Προσηλυτιστικές απόπειρες της Ρωμαιοκαθολικής Εκκλησίας στο Άγιον Όρος κατά τα έτη 1626-1641

Abstract

In the first half of the 17C the Roman Catholic Church begins a systematic effort of infiltration in the Orthodox countries of the Balkans. The Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, expresses the Vatican policy in its pursuit for unification, plans and attempts systematically in the years 1626- 1641 to infiltrate and alter the confession of faith in the bastion of Orthodoxy, Mt Athos.

During the fifteen years, which the study researches, the Latin Church used Greek «uniti» priests, in a mission to Mt Athos to create favourable conditions for the Mt Athos «uniti» to accept the founding of a school for their «spiritual prosperity». In reality however the school’s object would be the gradual alteration of the confession of faith of the Orthodox monks.

The persons very carefully chosen by the Propaganda Fide for this purpose were Alexandros Vasilopoulos, Kanakios Rossis and his nephews Andreas and Nikolaos Rossis. The latter succeeded in founding the school at the Protato in November 1635 where it operated until January 1641. However the participation of the Mt Athos monks was not the one expected by the inspirers of the plan because at its peak the school numbered only seventeen pupils.

Thus due both to the unwillingness of the monks to matriculate, accompanied by the mistrust of the priors for the Vatican schemes, and also to the Turkish danger, the grandiose plans of the Roman Catholic Church for the conquest of Mt Athos were cancelled.