Expelled Monks Accuse Abp. Damianos of Misrule at St. Catherine’s Monastery
Letter condemns the abbot's leadership, alleges violent crackdown and unlawful assembly.
SINAI — The 12 monks recently expelled from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai have 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.
The monks allege they were excluded from information on a controversial bill introduced by Greece’s Ministry of Education affecting the monastery’s presence and property in Greece, calling it a violation of both the holy canons and the monastery’s Fundamental Charter.
In their account, the monks describe a violent raid on monastery grounds, claiming that about 10 mercenaries broke in, assaulted monks, and confiscated belongings while Damianos and his companion watched. They say the expulsion left 12 monks homeless outside the walls, as Damianos allegedly convened an unlawful assembly with only five monks to elect a new Synaxis.
The letter concludes with a pledge by the expelled monks to defend the monastery “to the end,” asserting that St. Catherine’s remains their “home, ministry, and mission.”
The letter is published in full below.
In recent months, the entire Brotherhood of the Holy Monastery of Sinai has been subjected to relentless attacks and slander by the now-defrocked Abbot, Archbishop Damianos, and his small but influential circle, which holds powerful connections. Every place has its wounds. In Sinai, for the last fifty years, that wound bears the name “Archbishop Damianos.” By trampling on the administrative structure and functioning of the Monastery, uninterrupted for seventeen centuries, he established, through “divide and rule,” an autocratic, personalist regime, governing in a self-serving, reckless, and irresponsible manner, leaving the Monastery legally unprotected and defenseless before the Egyptian state and any who sought to harm it.
For decades, we practiced prayer and obedience, not because we are the “coup plotters” he accuses us of being, but because we are conscientious monks who have devoted our entire lives to serving the faith and our homeland, preserving intact the Greek Orthodox tradition, never influenced or driven by outside forces.
However, there came a point where the cup overflowed. That point was the introduction by the Greek Ministry of Education of a disastrous bill concerning the Monastery’s presence in Greece. The Sinai Brotherhood was given no information about this legislation by its Archbishop and Abbot, as he was obligated to do, in order for the General Assembly—the supreme governing body of the Monastery since its foundation—to review and approve it. This bill, among other issues, introduces unprecedented and dangerous measures regarding the management of the Monastery’s property in Greece. This is not innocent, as it not only hides financial interests but also violates the holy canons and the Fundamental Charter of the Monastery.
Furthermore, it became evident that the Abbot and Archbishop was secretly working to have three Sinai monks expelled from Egypt simply because they had the courage to hold him accountable for his actions. The Brotherhood’s reaction to these unlawful acts, as well as the canonical, fully lawful deposition of Damianos from the abbacy, provoked his fury. Through a barrage of letters supposedly full of “brotherly love,” he hurls lies, insults, threats, and condemnations, calling us “coup plotters, rebels, patricides,” and other outrageous terms. Meanwhile, a flood of reports from both secular and ecclesiastical media have uncritically and recklessly parroted the narrative of Damianos, a man deeply skilled in hypocrisy, deception, and the distortion of truth, as well as that of his close entourage (acting entirely under his direction and control)—without ever observing even basic journalistic ethics by approaching the Brotherhood to hear the facts and our side of the story. They should consider their responsibility. The same applies to the grave responsibility of the Greek Government, which we would like to believe has simply been misled.
In the face of this storm of deceit and falsehood, the Brotherhood chose the path of silence, strict adherence to canonical order—according to the Holy Canons and our Fundamental Regulations—and, above all, prayer. But yesterday’s invasion of the Monastery by hired thugs and the violent expulsion of twelve Sinai monks beyond its walls, carried out with methods worthy of the underworld and the Mafia, leaves no room for silence.
Yesterday’s tragic events occurred about half an hour after the lawful General Assembly of the Brotherhood had concluded, during which two articles of the Monastery’s legitimate regulations were updated, not the invalid “newly revised” regulations, which Damianos unilaterally and illegally altered without the Brotherhood’s knowledge, attaching them as an annex to the controversial bill. Around 7:30 PM, as the fathers were in their cells resting, a group of roughly ten burly Egyptian mercenaries broke into the Monastery.
This group acted under the orders of the defrocked Abbot and the direction of the new “Ephialtes,” Secretary Fr. Akakios, who with a hissing voice summoned the monks to come out of their cells because “the Despot has arrived.” What followed were scenes of “unsurpassed Christian beauty”: hired thugs smashing doors and windows of an emblematic monument of global Christian heritage, Orthodoxy, Hellenism, and Egypt. They physically assaulted and harassed monks, confiscated their phones, stole money and personal belongings, all while Damianos, like a modern Nero, and his live-in companion, Ms. Katerina Spyropoulou, watched the fall of the Monastery together from the veranda of the Abbot’s residence, smirking.
After expelling twelve monks from the Monastery, excluding those aligned with Damianos: Fathers Porphyrios, Akakios, Ephraim, Justin, and Ioannis Metaxas, they sealed the Monastery and, with the paid guards still inside, Damianos unlawfully convened a General Assembly with only five monks present, and even proceeded to “elect” a Holy Synaxis. The twelve expelled monks spent the night homeless, outdoors, in a chilling display of the “fatherly love” of their former Abbot.
Sadly, history will record Damianos as the tragic destroyer of the world’s most historic Orthodox Christian monastery. But we, the twelve monks who have been cast out, will defend it to the end, praying to the Lord for strength and to Saint Catherine to preserve us always faithful and worthy Sinai monks. For the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine is our home, our ministry, and our mission.
Previously, UOJ reported that the dissident monks had been expelled from the Sinai monastery.
