Update on the Monastery of Esphigmenou

I've covered this monastery a few times before (see here). Since the 1970's the group in the monastery have severed ties with the Ecumenical Patriarch and there has been a lively and at times violent back and forth between the monks and the Phanar. The monks threatened to blow the building up and set things on fire. There are even Youtube videos of fighting in the streets and wild finger pointing and yelling.

(Esphigmenou) - Last Thursday, March 15th, the State Council (III division Seven-member constitution) was about to discuss the annulment application that seven people had submitted, among them Methodios, the leader of the team which occupies the buildings of the Monastery of Esphigmenou in Mount Athos, against the decision of the Holy Community of Mount Athos, according to which, the new fraternity and administration of the Monastery had been determined in 2005.

The trial, in the end, did not have to take place because the applicants withdrew from the annulment application. This is due to their certainty that its holding would be futile for them, that there was no possibility in winning it. Indeed, last Monday, the Court reporter of the case, Mr. Tsimekas, had submitted his proposal, according to which a) the appealed decision of the Holy Community aims, among others, at the reinstatement of the smooth operation of the administrative system of Mount Athos b) the application was unacceptable due to lack of lawful interest, mainly in the person of Methodios, who, according to previous decisions of the Holy Community and the State Council, he is not even a monk of Mount Athos and he should have abandoned Mount Athos in 2003, c) all the annulment reasons that the applicants highlighted in relation to the competence of the Holly Community, the selection and the appointment of the persons with whom this common organ of the monks of Mount Athos manned the Monastery, are, either way, unfounded.

The result of this withdrawal is that pendency ceases to exist, the appointment of the new fraternity by the Holy Community is considered legal and is, from now on, unquestionable by anyone. This way, the pendency that had been created by the submission of the application typically ends, and the page on the reinstatement of the institutional operation of the Monastery of Esphigmenou and of Mount Athos in general, closes irrevocably.