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The wines and herbs in the land of Pan A survey of ancient Greek sources reveals the surprising properties of certain wines that continue to provoke the curiosity of scholars today A parody of Circe offering Odysseus wine that contains a magical herb that will make him behave like an animal. Hermes has given the ancient Greek hero another herb called moly so that Odysseus is not seduced by Circe. Medical historian Sevasti Karahaliou says moly must have been an anti-aphrodisiac. (From an early 4th century BC Boeotian cup, Ashmolean Museum.) By Stavroula Kourakou (1) In early December, the interdisciplinary...

BREAKING NEWS -DECEMBER 22, 2006 We have just been informed that the Greek Foreign Minister, Ms. Bakoyianni has given the order to empty the Konaki of Esphigmenou Monastery at Karyes, the Capital of Mount Athos by Sunday. Christmas leaves for the local Police have been cancelled! The government is trampling on the civil rights of the monks and this brotherhood that have lived there continuously for over 1500 years. The monks simply want to be left alone to live out their commitment to a peaceful monastic life of prayer and the government wants to throw over 100 monks out of...

NEW YORK - Warned that the barrage of Persian arrows would hide the sun at Thermopylae, the Spartan hero Dienekes replied with cool bravado, It will be pleasant to fight in the shade. Known for their terse, unflinching way of speaking, these consummate warriors from the Lakonia region of Greece were known as laconic, or sparing of words. The term also applies to their art. "Athens-Sparta," opening Wednesday at the Onassis Cultural Center, presents 289 archaeological artifacts from the paramount city states of ancient Greece to illustrate their very different social and artistic legacies. Athens lavishly encouraged artistic creativity, which...

Tirana /27/11/ 16:50 The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania (APC) has fallen completely under Greek control after another Greek national took over Gyro Castro metropolitan residence yesterday, Albanian media reported on Monday. Metropolitan Dimitrous Sinematys is the third holder of Greek citizenship appointed to a high post in APC. The Archbishop of APC, Anastasios, performed the inauguration ceremony in the St Vlahija Church in Gyro Castro, whose diocese includes also Permet, Saranda and Tepelena. According to local media, several Greek radio broadcasters took advantage of the appointing of the new Metropolitan to step up the Greek propaganda in Albania. The...

Thessalonica, Greece, October 20, 2006 - The Greek Government will move, as early as this weekend, to have armed police forcibly remove the monks of the Holy and Sacred Monastery of Esphigmenou from their monastery property. Over 150 police have been deployed on Mt. Athos, an unprecedented number in a community entirely populated by peaceful and defenseless monks. The monks, who seek only a life of peace and prayer in their monastery, have been subject to a non-stop campaign of official harassment and intimidation by Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, Turkey, and his accomplices in the Greek government, because of a...

ATHENS, Greece - Greek military divers Friday successfully raised the wreckage of a German World War II Stuka bomber from the sea off the eastern island of Rhodes, the air force said. The Junkers-87 dive-bomber was shot down in 1943 and will be conserved and displayed at the air force museum at an airport near Athens, air force spokesman Col. Ioannis Papageorgiou said. Papageorgiou said there was no trace of the two airmen's bodies. "The plane was raised a couple of hours ago, and I don't know yet whether there are any remains inside," he told The Associated Press. He...

Fox, AP, Dow Jones reporting

The engravings, which were discovered close to the Amoud al-Sawari monument, are said to date back to the times of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180 AD.)... are six lines long and were found etched on an artefact measuring 50 centimetres long and 36 centimetres wide, which may perhaps be part of an ancient altar. The engravings are said to be writings glorifying the supreme ancient Greek deity Zeus along with several other Greek gods. The Amoud al-Sawari monument - also known as the Column of the Horsemen, or Pompey's Pillar - is located in the Karmouz district, which is...

Greek archaeologists confirm authenticity of 'Theseus Ring' Aug 2, 2006, 15:44 GMT Athens - The long-lost 'Theseus Ring,' a gold ring found in the Plaka district of Athens in the 1950s and generally dismissed as a fake, has been identified by Greek archaeologists as a genuine 15th century BC artifact, reports said Wednesday. The Greek press had reported the discovery of a gold signet ring, with dimensions 2.7 x 1.8 cm dating from the Minoan period, and the National Archaeological Museum wanted to purchase it for 75,000 euros from the woman who owned it. There was a huge debate about...

Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court Unanimously Dismisses Lawsuit Against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America July 6, 2006 New York, NY – On June 22, 2006, the New York Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously affirmed the decision of Justice Ira Gammerman dismissing a lawsuit brought against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America by several individuals concerning the granting of the Archdiocese's 2003 Charter. "It must be dismissed," the Court wrote referring to the lawsuit, "because it involves a question of internal governance of a hierarchical Church." The ruling of this Appellate case firmly supports long-established decisions and is...

Greek, Turkish Jets Collide Over Aegean By DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press Writer Warplanes from Greece and Turkey collided over the Aegean Sea as they shadowed each other Tuesday in disputed airspace, and officials said the Turkish pilot was rescued unhurt. There were conflicting reports on the fate of the Greek pilot. A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said the Greek pilot had died, but officials in Athens said a rescue operation was still under way. The two F-16 fighter jets collided over international waters near the island of Karpathos after two Greek jets intercepted two Turkish warplanes, military officials from both...

Persecution and martyrdom of Christians under 20th century totalitarianism - mainly of Russian Orthodox Christians under Bolshevism - is by far the greatest crime in all of recorded history. It is several times greater than the Holocaust in terms of innocent lives brutally destroyed. It has killed more Christians in a few decades than all other causes put together in all ages, with Islam a distant second as the cause of their death and suffering. And yet it still remains a largely unknown, often minimized, or scandalously glossed over crime. According to the respected and reliable OUP World Christian...

It's the Church's Bible by Dr. Jeff Mirus, special to CatholicCulture.orgMay 5, 2006 In a recent issue of First Things editor Richard John Neuhaus criticized the New American Bible and commented on some problems plaguing modern Biblical translations in general. One of the contributors to the revised NAB wrote in to defend the scholarship of the translators. Fr. Neuhaus replied that the Bible is “the Church’s Bible, not the Bible of the academic guild.” What can this possibly mean? Determining MeaningOne of the examples Fr. Neuhaus used was Genesis 1:1-3. What has been traditionally rendered as “In the beginning God...

Much of my teenage years were spent in the San Fernando Valley of California, at that time (the mid-70s) a religious and cultural wasteland. Apart from the outlets described in that article, another appeared; I discovered the Eastern Rites of the Church, and the Orthodox Churches. My father, Guy, first stimulated my interest in this area, as in so many others. His tales of valiant Christians maintaining their faith and traditions under Muslim and Communist domination fired the imagination. My freshman year at Daniel Murphy High School (during our last year in Hollywood, before the move north to suburbia)...

I need some expertise on reading the greek language, or greek translated to latin. . . to english. I'm a bit lost.

"Love Cannot Fail to Be a Short Cut to Full Communion" VATICAN CITY, MARCH 15, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a text of the address Benedict XVI gave Feb. 27 to a group of priests and seminarians from the Theological College of the Apostoliki Diakonia of the Greek Orthodox Church. * * * Consistory Hall Your Excellency, Most Reverend Archimandrites, Priests, Seminarians and all those taking part in the "study visit" to Rome, As I welcome you with joy and gratitude on the occasion of the initiative of this visit to Rome, I would like to recall an exhortation that St....

THESSALONIKI, Greece - A Greek hiker found a 6,500-year-old gold pendant in a field and handed it over to authorities, an archaeologist said Thursday. The flat, roughly ring-shaped prehistoric pendant probably had religious significance and would have been worn on a necklace by a prominent member of society. Only three such gold artifacts have been discovered during organized digs, archaeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mendesidi, head of the Greek archaeological service in the northern region where the discovery was made, told The Associated Press. "It belongs to the Neolithic period, about which we know very little regarding the use of metals, particularly gold,"...

