ABBOT RESIGNED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 385, 17 March 1937, Page 5

ABBOT RESIGNED

Sequel to Strike of Coptic Monks. Press Association—Copyright. (Reecived 11 a.m.) Cairo, March Iff. The Coptic Patriarch has accepted the resignation of the Abbot S~arous, a dispute with whom caused a strike of Coptic monks.. Sldarous, in a letter to the Patriarch, Bays that a monk’s life must be founded on peace and love. “My brethren," he wrote, “Do not Want me. They have many evil intentions which I am unable'to combat.”

The oddest stay-in strike on record occurred at a monastery near Aissuam, stated a Cairo message of March 1. Following the excommunication, of a number of disobedient monks, the Coptic Patriarch ordered their evacuation. The monks locked the doors .raised the drawbridge, and defied efforts to remove them. It was suggested that troops should" besiege the monastery. The monks had provisions for two years. ’iuey alleged that the abbot’s maladministration had reduced the once-flourishing monastery to insolvency. Police efforts to enter the monastery were unsuccessful.