To war or not to war, what’s a monk to do?

For Lent I have been reading a book from several years ago titled, “Everyday Saints and Other Stories.” Without going into the backstory, there is a passage that records a happening at a Russian monastery during Soviet rule.

“When the order came to close the monastery caves, Father Alipius ordered the keeper of the keys: ‘Father Cornelius! Hand me an axe! Today I will be chopping off heads!’

The officers who had brought the command fled in terror—after all, who knew what crazy ideas might have come into the head of these ignorant fanatics?

In fact, the abbot knew all too well that he wasn’t just uttering these commands into thin air. Once, during yet another visitation bearing yet another demand that the monastery be closed, he declared, ‘More than half of our brotherhood served as hardened front-line soldiers. We are heavily armed and very well trained. We will fight to our very last bullet. Take a look around you. See what discipline we keep here in this monastery, what distribution of troops there is here. Look at these walls. You won’t get tanks through here. In fact, the only way you’ll take us is by use of air power: dropping bombs. But if you start dropping bombs on us, I can promise you this: once the first airplane flies over our monastery, within minutes everything that’s going on here will be related to the world directly by the Voice of America. Well, it’s up to you.’ … For it certainly was true that in those days more than half of the monks were highly decorated veterans of World War II—indeed, many of them still had their medals for valor and bravery on the front lines.”

These were not the only monks who were involved in war and violence. The war of Greek independence in the 19th century had many priests and monastics involved. One Archimandrite even became the Minister of Internal Affairs. Interestingly enough, there were also women directly involved in combat during the war. One was even named an Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. She raised a Greek flag, and ended up successfully being part of the fall of Tripoli to the proto-Greek navy. She personally took care of many of the women freed from the Sultan’s harem in that city.

These stories are among many over the centuries in which monastics have been directly involved in wars. Though some of my fellow Orthodox inappropriately disparage anything not Orthodox, it should be noted that in the Mexican war of independence, priests and monks were heavily involved and the rebels marched under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Yet, at first sight, one would tend to say that priests and monks are not allowed to engage in this violence. Are there not canons that would lead to the deposition of any monastic or cleric directly involved in violence? The answer is that yes there are. But, none of these priests or monastics were deposed, or even disciplined. In the history of various countries, they are even considered heroes. How, then, can this violation be tolerated?

For those of our more legalistic Orthodox brethren, who would seek to simply apply the canons as though they were inviolable law, these instances show that the inviolable application of canon is not the way in which the Orthodox work. And, that is a good thing to remember as the Pan-Orthodox Council approaches. I have read all too many who are already piling up canons to prove that any changes made by the hierarchs will inevitably be wrong. Worse, they are even piling them up in such a way that it is obvious that they have all the reasons ready for either open disobedience or open schism. But, they fail to realize that this is not the way. Canons can be, and have been, changed. Of course, there is always the convenient claim made that if a canon was changed, it must be the Holy Spirit creating a new Holy Tradition. Frankly, I could drive a Mack truck through that argument into approving any canon that I wished to approve.

No, the monks and priests involved in direct violence in contradiction of the canons who were not disciplined were simply functioning under ekonomia. It was necessary at the time to suspend the rule in order that a higher good be accomplished. The suspension may not have been done following all the appropriate channels. But, the fact that the Church has accepted these monks and priests as heroes, and not as apostates, will tell you that this was considered appropriate ekonomia. I agree that this is a difficult subject. Because true ekonomia is as much an act of the Holy Spirit as it is of hierarchs and priests, it participates in the unexpected moves of God that continually puzzle us.

This Holy Week, we celebrate one of the most unexpected moves of God. He sent his Son to us. His Son died for us. His Son rose! The Law should have had us all punished. Ekonomia, or Grace, said that there was another way. The demands of the Law were fulfilled; the letter of the Law most certainly was bent significantly out of shape.

So, monks fight and the Son dies. Every so often I catch a glimpse of why God is so unknowable.