Monks on Mt Athos in the news

[Khaleas]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/greece.monks.ap/index.html

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Two groups of monks clashed on Wednesday at a monastery facility in Mt. Athos, resulting in at least seven injuries, police said.

Fighting broke out between a group of rebel monks occupying facilities of the 1,000-year-old monastery of Esphigmenou, and a group of legally recognized monks on the outside.

The rebel monks, unrecognized by the Orthodox Church, reacted strongly when the outsiders attempted to force their way into the monastery's representative offices in Karyes, the administrative center of the medieval community. They were trying to enter in order to begin construction of a new building.

The clashes turned violent as the occupying monks attacked the intruders with crowbars and fire extinguishers, breaking a door down.

Seven monks were reported injured. Four were taken off the peninsula by boat and hospitalized at Polygiros, including two with head wounds, while three more were being taken to hospital, according to Athos police.

Esphigmenou monastery -- one of 20 in the all-male medieval community in northern Greece -- has been the scene of a long-running dispute between Orthodox Church authorities and rebel monks at Esphigmenou, who bitterly oppose efforts to improve relations between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican.

Both Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the Orthodox Christian church, and Greece's highest administrative court have ordered their eviction, but the monks have refused to budge.

In October, a Thessaloniki court handed down two-year suspended sentences against nine monks and former monastery members for illegally occupying Esphigmenou's offices.

 

[Khaleas]

I have to ask, because I don't remember, why are they considered in schism?

 

[icxn]

Hehe... when miracles take place on Mount Athos the media is silent, but the occasional scandal, flies into the news in no time. I guess it is a virtue of flies:

I know from experience that in this life people are divided in two categories. A third category does not exist; people either belong to one or the other. The first one resembles the fly. The main characteristic of the fly is that it is attracted by dirt. For example, when a fly is found in a garden full of flowers with beautiful fragranses, it will ignore them and will go sit on top of some dirt found on the ground. It will start messing around with it and feel comfortable with the bad smell. If the fly could talk, and you asked it to show you a rose in the garden, it would answer: "I don't even know what a rose looks like. I only know where to find garbage, toilets and dirt." There are some people who resemble the fly. People belonging to this category have learned to think negativily, and always look for the bad things in life, ignoring and refusing the presence of good.

The other category is like the bee whose main characteristic is to always look for something sweet and nice to sit on. When a bee is found is a room full of dirt and there is a small piece of sweet in a corner, it will ignore the dirt and will go to sit on top of the sweet. Now, if we ask the bee to show us where the garbage is, it will answer: "I don't know. I can only tell you where to find flowers, sweets, honey and sugar;" it only knows the good things in life and is ignorant of all evil. This is the second category of people who have a positive thinking, and see only the good side of things. They always try to cover up the evil in order to protect their fellow men; on the contrary, people in the first category try to expose evil and bring it to the surface. - Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
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[JordanF]

The rebel monks are opposed to the EP's efforts with "ecumenism".

From their website...
http://www.esphigmenou.com/What the...re right/what_the_dispute_is_about_and_wh.htm
http://www.esphigmenou.com/

 

[Knowledge3]

The monk used to be a powerful ally in the history of the Orthodox Church.

 

[jckstraw72]

i read elsewhere that the EP's monks attacked hte monastery with sledgehammers. neither side is representing Orthodoxy too well methinks.

 

[Orthocat]

It's very sad when religion/politics gets in the way of Christianity.

We need to pray for them all.

 

[Nickolai]

The EP isn't handling the situation very well, that is certain. But, if they are going to be in direct defiance of the Bishop of Agios Oros, then they have no reason to be there. None of the other monasteries want them there, they should just leave. But they won't, because they would rather put their hatred of the new calender and "ecumenism" above the love that they should have for there monastic brethren.

 

[Vasileios]

the video with the sledgehammers and the report accompanying it has been edited heavily in a known studio in thessaloniki. They added voices and sounds to make it look as if the monk with the sledgehammer ignored pleas of mercy, that a monk from esphigmenou had his head on the door etc. The real incident was that the place in question is a building belonging to Esphigmenou that is situated in Karyes, the capital of Mt. Athos. The rebel monks have been asked repeatedly to hand the keys but they refused. So one monk went with a sledgehammer trying to open the door. Of course there were no monks behind it.

A very sad story and it has attracted a great number of flies indeed, usually from the media...