‘Signs of the times’: Prophecy belief in contemporary Greek Orthodox contexts

Abstract

This article examines the structure, content, and function of widely circulating prophetic narratives in contemporary Greece and Cyprus. Prophetologists play a key role in recycling and disseminating prophecies through traditional and modern means of communication in an attempt to explain conditions of crisis and to promote conservative moral values and nationalistic aspirations as salvific remedies in the public sphere. Their highly politicized prophetic discourse blurs the differentiation between religion and politics that characterizes secular modernity. But at the same time, the use of modern media and secular strategies for sacred purposes have unintended secularizing effects on the religious field. Finally, the article explores the reasons why prophecy belief finds fertile soil for proliferation in these countries.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of prophecies in Greece and Cyprus, two countries that have been heavily hit by severe refugees, financial, and health crises. Orthodox Christianity plays a significant role in both countries not only because it penetrates social life, but also because it is closely intertwined with national identity. In this historical and religious context, priests, monks, and lay people have produced and disseminated through traditional and modern means of communication apocalyptic narratives in an attempt to explain the multiple calamities of our time and to suggest appropriate remedies.

The purpose of this article is to explore the structure, content, and function of such prophetic narratives from a sociological point of view. More precisely: In what way do the modern-day producers of such discourses differ from the traditional prophets? Do their discourses have a specific narrative skeleton, favored apocalyptic themes and motifs? How is the latter adapted to contemporary reality? Do these narratives have a political function? Why do they find fertile soil for development in Greece and Cyprus? What can the proliferation of prophecies and the modern means of their transmission tell us about the relationship between secularization and the Orthodox Church?

In seeking to answer these questions, I adopt an interpretative approach using different kinds of primary sources (e.g. sermons, TV interviews, YouTube videos). Since the material is vast, I analyze representative cases selected according to criteria like relation to prophecy, popularity, and possibility for generalization of findings. I draw from and interact with sociological approaches on prophecy, and I also construct new conceptual categories that stem from my empirical material. For the content analysis, I pay special attention to the fundamental categories of thought (see Durkheim, 1995: 8–18), and to the symbolic vocabulary and core framing strategies that the producers of these discourses employ, while they attempt to promulgate their own version of reality (see Benford and Snow, 2000). I also take into account their institutional position and ideological preferences, as well as the context within which they act (see Thompson, 1984: 134–137).

Conceptual considerations

Prophecy

Prophecy is not only a multifaceted historical phenomenon, but also a concept that has different meanings. It is a ‘social and intellectual construct’, in the words of an expert in Ancient prophecies (Nissinen, 2017: 4). The ‘prophet’ is a central category in Max Weber’s (1978: 439–468) sociology of religion. In contrast to priests, who administrate the religious goods of salvation, charismatic prophets are believed to communicate directly with the divine. Divination is a miraculous performance through which they establish belief in their extraordinary abilities. Weber sees the prophet as the decisive driving force of renewal, whereas the priest as the protector of the established tradition.

Bourdieu (1987, 1991a, 1991b) emphasizes the importance of the structural positions the priest and the prophet occupy in the religious field as they compete for lay followers. They both pursue to instill in the laity their own representations as legitimate by inculcating in them a religious habitus that serves their interests. A prophetic or priestly discourse has more chances to be accepted when its message corresponds to the practical needs and expectations of the laity. By employing Durkheim’s term of ‘collective representations’, Bourdieu (1987) argues that the prophet ‘gives discursive expression to representations, feelings, and aspirations that existed [already] before his arrival’ (p. 130). In sum, both Weber and Bourdieu highlight the power struggle that takes place among the church officials and the prophet, as well as the importance of the social position and strength of the groups that are mobilized to support the competing actors.

It is important to highlight that prophecies flourish in times of crisis, when the ‘socially established nomos’ (Berger, 1973: 31) is shattered and a ‘state of de-regulation or anomy’ (Durkheim, 2005: 213) is caused. As the established social values and institutions lose legitimacy, people search for new sources of meaning that can provide psychological stability. Prophets intervene in such critical times, specifying both the root causes of the crisis and the allegedly salvific behavior. In doing so, they dictate attitudes that legitimize or challenge people’s place in the social order. Weber (1978: 519) and Bourdieu (1991b: 16) are credited here with articulating sociologically the terms ‘theodicy’ and ‘sociodicy’, respectively.

