Mt. Sinai, September 23, 2025
Photo: vimaorthodoxias.gr
The newly elected abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai has issued a public apology for any scandal caused by recent upheavals at the ancient Orthodox monastery, promising to restore normal operations and reunite the monastic community.
Abbot Symeon, who was unanimously elected on September 14 to replace Archbishop Damianos after more than five decades of leadership, told Greek newspaper Vima Orthodoxias that his primary concern is “the restoration of normal order in the monastery and in the brotherhood, the desired reunification, the normalcy which has already emerged from the unanimous election.”
“I ask from the depths of my heart for public forgiveness, if we scandalized the public opinion and the ecclesiastical community, whether intentionally or unintentionally,” Fr. Symeon said in the interview published Sunday.
The new abbot referenced St. John of the Ladder, whose spiritual work compares religious life to “a ladder from earth to Heaven, where Christ awaits.” He noted that in this allegory, “some climb undisturbed, while others are shot with arrows and fall, and the higher the step they are on, the greater the fall.” This, he said, shows that “the Orthodox Church knows the reality and struggle of people” and that “those practicing holiness are not infallible.”
Abbot Symeon said his immediate priority is “solving many small internal issues” before traveling to Greece to prepare for his ordination as bishop by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, scheduled for a Sunday in October.
Regarding concerns about tourism development around Mt. Sinai, Fr. Symeon acknowledged that conditions have changed dramatically since he first arrived at the monastery in the 1980s. “We are all concerned, but we hope in both states,” he said, referring to Egypt and Greece. He emphasized the monastery’s tradition of coexistence through dialogue while maintaining that “when faith is in danger, then it obeys God rather than men.”
“The door is open to all,” Symeon said, “whether they are pilgrims to this God-trodden mountain or admirers of its historical treasures.”
The monastery’s library contains the world’s second-largest collection of early codices and manuscripts, surpassed only by the Vatican Library.
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