Militant Monks on Mount Athos: In the Esphigmenou monastry on Mount Athos in in the north of Greece, 40 monks are refusing to comply with the decision of the oscomenical orthodox Patriarch in Konstantionopel. These monks are known to be the reballious core of the "Zeolots" who stick to an extreme traditionalsm. It actually all started in 1924 when the autonomous Greek orthodox church decided to conform to the Gregorian calendar, like the rest of the Christian western world and abandoned the Julian calendar. This split the Greek othodox church in two, although both considered the Patriarch in Konstantinopel their head. The calendar problem came to a head. The calendar problem came to a head when the orthodox church began to open towards the West and the schism between the Roman catholic church and Knstantinopel which exhisted since 1054 was abolished in 1965 and when Pope Paul VI visited Konstantinopel in 1967 and the cecumenical orthodox patriarch Athenagores returned this visit by going to Rome in the same year, the "Zelots" refused to include the orthodox patriarch in their prayers. In the course of these events the "Zelote" began to concentrate in four monastries on Athos and started disobaying orders. The athos monks refused to admit three delegations, so in March this year stern measures when were served on the disobeying monks, including the removal of the Abbot' Athanasius and many other senior brother, The patriacrch decision actually triggered the monastery their headquarters and counteracted by closing the gated and cutting themselves off from the outside world. The decision and the abbots and monka who are expelled from the Athos by the verdict found refuge from the seizuro of the executing authorities at the monastory with the "Zelots" who hoisted a black flag from their belfry and wrote on their banner, "Orthodoxy or death"
7. Orthedoxy or death. That's the slogan of the robellious monks.
Photo measures 7 x 9.5 inches.
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