Monks of the Esphigmenou Monastery of Thessaloniki wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, calling for him to revoke a decision to have them evicted. The monastic community of Esphigmenou (meaning “Tightened”) has been embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople that dates back to the Seventies when Esfphigmenou and other Mt. Athos monasteries hadn’t recognized the patriarch at the time as he had been accused of being an ecumenist.

Their relations deteriorated when in January 2007, the district attorney of Thessaloniki pressed charges against the monks for embezzlement of over 150,000 euros. The monks remained inside the Esphigmenou premises but a bailiff came to the property located at Venizelou St, Thessaloniki, and ordered it to be transfered to the monks of the “new brotherhood.”

“All of this is illegal and against the rules,” says the letter regarding their recent eviction and state that they intend to stand in a defensive position rather than surrender the monastery.

“The monastery with its over 100 monks has been subject to attacks, violence, and preventing of even medical supplies to enter the premises (the vast majority of the Athonite monasteries which are loyal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and his ecumenist agenda support these actions, though, some have still felt some obligation to help Esphigmenou in small measures). Several monks have been killed by the police force of the Ecumenical Patriarch, especially older monks who have died for lack of medicine (since to leave their beloved monastery would mean they might never see it again),” says the letter.