The former abbot of St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai warns of a threat to the monastery's historical autonomy

Archbishop Damian, the former abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, issued a stark warning regarding the agreement currently being negotiated between the monastery and the Egyptian authorities. According to the “Zhivot Tsrkve” portal ( ), the archbishop fears that the new agreement could strip the ancient monastery of its property rights, turning it into something akin to a museum, and reducing the monks themselves to mere caretakers.

The former abbot’s main concern stems from recent reports in the Greek press, particularly in the publication Proto Thema. According to available information, the terms of the deal call for the transfer of all rights to the land and monastery buildings to the Egyptian state, while the monks would retain only the right of “use.” Archbishop Damian emphasizes that such a status offers no legal protection and leaves the monastery’s future extremely vulnerable in the face of possible political changes in the country.

In his address to the current abbot, Archbishop Simeon, the 92-year-old hierarch called on the monastic community to unite. He insists on the fulfillment of four key conditions for the legitimacy of the deal: recognition of the monastery’s ownership rights, its legal status as a legal entity, the abbot’s acquisition of Egyptian citizenship, and the granting of long-term residence permits for all residents. Damian also criticized the secrecy surrounding the negotiations being conducted by the foreign ministries of Greece and Egypt and called for a general council of the monastic community to be convened to make a final decision.

Concluding his message, the former abbot expressed his readiness to defend the monastery’s interests as a “rank-and-file soldier,” emphasizing that the current group of monks residing directly at the monastery does not have the authority to sign documents of such fateful importance for Orthodoxy.