With complaints of grueling working conditions, incidents of fainting, restrictions on communication with his family, as well as allegations that Abbot Nektarios feigned “ecstatic trances” during confessions and that he was Saint Porphyrios, The hearing in the case of the Holy Monastery of Saint Abbaakum continued on Wednesday before the Nicosia Permanent Criminal Court.

Testifying as a witness for the prosecution, a priest who served at the monastery spoke at length about the period when he joined the brotherhood, the monks’ living and working conditions, and the manner in which, he claimed, his spiritual guidance was provided.

The witness stated that he joined the Hermitage as a novice monk in March 2022, having previously interrupted his studies in physical education in order to pursue the monastic life.

As he testified, from the very first day, the then novice monk Nektarios had made it clear to him that he was not allowed to have a cell phone and that, in order to contact his family, he would first have to ask for “blessing” and use another monk’s phone.

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He even mentioned that his contact with his family was limited to once a week.

The witness said that at the Hermitage there was no specific daily schedule for Divine Liturgies, Vespers, or times for personal prayer or rest. According to his testimony, for about a month, an effort was made to hold Vespers and Matins daily; however, in the end, the services were usually attended only by himself and Fathers Timothy and Isaiah.

“We worked until we were exhausted; we fainted in the workshop.”

A central part of his testimony concerned the confectionery workshop, which, according to the witness, was his daily duty from the time he joined the brotherhood until his departure from the Monastery on March 5, 2024.

As he stated, the workshop was initially located in the house where the fathers lived in Fterikoudi and was later moved to Aska due to increased production.

The witness claimed that the monks worked long hours, especially during Christmas, Easter, the feast of Saint Abbaqum, as well as when they transported the Cross of Saint Porphyrius and the relics of saints to other parishes.

“Many times we worked nonstop from one morning to the next,” he said, adding that after working through the night, they did not return to the monastery to rest but continued with tasks such as cleaning and receiving orders.

He also described particularly difficult conditions in the workshop, mentioning extreme cold in the winter and unbearable heat in the summer, and noted that there were also mice.

During his testimony, he claimed that, due to exhaustion, the priests would even sleep in chairs or on the floor, and sometimes, during the summer months, they would sleep on top of the freezer to stay cool.

He also referred to an incident during which, as he said, he himself, Father Porphyrios, and Father Timothy fainted in the workshop.

According to his testimony, the incident occurred around midnight while they were working nonstop. After Father Porphyrios fainted first, the other two tried to revive him before they, too, eventually fainted.

Father Nektarios, as the witness stated, found them unconscious on the floor outside the workshop and took them to the hospital, where they were given oxygen.

The witness also stated that a gas leak was later discovered in one of the ovens and that the priests often worked while feeling dizzy and on the verge of fainting.

He also described how he himself had fainted on the morning of Father Nektarios’s enthronement, on December 11, 2022, due to exhaustion from the preparations and the production of sweets.

Allegations of Insults and “Blind Obedience”

The witness claimed that both Father Porphyrios and Father Nektarios would yell at them when mistakes were made on the job and that on several occasions he heard epithets such as “useless” and “idiot,” as well as the phrase “I regret making you a monk.”

As he said, despite the fact that he realized he was working excessively, he did not complain, as he believed that as a monk he was obligated to obey his elder.

Particularly serious was his allegation regarding his confessions to Father Nektarios.

As he testified, during most of his confessions, Father Nektarios, while reading the prayer of absolution, would change his voice and pretend, according to the witness,  that he was Saint Porphyrios.

The “Saint,” as the witness claimed, allegedly told him to obey his elder, that is, Father Nektarios, because he was a “holy man” and that through obedience he would never go astray.

The witness stated that Father Nektarios would then collapse into a chair, pretending to have fainted, and when he “came to,” he acted as if he did not remember what had happened.

“My son, these things are from God, and you must not tell anyone about them,” he reportedly told him, according to the testimony.

The witness said that at the time he believed so strongly in what was happening that he recorded it in a personal journal, noting dates and the words that, as he believed, Saint Porphyrios was telling him.

“Now I realize that all of this was a lie,” he said, arguing that the purpose, in his estimation, was for Father Nektarios to appear as a “saint” in his eyes and to instill in him “blind obedience.”

The Cross of Saint Porphyrios and the Claims of a Miracle

In another part of his testimony, he referred to the wooden cross of Saint Porphyrios, which, he said, belonged to Father Nektarios and was kept in a metal case.

According to the witness, the cross was used by the priests to make the sign of the cross on the faithful, and in some cases it would stick to their clothes or their heads.

He stated that he initially believed it was a miracle.

According to his testimony, Father Nektarios told the faithful that the priest who used that particular cross had previously fasted for three days without food or water.

The witness stated, however, that he himself had never seen any of the monks at the monastery go even a single day without eating or drinking, and that on all the occasions he himself used the cross, he had eaten the previous day.

The witness further testified that the cross “always smelled of myrrh” and that on some occasions he saw it, as he put it, “exuding myrrh.”

He stated that he had never seen anyone place myrrh on the cross and therefore believed it to be a miraculous phenomenon.

When, as he said, he asked Father Nektarios why the cross would stick to the faithful, he received, according to his testimony, that this could mean either that the believer had some problem and the cross had detected it, or that the problem had been healed through the cross, or that the cross was imparting spiritual strength to the believer.

Reference to salary administration

The witness also referred to his salary, stating that he had recently been informed by an accountant at the Holy Metropolis of Tamassos that there were documents from the Central Ecclesiastical Fund in which a specific bank account was listed for the deposit his salary as a clergyman.

As he testified, those specific documents and the signatures they contained were not his.

He further claimed that, according to an audit conducted by the accounting department, from the time of his ordination until that day, his salary had been paid into an account that, as he was told, was maintained by Abbot Nektarios, Archimandrite Porphyrios, and the monk Avakum.

He said that “he was surprised and disappointed,” since, as he stated, he had believed—based on information he had received from his father—that his salary was being used for charitable purposes and for the monastery’s needs.

When asked by the prosecution whether he knew of other monasteries where daily services are held, the witness answered in the affirmative, noting that in other monasteries there are daily services “day and night,” while, as he argued, at this particular monastery, work in the workshop essentially constituted the first, second, and third duties.

The hearing will resume on September 14, 2026, at 9:30 a.m.

The case involves the monks Nektarios and Porphyrios, who face, among other things, charges of conspiracy to defraud, forgery, and use of forged documents, theft by an agent, illegal possession of property, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and filing a false tax return.

The two defendants deny any involvement and have not admitted to any of the charges against them. They remain free under the same restrictive conditions.

Source: CNA