Greek Orthodox monks in the Mount Athos monastic community got together to hold the first annual Christmas Brawl in a chapel there. Apparently, one particular group of monks refuse to acknowledge the Ecumenical Patriarch as the head of the Orthodox faith. The other 19 monasteries want them evicted as a result. When monks were sent to forcibly remove the holdouts from a chapel, a fight broke out.
The monks of the Esfigmenou monastery, which has broken away from the 19 other monasteries on the male-only community and refuses to recognise the Ecumenical Patriarch as the head of the Orthodox faith, said they had come under attack.
"We were inside the chapel when a group of monks broke in with sledgehammers and crowbars and attacked us," Father Methodios, the abbot of Esfigmenou, told state television.
"How could they do this during this time of peace, days before Christmas?"
He said the opposing monks had been appointed to replaced them by the community's top administrative body. Three of those injured belonged to the alleged attackers.
The chapel belonging to the monastery was in Karies, the capital of the community in the mountains of northern Greece.
This situation has been going on for years according to the report. The monks have also duked it out with the local police. More about the Mount Athos region here. It is an autonomous theocratic region within the Republic of Greece. No women are allowed there. More about the Esfigmenou Monks here.
