Athens, Greece - A GREEK Orthodox monk awaiting trial on corruption charges is alleged to have plundered the ecclesiastical relics he sold on the black market from his own monastery.
Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis is accused of digging up the relics from tombs beneath the floor of the monastery on the island of Kythera, off the southern coast of Greece.
A judicial report into the allegations alleges that the monk, with unnamed accomplices, opened the graves of at least three clergymen and removed gold and silver ornaments from the human remains. Investigators said that they had found evidence of the desecration.
Archimandrite Yiossakis was arrested in February to face charges related to the illegal sale of sacred icons. He had previously served as a priest ministering to Greek-Americans in Chicago, some of whom said that he had embezzled an undetermined amount of money while there.
The judicial report also said that he had ties with a trialfixing ring made up of senior judges, several of whom have been dismissed from the judiciary.
The allegations are the latest to rock the ancient Greek Orthodox Church, which is revered by a majority of Greeks as the repository of the nation’s spiritual heritage.
Archimandrite Yiossakis’s alleged misdeeds came to light last winter when reporters began to uncover evidence. The trail led to Metropolitan Panteleimon, the Bishop of Attica, who was defrocked last month after a six-month suspension for corruption and bribing judges. Also under suspension is Metropolitan Theoklitos, the former Bishop of Thessaly, who proved unable to answer charges that he frequented a nightclub in civilian clothes and turned a blind eye to drug trafficking.
The head of the Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, has so far fended off any suggestion that his own entourage could be involved in the sleaze by promising to crack down on corruption. His own position was briefly shaken last February when some bishops said that he knew of the corruption but did nothing about it. Once outspoken on most subjects, Archbishop Christodoulos has for the last six months assumed a lower profile.
Apostolos Vavylis, another former monk, is being held in Italy on charges of drug trafficking. Reports in Greece suggest that he acted as an agent for Archbishop Christodoulos to engineer the election of the controversial Patriarch Ireniaos as head of the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarchate in 2001. Three months ago Patriarch Irenaios was formally deposed after being accused of illegally selling property in Jerusalem to Israeli interests.