According to revelations made before the Nicosia Criminal Court, an operation to defraud the faithful had been set up at the Avvakoum Monastery.
A woman who complained that the sum of five thousand euros she was asked to contribute—when she expressed interest in donating toward the creation of an icon of Saint Ephraim—seemed excessive to her, reportedly received the following response:
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“We want to create icons that speak to you, not Mickey Mouse.”
Nektarios
As she testified, she was never given a receipt for the payments. Nor was the icon ever delivered to her. She asked in vain what had become of the icon of Saint Porphyrios that K.I. had also commissioned, for which she had contributed the sum of 3,000 euros.
The Miracle That Never Happened
A video presented in court showed Father Avvakum anointing the cross of Saint Porphyrios with myrrh.
A witness testified that when he had visited the monastery, Father Nektarios anointed his child—who was suffering from a serious illness—with the cross of Saint Porphyrios. The cross stuck to the child, leading him to believe that a miracle had occurred and that his child had been healed. Overjoyed, he donated two thousand euros to the monastery. As he later discovered, he had been deceived.
“Today I don’t believe in anything. I’ve lost my faith.”
S.T.
A video presented in court showed a scene of Nektarios hearing a witness’s confession, in which he appeared to fall into “supposed ecstasy” and impersonating Saint Porphyrios by changing his voice. A witness reported that Father Nektarios then collapsed into a chair, pretending to have fainted, and when he “came to,” he acted as if he did not remember what had happened.
Testimony of Witnesses
According to the testimonies, the monastery, in addition to defrauding the faithful, also defrauded many of its business partners. The owner of a paper packaging company that supplies bakeries and pastry shops with products stated that the monastery owes her €2,600, while a painter who worked on the construction of Nektarios’s mother’s home testified that he is still waiting to be paid 15,000.
A recipient of public assistance had donated to the monastery his entire retroactive benefit payment and money he had collected from acquaintances and friends, totaling 6,000 euros. As he testified, he never received a receipt.
Watch the report by Christoforos Nestoros:
