A shocking video shows the violent Removal of the Monks!!
By Helleniscope’s Editorial Team
The world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery, St. Catherine’s of Sinai, has become the stage of a dramatic and unprecedented crisis.
Archbishop Damianos, the spiritual head of the monastery for decades, made a desperate appeal this week, declaring publicly that “my life is in danger” and calling on both the Egyptian government—of which he is a citizen—and the Greek government to intervene for his protection. His plea came after days of tension inside the monastery walls, where internal divisions erupted into violent confrontations.
A shocking video that surfaced on August 26 shows monks being forcibly expelled from their cells—doors broken down, monks dragged out—allegedly by Archbishop Damianos and a group of men he had brought with him. These monks, branded by Damianos as “putschists,” had convened earlier to vote on his removal, an act that the Archbishop and his supporters denounced as canonically invalid. According to Church law, they argue, the meeting lacked legitimacy since it took place without the Archbishop and without the deputy abbot, violating the rules of quorum and authority.
In response, Damianos convened a new Synaxis inside the monastery with monks loyal to him, reasserting what he called the “restoration of canonical order.” His spokesman, Fr. Porphyrios, described the dissenting monks as a schismatic “faction” engaged in a “parasy-nagogue”—a grave offense under Orthodox canon law.
Meanwhile, the expelled monks insist they were brutally mistreated, claiming Damianos entered suddenly with a group of armed associates, forcing them from their quarters by violence.
The situation has left the monastery in a state of siege. Egyptian police are present near the site but have not intervened, despite repeated appeals. The standoff has now spilled into international headlines, raising concerns not only for the safety of the Archbishop and the monks but also for the future of this ancient bastion of Orthodoxy, which has historically enjoyed a delicate balance of autonomy under successive governments.
The developments at Sinai highlight a volatile mix of ecclesiastical legitimacy, personal rivalries, and political sensitivities, with consequences that may reverberate far beyond the desert monastery.
August 27, 2025, n.stamatakis@aol.com www.helleniscope.com
DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.
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There is a lot here that is not adding up…
– On the one hand, it is not unprecedented (even on Mt. Athos in recent years) to have a situation where a monastery ends up with an internal rift, resulting in the expulsion or voluntary exit of multiple monks (even of the abbott). Philotheou monastery on Mt. Athos experienced one of these “rebellions” in the year 2000, for those that remember what happened, resulting in the departure of the abbott with multiple monks that decided to follow him. There have been other such situations in recent history as well…so this is not the “big headline”.
– On the other hand the timing of this so-called “rebellion” appears to be in the immediate aftermath of the Egyptian court decisions that support a “nationalization” of the Monastery and its assets. This timing suggests that this “rebellion” is closely associated with the Egyptian government’s (and court’s) disregard of history and religious freedom. Was this the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, perhaps the last of a series of events and actions (or blunders) that resulted in an increasing number of monks blaming the abbott (Archbishop of Sinai)? A very likely scenario, but the news articles have not yet revealed what that “incremental sequence of events” may have been…
– Finally, references to “one partial committee” deciding without “some members being present”, only for another “partial committee” to decide to throw out the members of the “other partial committee” in the middle of the night with the assistance of armed guards seems quite ridiculous and illegitimate on both sides of the equation…Perhaps the Archbishop didn’t know they were being recorded on video, or that the video images would escape the walls of the monastery, but this is quite a shameful event, and a diplomatic blunder. It weakens the image of St. Katherine’s monastery as a sovereign self-governing entity, and only strengthens any potential Egyptian position that “they can’t manage their own affairs, so it’s a good thing that Egypt will own the monastery”…
One must now wonder, have foreign actors infiltrated in monastic garb to create a de facto outcome? Who is on whose side at this point? The Patriarch of Jerusalem should make a few phone calls, and perhaps a personal visit if needed, in order to reduce this embarrassing noise and figure out a solution….
Good point about foreign actor infiltration.