Deep-sea robot photographs ancient Greek shipwreck Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent February 2, 2006Image © / Chios 2005 Shipwreck Survey -- WHOI, Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Hellenic Center for Marine ResearchThis image shows a sample of the data collected by the SeaBed autonomous underwater vehicle as it swam over the Chios shipwreck in July 2005. The 3-D color mesh represents a topographic map of the sea floor, created using data collected by multibeam sonar. The brown strip shows the area captured in digital images, which were used to create the photomosaic of the wreck. Sometime in...

The remains of an ancient Greek cargo ship that sank more than 2,300 years ago have been uncovered with a deep-sea robot, archaeologists announced today. The ship was carrying hundreds of ceramic jars of wine and olive oil and went down off Chios and the Oinoussai islands in the eastern Aegean Sea sometime around 350 B.C. Archeologists speculate that a fire or rough weather may have sunk the ship. The wreckage was found submerged beneath 200 feet (60 meters) of water. The researchers hope that the shipwreck will provide clues about the trade network that existed between the ancient Greek...

ATHENS, Greece - British and Greek archaeologists are preparing a major excavation on a tiny Greek island to try to explain why it produced history's largest collection of Cycladic flat-faced marble figurines. Artwork from barren Keros inspired such artists as Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore but also attracted ruthless looters. Now experts are seeking insight into the island's possible role as a major religious center of the enigmatic Cycladic civilization some 4,500 years ago. Excavations will run April through June. "Keros is one of the riddles of prehistoric archaeology," said Peggy Sotirakopoulou, curator of the Cycladic collection at the Museum...

Source: University of Cincinnati Date: 2006-01-06 Researchers Discover Greek Temple In Albania Dating Back To 6th Century B.C. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati’s Classics faculty are preparing to make their first public presentation of details surrounding their find of one of the earliest Greek temples in the Adriatic region north of Greece. A fragment of a tablet recovered from the Albanian site. (Image courtesy of University of Cincinnati) The UC researchers, along with colleagues from the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, will be presenting on their new work on Friday, Jan. 6, 2006,...

America's first Islamic sorority is more about God than being Greek. There will be no beer at Gamma Gamma Chi functions, in obedience to Islamic law, nor will there be group fraternizing with the opposite sex. "Partying is allowed in Islam, but it's how you party," said Althia Collins, an Alexandria businesswoman who has helped create it. "You can have fun with girls and it doesn't have to include men." Thirteen women at the University of Kentucky will form the sorority's first college chapter this spring, and another group is waiting to start at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus....

ISTANBUL -- An Istanbul editor is to appear before a court here over a novel by a Greek author that prosecutors say is insulting to the Turkish nation, a spokeswoman for the publishing company said on Wednesday. Abdullah Yildiz of Literatur publishers risks up to three years in jail for "denigrating the Turkish national identity" by publishing The Witches of Smyrna by Greek novelist Mara Meimaridi, Eylem Ozcimen, the spokeswoman, said. The novel, which is in its 25th printing since it appeared in Turkish in October 2004, tells the story of a Greek woman who uses magic spells to find...

Greco-Catholics lay claim to Saint Sofia Cathedral Sunday, November 13, about 150 men gathered on Sofiyska ploshcha (Sofia square) in Kiev for public prayer for unification of Ukrainian Christians. The action was organized by “Christian Ukraine”, the public organization of Greco-Catholic Church parish. One of the main demands of the organizers was the delivery of Saint Sofia Cathedral to the faithful. Greco-Catholics informed that their claims to the Orthodox temple are grounded. “Who told that Sofia was build by the Orthodox? They mix up everything, saying that grand duke Vladimir christened Rus’ to be Orthodox. In reality, there was Single...

JERUSALEM - The man enthroned last week as Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem signed a secret document obliging him to nullify the recent sale to Jewish groups of land comprising much of a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, and has allegedly made statements against Jews living in certain parts of Jerusalem, WorldNetDaily has learned. The newly installed Greek Orthodox leader, Theofilos III, was crowned in a ceremony Tuesday at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre in spite of objections by Israel, which is currently debating whether to recognize him as the official Jerusalem patriarch – the religious leader of...