The prophetologist

Prophecy, therefore, in its classical sociological formulation is a form of social interaction among the prophet, the priest, the laity, and the divine. My empirical material shows the important role of an additional actor: the prophetologist. We shall understand this neologism to mean a layperson, monk or even a priest who is actively engaged in the activity of the interpretation and dissemination of prophecies to the public. This public activity, which can often take the form of a ‘vital emotional preaching’ – an element that Weber (1978: 445) attributes to prophets –, differentiates them from mere researchers. But neither are prophetologists prophets. Though deep inside themselves, they may wish they had chosen such a path, this is not a feasible possibility, because they lack personal revelations and charisma. Yet, through their obsessive preoccupation with apocalyptic beliefs and contact with bearers of charisma, they may also develop a similar habitus, in Bourdieu’s (1977: 72) sense of the term, that makes them, at times prone to foretell future events. This is the highest point closest to the prophet they can reach.

Although they have neither prophetic visions nor commandments received directly from God, they see their activity as a holy calling. They claim to carry out the mission they receive from holy men to forewarn the faithful about the signs of the times. They thus act as a kind of ‘right hand’ of prophets claiming that the latter prefer instead a life of solitude. In fact, prophetologists as a social type correspond to the historical situation in which secular values gain the upper hand over religious ones and the modern media play a pivotal role in people’s lives. Their objective is not only to explain the various prophecies, but also more importantly to persuade the public to adopt a moral-religious conduct of life portrayed as the only protective shield against the prophesied evils. To that end, they use social media as an ideal platform for the dissemination and popularization of prophecies and for the condemnation of secular modernity as responsible for the various natural and human-made disasters.

Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou in Cyprus is a prime example of such a prophetologist. ‘I am not a prophet; I am a prophetologist’, he declares, specifying the difference:

‘A prophetologist is like a geologist, like a philologist. A philologist (…) is not a poet, but he is concerned with poetry (…) Likewise, I am concerned [with prophecies] because of a sense of responsibility (…) our people to get ready.’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020a)

Contrary to what might have been expected from a bishop, Neophytos promotes prophecy beliefs in such a great degree that perhaps it is even not too much to suggest that he actually carries the soul of a prophet: ‘I like to see the steps of God behind the human events. By seeing (…) the history of the past, now it seems that I have started to see a little bit the history of the future’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2021a). He presents himself to study prophecies ‘under the order of contemporary men of God’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2021b). He shares mutatis mutandis another element that characterizes prophets: the followers (Weber, 1978: 452). Apart from the believers who attend physically the liturgies, there are also those who follow him virtually – hearing his passionate sermons via his YouTube channel, for instance. ¹ Interestingly enough, even a Facebook group entitled ‘Friends of Metropolitan Morfou’ has been created, something that shows his great popularity. ²

Establishing reliability and validity

Prophetologists need to establish themselves as credible persons, who transmit valid prophecies. To that end, they follow a specific strategy. First, they extoll the value of prophets, from whom they also draw prestige. For instance, they praise prophets as ‘holy men who see the news of our future’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2016). They highlight the divine inspiration of the prophets, arguing that ‘God uses them as transmitters of heavenly information’. But they also attempt to build a more modern image for the prophets, for instance, by comparing them with the ‘modern geopolitical analysts’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2017). As these experts assist governments to formulate policies that will address the national dangers, so likewise, the argument runs, function prophets in favor of the faithful. However, prophets are considered to be superior to geopolitical analysts, because their predictions are based on divinely inspired visions of God’s purposes for the world.

Second, prophetologists underline that they transmit prophecies that they have personally received from holy men. Although these charismatic persons are living a life of solitude, prophetologists stress that they have access to them: ‘a man of God lives somewhere mystically, but I will never reveal him, for we are in need of the mystical and secret Saints’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2021b). What about the large number of prophecies? Prophetologists reassure their audience that they crosscheck them: when the visions of two or more prophets coincide, then these are considered to be true (see Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2017). Last but not least, prophetic discourse gains credibility when its producer has a high authority status – that of a monk or a bishop, for instance. However, due to the inherent tension between the prophet and the priest, the prophetic discourse of the ‘prophetologist-bishop’ is strongly criticized by fellow bishops as entailing a risk of challenging the ecclesiastical authority. To sum up, prophetologists are a significant part of the prophecy chain; they portray themselves as morally responsible for the faithful and fully competent to protect them, for they have credibility and great expertise in distinguishing between false and true prophecies.

