Monks at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai are voting today for a new archbishop, marking the end of a leadership struggle that forced Archbishop Damianos to resign Friday after more than five decades in office.
Damianos departure followed months of open conflict with monks who opposed his leadership, a faction he once branded “coup plotters.”
Earlier in the week, Damianos announced in a statement he would not attend the vote due to poor health. In his final statement, he urged the community to put unity above personal rivalries.
On Friday, the faction opposed to Damianos said it had withdrawn lawsuits against his allies. Those cases had prevented loyalists, some still in Greece with Damianos, from returning to Egypt without risk of arrest. Even so, voting eligibility remains unclear, with Greek outlet Kathimerini noting that both the electorate and the procedures have not been clarified.
The ecclesiastical rift turned physical last month when Damianos shut the gates and expelled dissenting monks. Loyalists stayed inside, while opponents camped outside, demanding re-entry. Damianos later left for Greece with his supporters. Greek outlet iefimerida reported that he had asked Egyptian police to intervene before leaving, but authorities refused.
The monastery’s crisis is unfolding amid heightened friction with the Egyptian state. In May, an appeals court in Ismailia ruled that the monastery’s land belongs to the state as public property, granting monks only usufruct rights. The decision fueled fears of state encroachment, given the monastery’s ties to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and government plans to expand religious tourism.
Greek Orthodox leaders condemned the ruling. Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece called it “confiscation” and an “existential threat.” Damianos described it as “a painful blow and a disgrace,” comments that deepened internal divisions and hastened his resignation.
Following the backlash, Egypt’s presidency reaffirmed its “full commitment” to safeguard the monastery’s sacred status. Yet international scrutiny has grown. On Saturday, a parliamentary delegation from the Euro-Mediterranean and European assemblies, along with Egyptian MPs, visited the monastery during a session in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Concerns extend beyond politics. The BBC recently warned that state-backed tourism projects in the area risk irreversible damage to the fragile mountain landscape surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage site.