Monks come to blows at rebel monastery in Vatican dispute Orthodox monks traded blows yesterday in the Mount Athos monastic community in northern Greece as a bitter fight between church authorities and a rebel monastery turned violent. A spokesman for the besieged Esphigmenou Monastery said workmen and rival monks tried to demolish the community's offices at Karyes, the administrative centre of the medieval sanctuary - from which women and female animals are banned. "They used pickaxes, spades and crowbars to try to break down the door," said Father Neophytos. "They were trying to throw us out." Police said nobody was...

Once again, convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti is trying to "lead" his people from inside an Israeli prison. If his win in primaries in the West Bank on Friday provides any insight into the Palestinian popular mood, it is that they are still addicted to terrorist "leaders" like Barghouti. According to the BBC: He [Barghouti] is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for the killing of four Israelis and a Greek monk. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there was no chance of Barghouti getting an early release. Barghouti, 46, won 34,000 out of 40,000 votes - affirming...

Greek gods and those who doubted them Gregory Elder For the Daily Facts It was a bad day in the year 406 B.C. Euripides, an elderly playwright, was wandering around the palace, skulking in his gloom. For decades he had dedicated himself to the theater and written and directed more than 90 plays, performed before thousands of people. Yet for all his pains, he had won prizes for only three of his dramas, a minuscule number compared to his rivals Sophocles and Aeschylus. More than once, he had been held up to public ridicule by the tart-tongued comedian Aristophanes. In...

When I was discovering the "Earth from Above" pictures, I was bedeviled by the image below. I thought it was Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone NP, and it wasn't labeled. It took a bit of searching to find out where it was -- and I was surprised to also find out I'd never heard of it before. The image is of Pamukkale, a famous site in Turkey that features active, large travertine terraces. Apparently they aren't as hot as Mammoth, because people can clearly wade and immerse in them. Below are some additional images and links about Pamukkale. Pamukkale, a...

CHICAGO, IL, USA -- An expert on cuneiform and a doctor have teamed up to find that medicine 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia was sophisticated and effective. In fact, patients in Assyria probably got more useful treatment than anyone in Europe before the nineteenth century, JoAnn Scurlock and Burton R. Andersen told the Chicago Tribune. Scurlock, who holds a doctorate in Assyriology from the University of Chicago, and Andersen, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Illinois, examined the available medical texts in cuneiform. They found descriptions of procedures still performed, like draining pus from the lungs and chest...

VATICAN CITY -- Tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square early Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI began a ceremony canonizing the first saints of his pontificate -- two Polish-born Ukrainians, two Italians, and a Chilean.Flag-waving pilgrims packed the giant Vatican square as the 78-year-old pontiff began the ceremony in bright sunshine which burned off the mist that had earlier obscured the dome of St Peter's basilica.Choirs sang hymns in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish. During the two-hour ceremony, the pope was to proclaim the canonization of Polish Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski (1860-1923), diocesan priest Zygmunt Gorazdowski...

As the European Union struggles to bring multicultural prosperity to the Balkan region of Europe, "the task is proving more elusive than ever," says American legal rights lawyer, Michael Rollins. One reason for the difficulty, says Rollins, is the E.U. policy of preferential avoidance of EU member countries regarding civil and human rights abuses. Rollins says matters between Greece and its neighboring country, The Republic of Macedonia, serve as a good example of how the European Union's policy of benign neglect by its member states has an effect on the socio-economics, trade imbalance, and other limitations to investments in the...

Below are the summaries of the interventions: - H.E. JOHANNIS (Zizioulas), Metropolitan of Pergamo; President emeritus of the Academy of Athens (GREECE) It is a great honour for me to be given the opportunity to address this venerable episcopal Synod and bring to it the fraternal greetings and best wishes of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Church of Constantinople. The invitation to our Church to send a fraternal delegate to this Synod is a gesture of great ecumenical significance. We respond to it with gratitude and love. We Orthodox are deeply gratified by the fact that your Synod, too,...

ATHENS -- Jewish community leaders on the Greek island of Salonica reported a breakthrough on Thursday in their campaign to sue the German state to recover a ransom paid to Nazi invaders in 1942. The head of the campaign group, David Saltiel, said that the group had unearthed written evidence, recovered from banking archives, showing that a payment of 1 billion drachmas was made to the Nazis with seven different checks. The group "has started a legal process aiming to recover the ransom from the German state", Saltiel said. "We are waiting for an imminent decision from the Greek Supreme...

How the life Herodotus lived affected his history writing is a subject of dispute among many experts The question of how social conditions affecting Herodotus’s personal life affected his writing history may raise many disputes among historians. “The state where Herodotus was born in was under Persian Empire at that time; it was governed by Lygdamis, who put to death the poet Panyasis, a relative of Herodotus, for opposition and riots against Persia. Following this event, Herodotus had to leave his native city and went to Samos Island in Athena, and ever since he inhabited in Greek lands. But since...

Czech archaeologists excavate Ancient Greek town flattened by Bohemian Celts [20-09-2005] By Pavla Horakova Listen 16kb/s ~ 32kb/s For twelve years, Czech archaeologists have been helping their Bulgarian colleagues in the excavations of an Ancient Greek market town in central Bulgaria. The twelve years of work has yielded valuable results, including a hoard of coins, and discovered a surprising connection between the ancient town and the Czech Lands. PistirosThe river port of Pistiros was founded in the 5th century BC by a local Thracian ruler. From the excavations we know that wine from Greece was imported to the town in...

ROME, SEPT. 8, 2005 (Zenit.org).- As Labor Day passes and summer vacation ends, eighth-graders in the United States might be agonizing over what to wear the first day of school. In Italy, eighth-graders have a harder decision awaiting them -- what to do with the rest of their lives. Unlike the States, high schools are highly diversified in Italy. During the last year of middle school, Italian children have to decide which "type" of high school to attend. This decision sets those 13-year-old feet down a career track leading to higher education or vocational school. Schools designed to accelerate entry...

Persia's kings are history's great villains. Does the British Museum's show do them justice? By Jonathan Jones The title of this exhibition is a bit misleading. Forgotten Empire, the British Museum calls its spectacular resurrection of ancient Persia. Yet the Persians are as notorious in their way as Darth Vader, the Sheriff of Nottingham, General Custer, or any other embodiment of evil empire you care to mention. They are history's original villains. In its day, which lasted from the middle of the 500s BC until the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, the Persian empire...

Paris - A confusing series of alarm signals and the lack of an effective common language between its pilots doomed a Cypriot airliner that crashed near Athens last month, killing all 121 people on board, the daily International Herald Tribune said on Wednesday, quoting investigators. An air system knob that had been incorrectly set during maintenance on the ground prevented the Helios Airways Boeing 737 from pressurising properly, but the crew failed to notice the problem during their preflight checks, people connected to the investigation told the newspaper. Then, as the aircraft ascended through 3 000m, a pressurisation alarm -...

NEWS Turkey taken to task over its Cyprus stance CDU’s Merkel joins France in opposing Ankara in EU APFrench President Jacques Chirac (r) greets European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at Paris’s Elysee Palace yesterday.PARIS/BERLIN (Combined reports) - French President Jacques Chirac yesterday toughened his stance on conditions for Turkey to start EU negotiations, saying its refusal to recognize Cyprus was not in the spirit of what the European Union expects from potential members.Chirac raised his concerns during a meeting with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said Jerome Bonnafont, spokesman for the Elysee Palace.Turkey’s position “poses political and...

ATHENS, Greece -- An autopsy on the body of the co-pilot of a Cyprus airliner that crashed killing all 121 on board shows he was alive when the plane went down, a private Greek television channel has reported. ...more: Officials on Tuesday said they had found only the exterior container of the cockpit voice recorder from the plane, hampering investigative efforts into the accident's cause. The device's internal components were ejected from the container when the plane crashed into a mountainous region north of Athens on Sunday, Akrivos Tsolakis, head of the Greek airline safety committee, told The Associated Press.

