The Abbot of the Monastery of Esfigmenos, Elder Bartholomew commented on the fact that despite 40 monks of Mount Athos have lost their lives from Covid-19, there are still monks, who are Covid deniers and entice people who should be spiritually guided not to get the vaccine, as a result of which they become seriously ill and end up with coronavirus complications.
The Abbot highlighted that this phenomenon is a result of the fact that the monks “do not want believers but followers”.
“They teach about a punishing God and that our church is persecuted and that creates fanaticism,” he said.
We have denounced this situation many years ago, it is a phenomenon that exists in the church, which works in a sick way, like a “cancer” in the body of the church and the only thing that succeeds is to divide people” said Elder Bartholomew.
And he explained saying that “There are some who want to pretend to be the successors of the Holy Elders and try to gather people around themselves. They have a passion for projection and act as communicating vessels with some people who are looking for a “guru” who will tell them the future. They are looking for fans and this is shown by the way they react.
As he characteristically stated, “They have turned our faith into a religion dominated by terror towards Christians for a stern God who is punishing.”
Then the Abbot of the Monastery of Esfigmenos noted, “From our tradition and the Synaxarium we read, what we have learned all these years through our faith is that” if a Saint has the grace of God, a gift from God, he does everything to hide it and not to reveal it”.
Elder Bartholomew informed that “Mount Athos counts many victims of the coronavirus in proportion to its population. Many fathers fell ill and fell asleep in the Lord.
The official figures presented for deaths due to the coronavirus on Mount Athos speak of 25-30 people, but there are many more. Together with some monks of Mount Athos who fell asleep in the Lord outside of Mount Athos, we will reach the 40 deaths”.
“In the name of obedience that exists in a monastery, I cannot impose myself on matters other than spiritual matters,” he stressed.
It should be reminded that the intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office of Thessaloniki has been provoked by statements of a monk from Mount Athos about anti-vaxxer monks, who with their rhetoric call on the faithful not to be vaccinated are responsible for many deaths.
Source: ertnews.gr
