It is not unprecedented. It has happened in the past. Only that this time things got really out of control. Like the wildfires that hit Greece every summer. Monks of the Esfigmenou monastery hurled self-made molotov cocktail bombs against the police and the court baillif that had come to excecute a court order.
The incident occurred on Monday morning when riot police moved for the eviction of the monks from a monastery part they occupy.
more pictures here
when the driver of a crane tried to break down the door, the angry holy fathers hurled self-made molotov cocktail bombs.
Esphigmenou monastery (Greek: Μονή Εσφιγμένου) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece, dedicated to the Ascension of Christ.
In the early 1970s it had proved to be a source of controversy due to its newly established relations to certain groups of ultra-fanatic schismatic old-calendarists. Since 2005 a new brotherhood has been established by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, but the main building of the monastery (and its offices at Karyes) still are under occupation by a group of schismatic occupants. The occupants are not more than 60 and are keen on the wide use of television and mass media in an effort to gain support among people.
More on the controversy read here
The order for eviction was handed out on July 20th but the occupying monks still refuse to go. Believers and supporters had also rushed to the monastery to support the defiant monks.
UPDATE
Rebel monks reject petrol bomb claims
US-based group supporting the dissident Esphigmenou monastery denies that monks threw petrol bombs or responded aggressively towards bailiffs or police during attempted eviction on Monday
This photograph, published by a rival group of Esphigmenou monks who are recognised by the church, purports to show a rebel monk holding a lit petrol bomb from an upstairs window on Monday morning
A group of dissident monks who are resisting a court eviction order to leave their monastery on Mount Athos have denied that they threw firebombs at bailiffs and police on Monday, despite the publication by rival clerics of a photograph purporting to show a rebel monk holding a lit petrol bomb.
“Contrary to media reports, they did not throw any bombs,” said John Rigas, a member of the Friends of Esphigmenou group, adding that he had earlier spoken to one of the rebel monks, Fr Sava. (Full story EnetEnglish)
PS Holy Ghost!
Well… so much for love…. 😛
this somehow reminds me of the song “Cows with Guns”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI