In a remote monastery in northern Greece, dozens of maskless worshipers gather to celebrate the feast day of the local Orthodox dignitary, their “spiritual father”, fiercely opposed to the coronavirus vaccination.
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On the outskirts of the village of Milochori, 17 km from the nearest town, Father Maximos, 88, seated in front of a buffet ordered from a local caterer, insists that anti-covid vaccines bear “the mark of the Antichrist “.
A fervent denier of the pandemic, the superior of the monastery is also the personal confessor of most of the faithful and as such occupies a key role in their lives, for some since childhood.
“Father Maximos has been in this monastery for 50 years, he is a holy man,” said Evangelia, a geologist who is taking part in the celebration.
“He has been my confessor for over 40 years and I follow his advice closely. He put me on the path of the Lord,” she told AFP.
In this isolated corner of northern Greece, the region most hostile to vaccination, she insists: “none of us here have received the vaccine”.
“Most of us got sick, but we were never scared. What should we fear when we are in the house of God?” asks the sixty-year-old.
The majority of monasteries are overseen by the influential Orthodox Church of Greece, not separate from the state, which was very reluctant at the start of the pandemic to urge the faithful to respect anti-Covid measures. Some prelates still refuse to be vaccinated.
“The Will of Jesus Christ”
The personal confessor is a long-standing tradition among devout Orthodox believers in Greece and the Balkans, says Chrysostomos Stamoulis, professor of theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
“Confessors are supposed to reveal the will of Jesus Christ,” he says.
The number of official confessors among the priests and monks of Greece is estimated at nearly a thousand, according to an ecclesiastical source.
Last November, famed Greek actor Aris Servetalis caused a scandal when he abruptly quit his role in Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros’ play, in protest at the banning of unvaccinated viewers from the theatre.
The actor then publicly spoke of the importance of his confessor in his life, including in his decision to interpret in the cinema a Greek Saint author of miracles.
“Without his blessing, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
Athanassios Gikas, a priest and professor of social theology at Aristotle University, believes that the attraction for these “spiritual fathers” is growing in northern Greece due to the proximity of the monastic enclave of Mount Athos, a high place of orthodoxy.
Himself a confessor, he insists that spiritual advisers “should not impose their will”.
“It takes great spiritual maturity to guide someone. Some are guilty of crimes and should be punished,” he said.
“Fundamentalist ideologies”
For Chrysostomos Stamoulis, “certain confessors have created fundamentalist ideologies”.
Father Maximos said he taught his followers to “refuse to become guinea pigs” by getting vaccinated.
“I am not afraid of persecution. I love God,” he says.
His distrust of modern medicine is justified, says an assistant at the monastery. “He was fine recently until he took medication. Now he can no longer walk,” he says of Father Maximos, who uses a wheelchair.
On Mount Athos, where some 1,700 monks live in some 20 monasteries, more than 40 have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic. Many are fiercely opposed to the vaccine and try to convince visitors.
“I will never bless someone who has been vaccinated,” the superior of a very conservative monastery said in a video uploaded in mid-January.
“If it’s a democracy, why not let people do what they want?” he wonders, accusing the authorities of “investing in fear”.
But for some, the advice proved deadly.
In Thessaloniki, Nikos, 57, says a couple in his neighborhood were hospitalized after refusing the vaccine on the instructions of their confessor.
“The woman died, leaving behind four children. This is the tragic consequence of the confessor’s advice,” he said.
Former Greece and Cyprus national football coach Angelos Anastasiadis has admitted turning down a job at prominent Athens club AEK FC on the advice of his confessor.
“I really wonder about people who make professional decisions without consulting their confessor,” he said.