Abbot of Sinai Monastery Announces Resignation

Archbishop Damianos of Sinai. Photo: Orthodoxia News Agency

SINAI — On September 4, 2025, Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, abbot of the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, announced his intention to step down. The statement followed his summons to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem to give explanations regarding a crisis within the brotherhood, reports Orthodoxia News Agency.

Archbishop Damianos, who is 91 years old, noted that the question of succession had long been only a matter of time. In his address, he emphasized:

“Since it has now become clear that the Holy Sinai Brotherhood has reached agreement on the strategic goals and tactical methods for resolving the existential crisis facing the monastery to which I have devoted my entire life, the time has come for me to take responsibility and guarantee the processes of succession. These must begin immediately and be completed quickly, but properly, so that the Holy Sinai Brotherhood, united, may focus on addressing the great challenge before it.”

The archbishop left the brotherhood a message outlining the foundations of renewed unity: joint resistance to the ruling of the Ismailia Court of Appeal of May 28, 2025, which threatens the monastery’s status; the need for tripartite cooperation between Egypt, Greece, and the Sinai Brotherhood with the support of the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate; recognition of the monastery’s special legal status and the protection of its relics; and the reception of new monks to strengthen the brotherhood.

He also recalled that the canonical position of the monastery was “finally and irrevocably determined by the seal of Ecumenical Patriarch Gabriel IV in 1782,” and stressed the autonomy and self-governance of the monastery.

In conclusion, Archbishop Damianos added: “I forgive everyone and I ask everyone’s forgiveness.”

Previously, UOJ reported that the 12 monks recently expelled from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai had issued a letter condemning Abbot Archbishop Damianos, accusing him of decades of “autocratic, self-serving, reckless, and irresponsible” leadership that dismantled the monastery’s centuries-old governance.

Read also