The Athonites and the Greeks Abroad

 THE ATHONITES AND THE GREEKS ABROAD

 

Many are those Athonites, abbots, and even simple hieromonks, who venture beyond the national boundaries of Greece, to visit those Greek brethren who call themselves immigrants. To Australia, the United States and Europe, where they listen to the confession of immigrant Greeks and speak at their gatherings they go.

This phenomenon is of course not new. Since the days of yore, Athonite Fathers have sacrificed their solitude, the contrite Athos itself, the tranquility of their monastic cells, for the sake of their brethren in the world. They used to travel to the towns and villages of the enslaved Hellas at a time when everyone struggled under the tyrant’s yoke, in order to strengthen the Orthodox Christians in their Faith and to struggle with them. For this they incurred the rage and fury of the infidel tyrants, and suffered martyrs’ deaths.

Other Athonites travelled to European cities, where the omnipotent Roman Catholicism held sway, or the many-headed Protestantism. There they fought for Orthodoxy and the survival of Orthodox Hellenism. Even to Russia they ventured in order to bolster the millions of Orthodox there from the systematic assault of the Franks and the Freemasons who at the end prevailed because of the sins of the political and spiritual leaders who were deeply influenced by the sinful West, and imitated her in most everything.

Let us remember with respect Maximus the Greek.

Traditional, therefore, are the excursions of the Athonites to the world in order to transmit the Orthodox witness without innovations and to strengthen the Orthodox Greeks in the Faith of their Fathers.

And today the Athonites venture to the territory of the immigrant Greeks: Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

At their disposal they have airplane tickets, luxurious hotels, royal accommodations and secular hospitality that overshadow the simplicity and self-imposed poverty of Mount Athos. Even so, the monastic skoufos is not tarnished by secular blandishments. The problem is, what do the contemporary Athonites have to offer the Greeks abroad to whose enclaves they travel?

We shall not discuss at present whether or not they have the necessary spiritual training and purity of soul to enlighten the immigrant Greeks. We shall limit ourselves to the basic matters of Faith. When these Athonites commemorate and concelebrate with leading Ecumenists, when they keep silent at the betrayal of the Faith, when they follow two calendars and disregard holy Tradition, what shall they teach the Greeks in the diaspora? When the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into a chasm.

Not only do they scandalize those who keep faithfully the traditions of the Church, but they even scandalize conservative new-calendar people. This has been confirmed from letters of objective observers and from information we receive from serious ecclesiastical periodicals of Athens. They reveal that the Athonites have been transformed into happy goldfish which swim sluggishly in the bowls of luxurious auditoriums, lecture halls and hotels, or into singing birds that delight the ecclesiastical new-calendar barons of the Greeks abroad.

What Athonite has ever chastised Bishop Soterios of Canada who embraced the antichrist Pope? What Athonite has ever condemned Stylianos, Archbishop of Australia, for his unhesitating ecumenism? What Athonite has ever dared remind Methodius of Thyateira that he should not give the sacraments to heretics?

Which Athonites have condemned Iakovos Koukouzis for his pro-Zionist tactics and for his crimes against our national heritage? They all exert themselves to exhaustion with their neo-orthodox rationalism which is popular everywhere. and which no one understands, because in reality it is a misguided mentality. We have forgotten! Some of them mention the prayer of the heart and ceaseless prayer — excellent in themselves — but which pose no danger to the thieves and criminals who have ransacked the palace which has been erected by immaculate hands, the Orthodox Church. All those traitors of Orthodox Hellenism have invited them, so that they would throw ashes in the eyes of the immigrants. They would like nothing better than to strengthen the position of the pseudo-bishops in the eyes of the discouraged and dismayed immigrants, due to the betrayal of the Church. The Ecumenists would like to complete their crime and submerge Orthodoxy into the black sea of heresies.

Negative, therefore, is the contribution of the contemporary Athonites to immigrant Hellenism.

The immigrant Greeks, therefore, should not be enthused over the hieroschema Athonites because they are contributing to their spiritual perdition. There are Hagiorite Fathers who do not have theological degrees, but their lives and correct faith would be a balsam for the immigrant Hellenes — but these Fathers are not wanted by the New Calendar ecclesiastical leaders nor the heads of state. They despise them intensely because at the same time they hate the light and the truth of the Gospel.

The contemporary abbots and hieromonks of Mt. Athos therefore are not benefactors to the immigrant Greeks. Without a leader, can a soul be saved? With a blind leader, no soul can be saved.

 

Source: Agathangelos Esphigmenites, Mt. Athos, 1984. Translated by Leo Papadopoulos, Astoria, NY, 1986.