Greek monasteries evacuated due to raging wildfires

Attica Region, Greece, August 13, 2024

Fighting the fire at St. Ephraim Monastery in Nea Makri. Photo: Vima Orthodoxias (YouTube) Fighting the fire at St. Ephraim Monastery in Nea Makri. Photo: Vima Orthodoxias (YouTube)     

Residents of nearly 10 villages have been forced to evacuate due to a wild fire raging in Greece’s Attica Region since Sunday. Intends winds have spread the flames, creating a front of more than a dozen miles.

Several monasteries have also been evacuated, including the St. Ephraim the New Monastery in Nea Makri and the Holy Dormition Monastery in Penteli, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.

“Since yesterday afternoon, the residents of northeastern Attica have been tested by an extremely dangerous fire, which we have been fighting for over 20 hours under dramatic conditions due to strong winds, prolonged drought, and the very difficult and inaccessible terrain in dense unburnt forest,” the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias said yesterday.

Firefighters are working hard to prevent any damage to St. Ephraim Monastery, though the flames are already dangerously close.

According to orthodoxtimes.gr, the Monastery of Panagia Axion Esti in the Varnava area of the Archdiocese of Athens has fallen victim to the flames.

The monastery is considered of exceptional importance as it houses valuable cultural treasures and ecclesiastical heirlooms of the Archdiocese of Athens and its institutions.

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8/13/2024

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