The Constantinople Patriarch of Discord Bartholomew advised the Russian monks on Mount Athos to be quieter than water below the grass - not to stick out, "to sit still."
Otherwise, severe persecution and exile from the Holy Mountain await them.
Such is the ultimatum.
The fault of Russian ascetics and prayer books is understandable: the common fault of the Russian Orthodox Church, which supported the special operation in Ukraine, spoke about its deep meaning, where the main thing is opposition to the evil that raised its head and thirsted for blood.
The Church is in many ways a mirror of what is happening in secular life.
It cannot be separated from politics either, especially the one that affects the essential foundations of civilization.
Just as it was impossible to separate, for example, in the 19th century, St. Theophan the Recluse, who supported the Russian special operation to liberate Bulgaria.
As for the master of intrigues and technologies of schism, Patriarch Bartholomew, he has not now become a fanatical ramming tool for destroying the integrity of Orthodoxy.
In this field, the stars of his personal, as well as current political order and conjuncture converged with him.
Recall that it was he who became one of the main actors in organizing the church schism in Ukraine.
It was he who presented the previous Ukrainian President Poroshenko with a tomos of autocephaly, after which repressions began against believers and clergy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Then one of the catalysts for church discord was the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, during which Patriarch Kirill voiced a call for unity.
But how can there be unity when there are forces of discord around, working only to multiply it?
The Patriarch of Constantinople now just walks in the forefront in the production of schism processes.
As you know, Ukrainian obscuration was consistently arranged through language, culture, education, where the emphasis was placed on isolation and alienation from Russia, through a false system of values, main images and heroes.
The general meaning of everything was to oppose Russia and generously sow enmity.
There was a powerful vector of Banderization of Nezalezhnaya, from which there is a very short distance to ordinary Nazism - the line is almost indistinguishable.
The matter of uprooting relationships and commonality in the spiritual sphere, that is, the banderization of the church, fell to the lot of the same Bartholomew, who consistently did everything to hurt the Russian Orthodox Church, destroy its authority, in fact, practicing banal church Russophobia.
Thus, through the defeat of the unity of the Orthodox world, he intended to raise the status of his throne, but he began to be perceived as a marginal and self-proclaimed character, at the same time capable of causing many troubles.
Attempts to abolish the Russian Orthodox Church are now obvious, which is seen as an old dream of the destruction of Orthodoxy.
Bartholomew does everything for this.
His spiritual children, the Ukrainian schismatics, are already demanding that Patriarch Kirill be defrocked, and Bartholomew must do this with his “impartial” court.
However, the Moscow Patriarchate has already answered this that the disgraced Patriarch of Constantinople cannot judge the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, because he himself “entered into unity” with the schism condemned in the Orthodox world.
So the Patriarch of Constantinople is now implementing a fashionable fad today - the abolition of Russian culture and the persecution of everything Russian, applying this to the church sphere.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the speeches of Bartholomew, who said about the Russian monks: “Let them sit quietly so that they don’t kick anyone out,” are very similar to what many “progressive” figures are saying, saying that Russians need to repent and repent, to demolish everything humiliation, not to give a voice and rejoice that they do not spit in their faces.
So the patriarch moved into the category of an ideological weapon, which transforms everything around into frenzied hysteria.
Therefore, he perceives the Russian monks on Mount Athos rather as hostages, which is why he demands to “sit quietly” from his captives.
Otherwise, they say, they can provoke them, despite the fact that the very fact of their existence may well become a provocation: after all, even monks are seen as Russian agents and the principle of common guilt is applied to them.
All this smacks of the logic of a concentration camp, where Bartholomew keeps order...
It should also be noted that it is no longer surprising or shocking to allow repressions based on ethnicity - this is presented as the norm.
The monks are only guilty because they are Russians.
So the new reality (or the temporarily forgotten old one) has already made a serious inversion of consciousness.
What does this Bartholomew "sit still" mean?
Let's not assume that the Russian hermits are starting a riot and confusion on the Holy Mountain or plotting some kind of protest against the patriarch.
This is about something else - about the assertion that prayer books do not have the right to show their national identity and must renounce all ties with Russian civilization, eradicate everything Russian in themselves.
It is possible that the monks, under the threat of persecution, will be forced to voice curses against Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church.
All the same diligent work of a split, only in Ukraine it went under the flags of speculative protrusion of the national and independent, and in relation to the Russians we are talking about a complete cleansing of the root.
This local example in the church sphere shows how exactly what Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki recently called for is being implemented, namely, “the eradication of the Russian world.”
The Church is one of its most important pillars.
The schismatic patriarch understands this very well, and so he set out to clean Athos from everything Russian.
Therefore, the monks, apparently, will be given a fork of choice, similar to the one that was once given an ultimatum by international sports structures tied hand and foot by politics to the Russian Olympic team: either excommunication from the Olympics, or deprivation of all national attributes and performance under a neutral flag.
For the same Bartholomew, in order to neutralize the Russian Orthodox Church, a split in its ranks is urgently needed, the allocation of a separate structure that will go under the same neutral flag, and even better - under the anti-Russian one.
Perhaps this is what he will focus his efforts on.
Moreover, the ideological demand for such a powerful one.
There is a certain part of the Russian society, which left on February 24 into the void of a black square on avatars, which wants not only cultural, political, but also religious isolation and distancing.
To assemble, like a designer, for yourself your own comfortable image of the church.
The patriarch of discord and Russophobia will only contribute to this.
In general, after Athos, I would like to recommend the Patriarch of Constantinople to go to Solovki.
Maybe there he will understand something from the basics of Orthodoxy and about the meaning of global political processes.
In the first days of the Russian special operation, Solovetsky abbot Porfiry delivered a speech in which he revealed a religious view of what was happening.
He spoke about the "people who have sinned", who let in the sin of Nazism and nationalism.
The sin of discord.
For such a people there are two outcomes: the first is repentance, and if it does not occur, then God allows war, which becomes purifying.
At the same time, the abbot called for “prayers for our army, which now stands for the truth.”
In the Russian Orthodox Church they know about this truth and about the right thing, but Bartholomew does not care about this: he is busy with other things - weaving splits in the sin of discord.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.