JOHN OF DAMASCUS SERMON III ON THE ASSUMPTION (koimhsiV) [201] LOVERS are wont to speak of what they love, and to let their fancy run on it by day and night. Let no one therefore blame me, if I add a third tribute to the Mother of God, on her triumphant departure. I am not profiting her, but myself and you who are here present, putting before you a spiritual seasoning and refreshment in keeping with this holy night. We are suffering, as you see, from scarcity of eatables. Therefore I am extemporising a repast, which, if not very costly...

JOHN OF DAMASCUS SERMON II ON THE ASSUMPTION (koimhsiV) [171] THERE is no one in existence who is able to praise worthily the holy death of God's Mother, even if he should have a thousand tongues and a thousand mouths. Not if all the most eloquent tongues could be united would their praises be sufficient. She is greater than all praise. Since, however, God is pleased with the efforts of a loving zeal, and the Mother of God with what concerns the service of her Son, suffer me now to revert again to her praises. This is in obedience to...

JOHN OF DAMASCUS SERMON I ON THE ASSUMPTION (koimhsiV) [147] THE memory of the just takes place with rejoicing, said Solomon, the wisest of men; for precious in God's sight is the death of His saints, according to the royal* David. If, then, the memory of all the just is a subject of rejoicing, who will not offer praise to justice in its source, and holiness in its treasure-house? It is not mere praise; it is praising with the intention of gaining eternal glory. God's dwelling-place does not need our praise, that city of God, concerning which great things were...

Paris backs Nicosia Turks urged to accept Cyprus; Karamanlis puts off Ankara trip Greece jumped at the chance yesterday to echo criticism by the French prime minister regarding Turkey's persistent refusal to recognize Cyprus as a condition for its accession to the European Union. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis's office announced that a scheduled landmark visit to Ankara by the Greek premier later this month had been indefinitely postponed. The trip will now probably take place after Oct. 3, when Turkey's EU accession talks are due to begin, the prime minister's office said. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's comments,...

Dormition of the Mother of God August 15 We extol you, O Most Pure Mother of Christ our God, and we praise your all-glorious Dormition. (Hymn of Praise of the Feast) The very ancient, universal and profound cult of the Most Holy Mother of God left a special mark, above all, in our Liturgical Year, which is not only rich in the variety of feasts honoring Mary, but begins and ends with her feasts. The Liturgical Year opens with the Nativity of the Mother of God, and closes with her Dormition (i.e., her falling asleep), which in our liturgical books...

When I personally think of the word “catechism” I immediately associate it with a sister asking me prepared questions about God. All of us have probably gone through this routine because, until the last 20-30 years not much changed in our church from the days of St. Josephat and that was 500 hundred years ago. The History Actually it is more or less the same in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1566, St Charles Borromeo, at the wish of the Council of Trent, published a Catholic Catechism. This was divided into four sections – faith, sacraments, the Commandments and prayer....

Greeks condemn terrorist attacks such as those that occurred in London last Thursday as criminal acts but would rather stay neutral in the fight against terror, which they see as a war of the poor on the rich, a survey by Kapa Research shows. The results of the survey, conducted on Thursday for Antenna radio station, were published by newspaper To Vima on Saturday. Of the 1,220 respondents to the telephone survey, 84.6 percent condemned the attacks on London “unequivocally” as a criminal act, while 8.2 percent applauded “an act of resistance against the great powers” and 5.9 percent said...

Search on for secret of Greek sea battle A team of experts are to trawl the Aegean for triremes, the ships that were crucial to the victory over Xerxes of Persia Helena Smith in Athens Monday June 20, 2005 The Guardian (UK) They were hopelessly outnumbered, but even then the Greeks knew it would be the battle that could change history. The Asian invaders had entered the Aegean. The "comeliest of boys" had been castrated; the throats of the "goodliest" soldiers ripped out. Mounted on his marble throne, Xerxes, Persia's formidable warrior king, looked over the bay of Salamis, confident...

Defiant to the end, the former head of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Irenaios, yesterday asked Israeli police to bring him 14 bodyguards after an ecclesiastical tribunal officially defrocked him, demoting him to the rank of a simple monk. Meanwhile, Irenaios’s aide Meletios — a former Arab archimandrite who was deposed earlier this week — called for a “religious intifada” against Greek Orthodox authorities and for a stop to Greek administration of the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s property.