The Athonite cessation of commemoration (1970 to 1973)

Established chronology

1. Jan 1964Patriarch Athenagoras meets Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem.
2. Dec 1965The anathemas of 1054 are “lifted” in simultaneous ceremonies at Rome and the Phanar; the act's meaning is disputed at once.
3. 1969St Paisios and other Athonites write openly against the patriarch's ecumenist words and gestures.
4. 1970Following further unionist statements and acts, the majority of the twenty ruling monasteries cease commemorating Athenagoras, walling off, without erecting any rival structure.
5. 1972 to 1973Athenagoras dies (July 1972); under Patriarch Dimitrios, and with pressure upon the Mountain, commemoration is progressively resumed.

Synodal decisions

• No synod condemned the ceasing monasteries as schismatic; no deposition of the patriarch occurred; the episode ended by resumption, not by trial.

Actions of the saints

• St Paisios of Mount Athos stood with the confessors who refused both the innovation and the zealot schism, protesting publicly, ceasing for a season, and rejecting any move toward a rival church.

Competing interpretations

• For the line of this library, the episode is the living demonstration of Canon 15: cessation before synodical judgment, within the Church, temporary in form, honoured in the persons of its saints.
• For the permissive school, the same episode shows walling off as an extraordinary protest that prudence soon ended; for the zealot separations, its ending proves compromise. The facts are shared; the lessons drawn are not.