St Catherine’s Monastery: Archbishop Symeon accepts signing the agreement with Egypt; Gerapetritis calls it a “historic day”

After 1,500 years under a legal status that, according to the Greek government, was “loose and unregulated”, the Monastery of Sinai now gains a firm legal basis. The agreement between the Holy Monastery of St Catherine and the Egyptian state secures in perpetuity, according to the Greek Foreign Minister, that the monastery and its properties will retain their religious character, while the monks will receive long-term residence permits. The Sinai Brotherhood announced on Saturday, October 24 that it accepts to sign it.

The decision was made known by the Archbishop of Sinai, Faran and Raithu, Symeon, who in a statement hosted by ERT writes that the Brotherhood now has the unanimous support of the Orthodox Churches. A few hours later Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis called the development a “historic day for Hellenism and Orthodoxy”, in a written statement.

When the signatures will go on

No date has been set yet. The Archbishop ties it to the state of his health and says it will be decided jointly by the monks and the Egyptian authorities. “This development, of course, gives the Sinai Brotherhood and me personally the encouragement to proceed with the signing of the Agreement in the near future,” he notes.

According to Symeon, after the announcement of the agreement “there is no longer any reason for the issuing of a ruling by Egypt’s Supreme Court”. That pending matter had raised the pressure in recent weeks, with reports placing the critical deadline on October 22 and 24, as Geopolitiki reported earlier. Any issues that arise along the way, over the terms and accompanying documents, the Archbishop expects to be settled during implementation.

From Ismailia to a draft agreement

The starting point of the case is the ruling of the Ismailia Court of Appeal of May 28, 2025, which shaped a new framework for the Monastery in Egyptian law. After it, the Egyptian government sent the Monastery a draft agreement, aiming to clarify how the judicial ruling applies and what position the Monastery holds in the country’s present legal framework, so that monastic life can continue as tradition prescribes.

Before replying, the Brotherhood asked for time for three things: to study the text in depth, to propose changes on matters of practical implementation, and to document scientifically, in a special file, how the Monastery’s position was historically regulated and which properties the negotiation concerns. Cairo gave that time and the dialogue lasted more than a year. Symeon says he is satisfied with the understanding shown by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his government, while also acknowledging the help of the Greek state and of friends of the Monastery from various countries.

Five Churches at the Monastery’s side

The Brotherhood first sent the draft to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which is responsible for the Monastery at the ecclesiastical level. Patriarch Theophilos judged that the matter concerns the whole of Orthodoxy and informed the Phanar and Bartholomew, the Patriarchate of Alexandria and Theodoros, and the autocephalous Churches of Cyprus and Greece. All replied with patriarchal and synodal letters in favour of signing, with the wish that the Monastery’s historical and lawful rights be safeguarded.

Gerapetritis underlined the same point, speaking of a “message of Orthodox unity” in a period of epochal change. The Greek government, he said, will continue to support the ancient Patriarchates and the Monastery “with deeds that break the inertia of centuries” and not with “winged words”. The statement comes a day after the attack on the Greek Orthodox church of St George in Karak, Jordan.

The message to Cairo

Gerapetritis thanked President Sisi, on behalf of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the government, for his personal intervention, without which, he said, the agreement would not have been possible, as well as his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty. He presented it as the epitome of the “strategic and fraternal relationship” of the two countries. Athens and Cairo already have a common front against the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, after its ratification by Libya’s House of Representatives.

The Monastery of St Catherine has operated without interruption for about 15 centuries at the foot of Mount Sinai. In his statement Symeon describes it as a spiritual bridge between the two civilisations: “By the grace of God, the God-trodden Mount Sinai is ‘in its place’, with the Fathers serving it, striving and receiving every pilgrim, visitor and traveller.”