Greece’s highest administrative court has rejected an appeal by a rebel Mount Athos abbot against an order, by the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate, for his eviction from the 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery.

According to court sources quoted yesterday by the Athens News Agency, the Council of State ruled that it had no jurisdiction to decide whether Esphigmenou abbot Methodios was a schismatic who should leave the monastery, as the Patriarchate has declared. The court decided that, under Greece’s constitution, the patriarchate has supreme spiritual authority over the semi-autonomous Mount Athos monastic community and is not subject to judicial scrutiny of such matters.

The eviction order, issued in December 2002, followed the ultra-Orthodox Esphigmenou monks’ persistent refusal to acknowledge the authority of Patriarch Vartholomaios, due to their opposition to his efforts to improve relations with the Catholic Church. The split dates to 1964, when the patriarch of the day, Athinagoras, met with Pope Paul VI. Orthodox zealots regard the pope as evil personified.

Methodios’s 90-odd followers in the monastery have been ordered out. They have appealed to the Council of State. The 2002 eviction order led to an eight-week police siege of the monastery, which was suspended pending the court process.