Sentences significantly reduced for Molotov cocktail-throwing Athonite monks

Thessaloniki, May 26, 2021

Photo: vimaorthodoxias.gr Photo: vimaorthodoxias.gr     

Greek authorities have significantly reduced the 2019 sentences handed down against monks of the Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery who were involved in a violent altercation while resisting eviction from the monastery’s representative office in Karyes, the capital of Mt. Athos, in 2013.

The monks, including Abbot Methodios, were found guilty of instigating violence and throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers in the incident. Fr. Methodios and another monk, Fr. Antipas, initially received 20-year sentences in 2017, with 6 others receiving sentences of 10 years and 4 months, though those sentences were reduced to 17 years and 9 years and 5 months respectively in 2019.

According to the latest court decision, the sentence for Fr. Methodios and Fr. Antipas has been further reduced to 5.5 years in prison, reports Vima Orthodoxias.

The sentence for the other 6 monks has also been reduced to 2 years and 9 months in prison.

Esphigmenou Monastery has been in schism from the rest of the Holy Mountain, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the rest of the Orthodox World for many years, in protest against the ecumenistic activity of the Patriarch of Constantinople with the Catholic Church and others. While the Athonite monasteries have protested such activity by ceasing to commemorate the Patriarch in the Divine services several times in recent decades, the Esphigmenou brotherhood has gone further by joining a schismatic, Old Calendarist jurisdiction.

The constitution and statutes of the Holy Mountain prohibit monastic cohabitation with the heterodox or schismatics, thus there have been several attempts to evict the monks, including the 2013 incident.

Last July, Greek courts ordered the schismatic brotherhood to hand over all territories both on and outside of Mt. Athos to the New Esphigmenou Brotherhood created by Patriarch Bartholomew in 2005, which has been living in Karyes. Authorities began evicting monks from the monastery’s properties in Greece later that month.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, Parler, MeWe, and Gab!

5/26/2021

See also
Authorities evict monks from two properties of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery in Greece Authorities evict monks from two properties of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery in Greece Authorities evict monks from two properties of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery in Greece Authorities evict monks from two properties of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery in Greece
Yesterday, July 23, police officers arrived at the monastery’s dependencies in Ierissos on the peninsula of Chalkidiki, near Mt. Athos, and in Nea Roda, 70 miles southeast of Thessaloniki, and forced the monks to leave. Greek Supreme Court orders schismatic brotherhood of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery to vacate all properties Greek Supreme Court orders schismatic brotherhood of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery to vacate all properties Greek Supreme Court orders schismatic brotherhood of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery to vacate all properties Greek Supreme Court orders schismatic brotherhood of Athonite Esphigmenou Monastery to vacate all properties
After years of appeals and other delays, the legal issue surrounding the schismatic brotherhood of Esphigmenou Monastery on Mt. Athos, known for its “Orthodoxy or Death” banners, has finally been settled by the Greek Supreme Court. Appeals court sentences Esphigmenou abbot to 17 years in jail Appeals court sentences Esphigmenou abbot to 17 years in jail Appeals court sentences Esphigmenou abbot to 17 years in jail Appeals court sentences Esphigmenou abbot to 17 years in jail
Just days after news came that the brotherhood of Esphigmenou Monastery on Mt. Athos had been found guilty and sentenced for continual fraud against the Greek state, a Thessaloniki appeals court has handed down a sentence of 17-years’ imprisonment and a fine of $675 (600 euros) for the abbot Fr. Methodios (Papalamprakopoulos) for his involvement in a 2013 Molotov cocktail attack against riot police.
Comments
Paul5/27/2021 2:26 pm
Their outrage over EP Bartholomew's actions, particularly his statements about reunion with Rome, is understandable. But you can't cut yourself off from the Church over that. The gates of Hell may prevail over certain bishops, but not the Church as a whole.
David5/27/2021 9:26 am
A zeal devoid of love has been the source of many evils and sorrows. I think this is a good thing, because what good is it to let them languish in prison? I doubt the Athonite Fathers want this. Note to Mr. Dominick: Patriarch Bartholomew is not a heretic and schismatic. Not even the MP Holy Synod has said as such. If he is, that means anyone who commemorates him or communes with those who do so are "heretics and schismatics." That would make everyone outside of the Moscow Patriarchate a heretic and schismatic, and by extension the Moscow Patriarchate, because they also commune with us. Which goes back to my first point.
Jesse Dominick5/26/2021 9:58 pm
Leonid, they are called schismatics as a factual statement -- they are not in communion with any of the Local Churches. They are literally in schism from them. You might want to argue that this schism is justified, but it's simply a fact that they have communion with none of the Local Churches. Indeed, Patriarch Bartholomew is a heretic and has made himself a schismatic through his organizaiton in Ukraine, but that doesn't mean the answer is to leave the Church and start your own jurisdiction. The Church would be stronger if the traditional-minded remained within it. But instead, by separating from the Church and starting their own synods, they give up the possibility of bringing healing to the problems of the Church.
Leonid5/26/2021 7:56 pm
What a joke! The fathers of Esphigmenou are the only ones truly fighting against the heretical and ecumenical patriarch and yet they are labeled schismatic? How do you sleep at night after writing such a inconsistent and terrible article? The Old Calendar Christians were murdered and martyred for Holy Orthodoxy and yet you dare to say that Bartholomew leads the “true Orthodox Church”? How could you call people faithful to the Holy Fathers schismatics? Bartholomew is the schismatic, murderer of Christians in Ukraine and in other places throughout the world, a heretic and a Freemason. He has joined himself to schismatics, not the Old Calendar Orthodox Christians!
Here you can leave your comment on the present article, not exceeding 4000 characters. All comments will be read by the editors of OrthoChristian.Com.
Enter through FaceBook
Your name:
Your e-mail:
Enter the digits, seen on picture:

Characters remaining: 4000

Subscribe
to our mailing list

* indicates required
×