[SEDXC] Mt. Athos - to be deleted?

[Rick Glisson]

The following is an AP story that hit the wires today.  Looks like it's only
some and not all of the monks, though:

Monks say they will wage spiritual war to prevent eviction from Mount Athos
ap ^ | 1/16/2002 | COSTAS KANTOURIS

THESSALONIKI, Greece - More than 100 reclusive monks living on Mount Athos
on Thursday said they would wage a "spiritual war" to prevent their
unprecedented eviction from the all-male Orthodox Christian monastic
community.

The monks are accused of failing to recognize the authority of Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.
Their refusal stems from their condemnation of Bartholomew's efforts to heal
a more than 1,000-year-old rift with the Roman Catholic Church and his
meetings with Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II.

Bartholomew on Dec. 14 declared the 117 ultraconservative zealots living in
Esphigmenou monastery as "schismatic." That decision allowed Mount Athos'
Greek government administrator to order their forcible eviction on Jan. 28.

It is the largest-ever known eviction of monks from Mount Athos since the
community was founded on a northern Greek peninsula more than 1,000 years
ago. The last eviction, for the same reasons, took place a decade ago and
involved five monks living in an isolated hermitage.

Abbot Methodius said his monks would wage a spiritual and legal battle to
block the eviction order.

"We will fight with our prayer beads," Methodius told a news conference in
this northern port city, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Mount
Athos.

Located by the sea, the monks have for 20 years shown their opposition to
any reconciliation with Catholics by adorning their 993-year-old monastery
with black flags and a giant banner reading "Orthodoxy or death."

Holding up a knotted rope rosary, Methodius said it would be his weapon
should police attempt to forcibly remove monks.

"It has 300 knots, these are our 300 bullets. We wage a spiritual war," said
Methodius, who like most monks goes by just one name.

Although Bartholomew is based in Istanbul, Turkey, he has spiritual
jurisdiction over the autonomous peninsula that is run by a council of monks
representing its 20 monasteries. Mount Athos is administered by a civilian
governor appointed by Greece's ministry of foreign affairs.

The Esphigmenou monks do not belong to any particular brotherhood. Monastic
orders are not as prevalent in the Orthodox Church as they are in the
Catholic. Rather, brotherhoods on Mount Athos are defined by the monasteries
where monks live.

Although all monasteries are deeply religious, some have embraced such tools
of modern technology as computers, while others are known for their
asceticism and reliance on traditional tools and a way of life that has
changed little since the Middle Ages. Esphigmenou, for example, places high
value on spiritual life and frugality.

Methodius said the monks would try to repeal the eviction order in Greece's
highest administrative court.

Since the eviction order was issued on Dec. 14, Methodius complained that
authorities have cut electricity to the monastery and prevented the supply
of food, heating oil and medical supplies.

The order is based on a clause in the Greek constitution that recognizes
Mount Athos' governing charter. That charter does not allow schismatics or
heretics to live in the community.

In the eviction order, acting Mount Athos Governor Aristos Kasmiroglou
referred to the monks as a "forbidden brotherhood."

"Constitutional procedures were not upheld, they (the monks) were not called
to testify at the ecumenical patriarchate," said Ifigenia Kamtsidou, the
monks legal adviser.

Bartholomew's leadership of Mount Athos dates back to the 1,100-year-old
Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when Muslim Ottoman Turks
conquered the city — then called Constantinople — in 1453.

Christianity split into Orthodox and Roman Catholic branches in 1054. In an
event known as the Great Schism, the separation was mainly caused because of
a dispute over papal authority.

Mount Athos is considered a spiritual cradle of the Orthodox faith and its
conservative monks are widely perceived as being guardians of the faith. The
inhabitants of Esphigmenou are considered the most doctrinal of all the
2,000 or so monks living there.

The monastery's first serious falling out with the ecumenical patriarchate
came in the mid-1960's, after Catholic and Orthodox leaders withdrew a
series of anathemas — or damnations — issued in 1054.

Dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholics began in earnest when
Bartholomew was elected patriarch in 1991. He has met Pope John Paul II
several times.

- Rick N4XMX