GREEK political and ecclesiastical authorities have spoken out for the rights of the monks of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, after an Egyptian court ruled on its legal status last week.
The Greek Orthodox monastery is regarded as the world’s oldest continuously functioning Christian monastery. Constructed between 548 and 565 in the south-central Sinai Peninsula, by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, it has been designated as a UNESCO-protected site.
A legal case initiated more than a decade ago culminated in a ruling by the Ismailia Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
Greek media reports initially suggested that the ruling could result in the confiscation of the property and the eviction of the monks. Plans were said to include transforming certain areas into a museum. The Egyptian authorities say, however, that the ruling protects the ownership rights and the Greek character of the monastery, and that none of it is to be confiscated.
“The Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt reiterates its full commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine’s Monastery and preventing its violation,” a government statement said. “The Presidency affirms that the recent court ruling consolidates this status, aligning with the points President El-Sisi emphasised during his recent visit to Athens on May 7.”
The complex ruling is still being analysed in Athens, but the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the court upheld the monks’ continued right to use the surrounding areas and their access to the religious and archaeological sites, but that certain remote areas in nature reserves near by lacked documentation of their ownership and were, therefore, considered state property.
In a statement reported by the Orthodox Times, the Primate of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, expressed grave concern about the potential effects of ruling, and said that the monastery “now enters a period of severe trial — one that evokes much darker times in history. . . I do not want to believe — and I cannot believe — that today Hellenism and Orthodoxy are experiencing yet another historical fall. We cannot allow this to happen.”
The ruling also drew responses from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Patriarch of Alexandria, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, under whose jurisdiction the monastery falls.
In a phone call after the court decision was announced on Wednesday, the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, reportedly reiterated his expectation that Egypt would keep promises made by President Abdel el-Sisi on his visit to Athens, in early May, that it would not interfere with, or change, the status of the monastery.
The Greek Foreign Minister, George Gerapetritis, is to travel to Cairo this week for consultations with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty.