This is a developing story with more to it, no doubt, than an illegal land sale accusation. The Russian hierarchy is protesting, but the Greek Patriarch has been silent. We shall see.
www.chiesa: Hegumen Ephraim was in Russia last December, bringing with him the relic of the Virgin’s belt. And the faithful came flocking to venerate it not by the thousands, but by the millions – some say three, some five – to the various cities where the relic stopped. But at his return to Athos, on December 24 – Christmas Eve on the Latin calendar, which is 13 days ahead of the calendar of the holy mountain – the Greek police knocked on the door of the monastery of Vatopedi, asked for Hegumen Ephraim, and arrested him. More on this report here.
