Greek police have arrested the abbot of the Spileo rock monastery in Kalavrita, Kallinikos, and his assistant, monk Seraphim, after they were preparing to sell 17 Byzantine icons and two gospels from 1737 and 1761 for 200,000 euros. According to police, at least one icon and the gospels were stolen from the Sparta area. The arrest of the abbot and his assistant followed a dawn operation this morning, when a policewoman posed as a buyer interested in the icons. Four more people were detained. These are private individuals who were involved, collaborating in some way with the abbot and the assistant of the monastery. The Ministry of Culture is examining the discovered objects to establish their religious and commercial value. The Metropolitan of Kalavrita, Ieronymos, placed both under guardianship after learning of their arrest.
In Greece, there is no central, publicly accessible national register that covers all valuables stored in monasteries and temples. Some monasteries and temples create their own local register to protect their valuables from theft and resale to collectors. Control is stricter for church sites under the protection of UNESCO, such as the monasteries of Meteora.
This is another news in the last month, in which clergy have been exposed and accused of criminal activity and misuse of church property entrusted to their management – lands, holy relics and church values. In Crete, a network of corruption, drugs, extortion and connections between the local mafia and clergy was uncovered, and nearly 20 people were arrested. At the center of the scandal is Bishop Damascene, former abbot of the historic monastery “Holy Trinity” and titular bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. According to the indictment, in 2017, after being blackmailed with compromising materials, he signed a false certificate stating that 175 acres of land, including Stavros Beach, where the legendary scene with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek was filmed, did not belong to the monastery. This allowed two local hotelier brothers, alleged leaders of a criminal group, to sell the property to an Israeli company for 1.5 million euros, which in turn resold it to a German company. After internal church conflicts and a fight for posts, Damaskin was removed from the abbot’s position and is now facing justice on serious charges of abuse and participation in a mafia scheme.
