Abune Antonios, the former patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, has died at the age of 94. He had been placed under house arrest in 2007 by the authorities of Eritrea, a small state in the Horn of Africa known for its repression of all opposition.
Clerical officials and a London-based rights group announced on February 10 the death of Abune Antonios stripped of his role as patriarch by his synod in 2006. Eritrean authorities at the time denied any pressure, but he was dismissed from his post “after opposing the closure of the Medhanie Alem church in Asmara and refusing to excommunicate 3,000 government opponents. He had also protested against the arrest of three of his priests in November 2004″indicated Franceinfo Afrique in 2017.
Abune Antonios was a brave leader. The Eritrean government don’t like those, so they make them disappear. Heartbreaking that he never got to see a free #Eritrea. May the people responsible for his detention one day face justice and may his soul rest in eternal peace. #YIAKL https://t.co/WT3sKddY3p
— Vanessa Tsehaye (@vanessatsehaye) February 9, 2022
(Translation: Abune Antonios was a brave leader. The Eritrean government doesn’t like those, so they make them disappear. It’s heartbreaking that he never got to see a free Eritrea. May the people responsible for his detention will one day face justice and may his soul rest in eternal peace.)
The release of Abune Antonios, under house arrest since 2007, had since been demanded by associations, the European Parliament and the French and American governments. The Orthodox Church of Eritrea had appointed a successor to him – who died in 2015 – but Bishop Abune Antonios had continued to be recognized as the legitimate head by the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt.
According to the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Antonios was born on July 12, 1927 and was sent from the age of five by his father to a monastery. Having become a monk, he was ordained a priest in 1942, then abbot in 1955 and in 2004 became the third patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
The NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide announced in a press release that the “The patriarch’s body had been taken to the Abune Andreas monastery, to which he belonged, and was buried there on February 10”. According to the organization, “local sources say a large crowd attended his funeral, many of whom had walked long distances”.
Governed since its independence from Ethiopia in 1993 by the autocrat Issaias Afeworki, Eritrea ranks last in international rankings in terms of political freedoms, expression and fundamental human rights. Half of the population is Muslim, the other Christian, mostly Orthodox.