Athos, despite all Court verdicts in favor of the new Esphigmenou monks (Esphigmenites) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Some dioceses, universities, and theologians around Greece have recently given lectures on the matter of the illegal/uncanonical occupation of the Esphigmenou monastery by individuals who are in a state of Schism.