The recently elected Abbot (Hegumen) of the ancient St. Catherine’s Monastery of Sinai, Archbishop of Mt. Sinai and Raithu Symeon VI, expressed his optimism and a conviction that the monastery and its estates – considered as the oldest continually functioning monastery in the world – will persevere and overcome the latest obstacle in its 15 centuries of existence.

The Greek Orthodox monastery, officially called the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of St. Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, was thrust into the limelight last spring when an Egyptian appeals court ruled against its ownership of the monastery compound and its estates and glebes in the south of the arid Sinai Peninsula, which is Egyptian territory.

In an interview published in tovima.gr and granted to Georgios Androutsopoulos, an Athens Law School professor, His Eminence Symeon referred directly to the shocking verdict handed down by the Egyptian court.

“…We want to hope and we are certain that we will not abide by the decision of the Ismailia Court of Appeal, which… disputes the ownership of these sacred sites. At the judicial level, the monastery has already appealed to the Supreme Court of Egypt, but our greatest hope lies not in continuing the court proceedings, but in finding a solution through consultations with the Egyptian side. We are also awaiting the issuance of a presidential decree recognizing us as the new Archbishop—we have been notified that this will happen soon—and with this the privileges of the monastery will be renewed. That is why we believe strongly, not so much in legal action as in what we call the ‘renewal of privileges’,” he said.

Asked about his goals as the new abbot one of the most venerable religious institutions in the world, Symeon said:

“A personal vision for any elected abbot, especially of such a venerable monastery and such a Greek Orthodox and Roman center, can be none other than to continue, not in a narrow-minded way, but in an ecumenical way, the message it has been conveying for centuries. Namely, a continuation of the Orthodox monastic ideal at this place, which has a history not merely of 15 centuries, as it may seem due to the construction of the monastery of St. Catherine in the sixth century AD, as monastic life on Sinai began at the end of the second century, with monks scattered around and centered on Burning Bush”.