Hardliners have occupied a small monastery in the Greek monastic republic of Mount Athos for years. It is a symbol of a longstanding dispute within orthodoxy that is coming to a head.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin visited the monastic republic of Athos in May 2016.
The autonomous monastic republic of Athos is a world of its own. The mountainous, rugged peninsula with its twenty main monasteries juts out into the sea in northern Greece. Mount Athos is one of the holiest sites in Orthodox Christianity.
But the island is not completely isolated from secular politics and influence. The financial crisis did not stop at the monks, nor were they able to escape the corona pandemic. In addition, religious mass tourism has developed – even if only men are allowed to make a pilgrimage there. Women are forbidden from entering Mount Athos.
Fake news about mass expulsion of Russian monks
At the end of May, the Patriarch of Constantinople visited Mount Athos. The spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, based in Istanbul, is currently facing several challenges. One of them is the influence of Moscow on Mount Athos. A movement of Russian and non-Russian hardliners is challenging the patriarch’s hegemony.
During his visit, the Patriarch complained that, for example, on the question of granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and also on the subject of Corona, voices had been raised that questioned and wanted to overthrow the entire sacred and spiritual structure of the Church .
In February, a few days before the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, a group of Russian nationalists visited the Esfigmenou monastery. The men waved a flag of the former Russian Empire and carried a picture of the last tsar, according to videos circulating online.
The main building of Esfigmenou Monastery has been occupied by conservative monks for years. Also known as Zealots, these monks are members of the GOC (Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece). Decades ago, the abbey broke off church fellowship with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople because of its ecumenical orientation. Her motto: “Orthodox or death.” Despite court orders to evacuate the monastery, the monks refuse to leave the monastery.
A new Esfigmenou congregation established by the Patriarchate in Constantinople has its seat in the Athos capital Karyes and also has a seat in the bodies of the monastic republic. Their head, Abbot Bartholomäus, complains that the Greek state has been refusing to grant protection to the community and to end the occupation for almost twenty years. The monastic republic is autonomous, but the government in Athens is responsible for security issues.
When asked, Abbot Bartholomäus explains that no one knows exactly who is hiding in the occupied building. The occupiers and their supporters moved illegally across national borders or by sea by speedboat. It is also unknown in what condition the monastery’s centuries-old relics, books and icons are in and whether they are still there at all.
According to the “Bild» newspaper The Greek authorities are investigating Russian money laundering on Mount Athos. The Kremlin uses the common Christian-Orthodox religion, the report quotes the Greek authorities as saying. State officials and oligarchs tried to strengthen the Russian presence with donations to monasteries, certain abbots and other clergy.
Greek- and Russian-language websites that took up the issue linked long-standing calls for the monastery’s evacuation to the nationalists’ visit. Some spread the rumor that a mass expulsion of Russian monks from Mount Athos was imminent.
According to Vasilios Makrides, Professor of Orthodox Christianity at the University of Erfurt, it is undisputed that the Russian Church has considerable religious and cultural influence on the monastic republic of Mount Athos, which belongs to the jurisdiction of Constantinople. In the last two decades, she has been trying to expand it, together with the Russian state, especially to northern Greece. Russians and also Ukrainians have invested a lot of money in the restoration of monasteries.
According to Abbot Bartholomäus, there is nothing wrong with donations that support the work of a monastery and its restoration. “But the Brotherhood of Esfigmenos Monastery does not take money from Russian oligarchs who work with a regime that presents Mount Athos as Russian heritage and property.” He suspects that old Russian plans to conquer the holy mountain have been “revived”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mount Athos in 2016 along with Russian Patriarch Kirill (on his right).
Putin visited Athos at least twice
Russian President Vladimir Putin also visited the monastic republic twice, the last time in 2016, two years after Crimea was occupied. At his side was the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. The EU and the US have been sanctioning him for years for suspected financing of the separatists in Donbass.
When Athos is praised in the Russian media as a “Russian heritage” or when the former Russian Prime Minister Stepashin suggested in 2018 that Athos “should not be a matter for Greece, but an independent (state)”, not only Abbot Bartholomew is alarmed.
The events surrounding the Esfigmenou monastery must be seen in the context of the relationship between Greek and Russian orthodoxy, says religious scholar Makrides. The dispute over supremacy in the Orthodox Church between the traditional primus inter pares in Istanbul and the head of the largest church, namely the Russian Orthodox, has been smoldering since the 19th century. It is about leadership and control of the orthodox world. “There is a latent and open war between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate of Moscow on several levels,” says Makrides.
He recalled that Russian influence had been allowed to spread throughout Europe in recent years. Russia relied on “soft power” through the Russian Orthodox Church. In the middle of Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, a cathedral and a Russian-Orthodox cultural center were built.
As last in Africa, some Greek bishops fear, Moscow could set up a Russian exarchate in Greece too, to which tens of thousands could belong. In particular, the old calendar communities, some Athos monasteries and also opponents of vaccination could be inclined to recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as the supreme authority. It would be a new front in the struggle between Moscow and Constantinople.
