[12Cickprior]

From what I've been told by someone who visited the monastery, Esphigmenou has threatened that they will dynamite the whole place if the brotherhood is forced out...

My friend who went there said that the place has a very creepy atmosphere. He was told by the guestmaster that he would not be allowed to venerate the icons and relics in the katholikon because he had been baptized in a Church in communion with the New Calendarists, and that this was heresy. From what my friend told me about his conversation with the monk, the monks are not allowed to read primary texts of the Fathers... they listen to books on tapes by the Abbot and other Old Calendarists, mostly about the heresy of the World Orthodox, the rightness of Old Calendarism, etc. I think they exaggerate just how much they are persecuted. They have a siege mentality and cause problems for the rest of the monasteries on the Holy Mountain. They also exaggerate their numbers - they claim that they are the largest monastery on Agion Oros. In truth, they inflate their numbers by including all the Zealots from the sketes as members of the brotherhood of Esphigmenou.

I sympathize with the moderate Old Calendarists and resisters of innovation, but the stance of Esphigmenou is not balanced or healthy.