Battle of beliefs as Athos monks vow to hold their ground

By Helena Smith, Athens

February 2, 2003 

The Observer

(excerpts)

The battle to remove rebel monks from a monastery on Mount Athos spilled outside the all-male republic yesterday when thousands of Orthodox faithful took to the streets to protest at an unprecedented land-and-sea blockade of the sanctuary.

As riot police surrounded the Esphigmenou monastery for a fourth day, about 3,000 nuns, priests and other supporters converged on Ouranoupolis, the nearest town to the Holy Mount. 'Hands off our monastery!' they chanted as the television cameras rolled.

'Esphigmenou is the only monastery to represent true Orthodoxy,' one demonstrator, Orestes Dumantides, told The Observer. 'It is shameful that in 2003 the true guardians of our faith are being treated in this way.'

For years the monks have shrouded the historic settlement with a banner proclaiming 'Orthodoxy or Death'. Last week, after months of public wrangling with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the monks were ordered to leave the Mount - a favourite refuge of Prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh.

In the face of the priests' resistance, riot police were called in, with the blessing of the Patriarch, by the civilian commissioner.

Bartholomew, a progressive in his views, has worked hard to improve ties with the Vatican since becoming the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians in 1991.

Last year Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit Athens since the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church separated in 1054.

But with support mounting, from Australia to America, the defiant priests show every sign of resisting the eviction order. Even efforts to dislodge them through sheer discomfort have not worked.