SCANDAL OVER VATOPEDI: INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL AND ARISTOCRACY, MIXED WITH GREEK POLITICS
Over the past few weeks, Greece has been engrossed by an unfolding scandal involving a prominent monastery situated on isolated Mt Athos, the monastic community that makes up the third leg of the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece. The monastery in question, Vatopedi, is possibly the richest and most prestigious and such institution on the “Holy Mountain,” which clings to Byzantine edicts and rituals that were introduced more than 1,000 years ago. The Athonite monks thus preserve some of the world’s most significant religious art and medieval manuscripts, in huge quantities built up in part by the generous endowments of Greek, Georgian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian and Russian patrons in centuries past. Please continue.