Theories About Obedience Concerning Matters of Faith

by Hieromonk Euthymios Trikaminas

 

...A copy of a text was sent to me, which sets as an indispensable prerequisite for someone to wall himself off that he must first have received the blessing of his elder and spiritual father. I considered it necessary to write some thoughts for the sake of truth, so that every well-intentioned reader may understand the slippery and un-patristic character of this theory, and that it constitutes a mere excuse in order not to do, in a time of heresy, what the Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers have established.

The text that was sent to me is from the blog “Katanyxis,” and in it is mentioned the obedience that the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Konstamonitou, Fr. Agathon, showed to his elder, Fr. Ephraim of Arizona, although, when he saw certain heretical actions of Patriarch Bartholomew towards the Pope, he himself wished, as a result, to cut off at once the commemoration of the heretical Patriarch. Then Fr. Ephraim restrained him and told him that the time for walling off had not yet come, and thus Fr. Agathon obeyed his elder.

The administrator of this blog, Fr. Nikolaos Manolis, justified this stance of Fr. Agathon, and indeed there was an attempt by both of them to establish it as an Orthodox line in a time of heresy, namely, that the blessing and consent of the elder are required in order for someone to wall himself off and to be ecclesiastically separated from the heresy and its bearers.

First of all, I must mention that from the beginning of our dedication to monasticism, all without exception of the fathers of the Holy Mountain (even the elders Fr. Ephraim of Philotheou [and Arizona] and Fr. Ephraim of Katounakia) taught us that from obedience two cases are excluded, the matters of faith and of morality. That is, if I am asked to obey in matters of faith or morality, I must not obey insofar as by such obedience I am harmed with regard to faith and morality. Now unfortunately, with what Fr. Agathon and Fr. Nikolaos Manolis write and say, they assimilate faith and lower it to the level of all the other matters, for which indeed the blessing of the elder is needed, in order that the monk or the layman may be safeguarded and not cultivate pride through his own will.

Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite conveys to us the teaching of Saint Nikephoros the Confessor, who teaches that the first reason for which a monk may depart from the monastery of his repentance is when the abbot is a heretic (Commentary on Canon 21 of the Seventh Ecumenical Council). From this patristic teaching again it is concluded that, when the matter concerns faith, everything is set aside, even obedience. For a monk’s leaving the monastery, in other cases, is considered a most grievous sin which brings upon the monk excommunication and exclusion from communion, and upon those bishops or abbots who receive him, deposition.

 

Greek source: https://orthodox-voice.blogspot.com/2025/08/oi.html