Cyprus Mail 6 December 2024 - by Iole Damaskinos
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| The Osiou Avakoum monastery (Christos Theodorides) |
The saga of the scandal-struck monastery of Osios Avakoum in Fterikoudi entered its final chapter this week, with the Holy Synod ruling in favour of upholding the disgraced monks’ defrocking.
The three monks for months rejected proceedings against them in an ongoing tactic of attacking their superior, Bishop Isaias of Tamasos, in their attempt to stave off a slew of sordid accusations, in both ecclesiastical and civil hearings.
Archimandrite Nektarios Georgiou, Porfyrios Ttoulou and Avakoum Christofi, had been ordered to be defrocked by the Holy Synod in October.
They had been stripped of all priestly duties but were to keep their monastic status. However, this is now being deliberated according to ecclesiastical sources, as no monastery is willing to take them in.
The monks themselves have continued to issue vehement statements professing their innocence, couched in proverbial and religious metaphors, and alleging that the sexual misconduct they are accused of was nothing more than “pranks”.
The monks had insisted they would never give up their robes and could seek to enter a different sect, according to a report in Filenews. In addition to charges brought by the Holy Synod, Nektarios and Porfyrios also face 24 criminal charges for money laundering and defrauding, at the Nicosia criminal court.
Charges brought to the religious court and listed in its latest ruling, include lewdness, “sodomy, impurity, and cohabitation”, posting and distributing indecent photos, “acts of solicitation”, fraud and misleading believers with false miracles.
According to the verdict, Nektarios, the apparent ringleader of the whole ignominious affair, went so far as to pretend that Saint Avakoum had taken over his body, faking his voice, and also faked fainting after “exorcisms” – all to extort money from believers.
According to the court’s judgment, the former archimandrite moreover committed perjury, repeatedly lying whilst having sworn to truth on the bible, a punishable offence in the Orthodox cannon.
The ruling by the Synod also listed as an offence the fact that the monk had appealed to the Supreme Court of the Republic to seeking a decree against the six-member religious court in an effort to block his being led to justice.
It furthermore mentioned the monks having hidden large sums of money.
The ruling also upheld charges against Porphyrios, including physical violence, conspiracy, “malevolent acts” and perjury, as well as posting indecent photos online. Similar charges were upheld against Avakoum Christofis, who was specifically accused of charlatanism and faking miracles involving “holy myrrh” emanating from a cross.
The six-member religious court, comprised of Bishop of Kition Nektarios, Limassol Bishop Athanasios, Bishop of Constantias Vasilios, Karpasia Bishop Christoforos, Bishop of Arsinois Pangratios and Amathounda Bishop Nikolaos, in a unanimous ruling said re-examination of the audiovisual evidence had shown it to be genuine and that it constituted proof that the accused had committed the acts which ban them from priesthood.
