A large police operation is in progress in the wider area of Mount Athos in order to locate the sacrilege offender who removed the votive offerings from the icon of Panagia Portaitissa in the Holy Monastery of Iviron.
Police officers from the Mount Athos and Halkidiki section are participating in the investigations while a police dog will contribute to identify the perpetrator.
A monk who went to the church perceived the violation. After having informed the Abbot of the Monastery, Archim. Nathaniel, about the theft, the police were called.
The mobilization of the police authorities was immediate. At the crack of dawn, in a mountainous area of Mount Athos near a chapel the police officers spotted the votive offerings removed from the icon.
“We found the stolen thing. We cannot say at this moment with certainty that the perpetrator left all the stolen goods there. We cannot count the stolen goods as the police are investigating for fingerprints,” the Civil Governor of Mount Athos, Konstantinos Dimtsas, told ANA-MPA.
“We believe that he left all the votive offerings and left in panic,” noted Dimtsas, who estimates that “there is a big police operation and the perpetrator will hardly escape”.
The Civil Governor of Mount Athos pointed out that “there were two or three thefts in May on Mount Athos, and perhaps the perpetrator we are looking for today is also involved in these thefts.”
ANA-MPA
