Sinai monastery: October 22 deadline for a deal with Egypt approaches, with the brotherhood divided and questions over the October 24 ruling

The Holy Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, the oldest continuously operating Christian monastery in the world, is nearing the moment that will decide its future. Athens regards October 22 as the last date for an agreement on the status and property of the monastery, while on October 24 the stay of a ruling by Egypt’s supreme court reportedly expires, the Greek-American newspaper The National Herald of New York reported on Sunday, October 11.

Four postponements, and no fifth?

Athens considers another extension unlikely after four previous delays. According to the same report, negotiators face stalling by circles in Egypt as well as a divided monastic brotherhood. A monk who disagrees with the process is reported to have said: “There is no chance that the decision … will be announced on October 24. They are trying to mislead us.”

Greece’s Secretary General for Religious Affairs, Giorgos Kalantzis, travelled to Jerusalem to seek the help of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, to which the monastery belongs ecclesiastically. The issue has also acquired domestic political weight, the paper notes, as Greece is already in a pre-election period.

Is the October 24 date real?

The U.S.-based group Coptic Solidarity, which monitors religious rights in Egypt, expresses reservations about the deadline itself. It says October 24 should not be treated as an independently confirmed court date, since no official announcement by the Court of Cassation has been identified, and that some sources believe the date was used as a means of pressure to make the brotherhood sign. The organisation stresses that this claim, too, has not been confirmed.

The European dimension

The issue has also reached the European Parliament. Greek MEP Nikolas Farantouris visited the monastery and Cairo from September 24 to 27. “This is a living monastic community with an uninterrupted presence of 1,600 years,” he said at the monastery. At the Egyptian Foreign Ministry he met Yasmine Moussa, the legal adviser responsible for the “Sinai file”. According to Coptic Solidarity’s account, the Egyptian side argued that not recognising the monastery’s ownership is necessary so that its treasures cannot be exported and its properties cannot be sold. Farantouris insisted that ownership must remain with the monastery and that such concerns can be handled through specific clauses in a diplomatic solution.

Background to the dispute

The dispute dates back to 2015, when the Egyptian state went to court claiming areas of the monastery. In May 2025 a ruling by the Ismailia Court of Appeal on the property regime caused diplomatic tension and prompted Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s response that the monastery “is not closing”. The matter has repeatedly been on the table at meetings between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and al-Sisi, with Athens seeking a solution that secures the Greek Orthodox identity of the monastery and the continuity of the Sinai brotherhood.