An abbot of an Orthodox Christian monastery in Georgia earned a reprimand from church hierarchs for calling the political opposition “devils” and banning them from service.
“I need no devils at my service. He who does not love the president is the devil,” Archimandrite Shio Gabrichidze, abbot of a monastery on the Shavnabada mountain, was quoted as saying by local news website Apsny.ge.
Gabrichidze also told his flock that the country’s president is appointed to his job by God, in line with Christianity’s teachings, Apsny.ge said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Georgian Patriarchate, Mikael Botkoveli, said that “such sermons are unacceptable and the abbot received a reprimand over them.” Gabrichidze’s reaction remained unknown as of Wednesday evening.
Georgia’s divided, but vocal political opposition accuses President Mikheil Saakashvili of lapsing into authoritarianism after coming into power through the “Rose Revolution” of 2003. Police cracked down on anti-Saakashvili street rallies in the capital Tbilisi in 2009 and 2011.