Favored sources, themes, and motifs

Prophecy beliefs do not emerge from a vacuum. Therefore, it will be useful to provide background information for understanding contemporary prophetic narratives, which I will analyze in the next section.

Christian prophecy emanated from the womb of the Jewish prophetic tradition (see Cohn, 1970: 19–29). Hence, it bears the particular style and motifs of the latter, for instance, personal revelation, condemnation of unethical mundane affairs, and messianic beliefs. The recognition of Jesus as the Messiah shifted the inquiry from the charismatic agent to the timing of the coming of the promised Kingdom of God. As the earthly realization of the latter was delayed and Christians were persecuted, the hope for salvation was shifted to the distant future of the Second Coming of Christ. In this context, apocalyptic texts were produced that offered encouragement to the believers to endure the hardships. The Book of Revelation of John is a prime example. It still remains a favorite source from which modern prophetologists draw symbols and themes, such as visions, symbolic numbers, apocalyptic scenes, the last judgment, and the final establishment of a prosperous life.

Messianic expectations declined after the recognition of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. However, prophecy was never totally erased from societies, for the apocalyptic explanation of historical tribulations excited the imagination of the faithful. The rich Byzantine apocalyptic tradition provides strong proof in support of this argument (see Alexander, 1985). The defeats suffered by the Byzantines reinforced what Mango (1965: 35) calls ‘messianic Byzantinism’, namely, the eschatological expectation that the fall of Constantinople will bring the end of the world, after a period of temporary rule of the Antichrist. Another strand of messianic thought inserted the idea of the restoration of the Byzantine Empire before the end times (see Argyriou, 1982: 93–113). Prophetic visions about the liberation of Constantinople, which will occur when the marble/petrified Emperor ³ resurrects and/or when a ‘fair-haired nation’ (commonly associated with the Russians) come to assist the enslaved Greeks, were very popular throughout the period of the Ottoman rule (see Argyriou, 1982; Nicol, 1992), and are still today, as we shall see later on.

An excellent example of this literature is a book entitled Oracles of Agathangelos, in which a hieromonk by that name is presented to write down the apocalyptic visions he experienced in 1279 (see Chrismoi tou Agathangelou, 1837: 5). In fact, a well-educated Archimandrite called Theokleitos Polyeidis wrote the book around the year 1750 (see Nicol, 1992: 106). The book imitates the style of Revelation, adapting the Byzantine prophetic tradition to the author’s contemporary reality. Thus, after the ‘prediction’ of the fall of Constantinople, the author foretells the destiny of various European nations and the final triumph of Orthodoxy. The book had such a great circulation that even the Greek nationalists employed its Russia-favored implications in order to attract the Orthodox masses to the aims of the national struggle (see Hatzopoulos, 2011, 2009). It continued to be published even after the establishment of the Greek state, as the eschatological vision of the liberation of Constantinople became the substratum of the irredentist ideology of the Great Idea. ⁴

The 1914 edition of this book entitled ‘Agathangelos, namely prophecies about the future of the Nations, and particularly of Greece, and about the end of the Turkish State’ contains a kind of summary (see O Agathangelos, 1914: 7–10), which is absent from the edition of 1837. There it is prophesied that the Turks will strike deep into Greek territory (‘until the Six miles’), but the Greeks assisted by an ‘eastern people’ will drive them back to their place of origin called ‘Red Apple Tree’. In this way, Constantinople will become again the capital city of Hellenism. These nationalistic expectations were fueled after the Greek army victories in the Balkan Wars and during the First World War. As Nicol (1992: 108) notes, the fact that the major General of the Greek army was the later King Constantine I gave rise to the fantasy of the fulfillment of the prophecy about the Emperor Constantine who will liberate Constantinople. The subsequent Asia Minor Catastrophe may have ended the Great Idea as an official state policy, but it did not diminish it from the collective imaginary, as we shall see later on.

Special mention must be made here of two Orthodox saints, because their alleged prophecies are greatly circulated in today Greece and Cyprus. The first is St Kosmas Aitolos (1714–1779), a Greek monk of Mount Athos, who was executed by the Ottoman authorities for his missionary activity in the mainland of today Greece. Although St Kosmas did not leave any writing, many prophecies are attributed to him. An Orthodox website (Pemptousia, 2016) prefaces them as follows:

‘St. Kosmas received from God the gift of prophecy. He seems to have foreseen everything. He predicted the future of the world; warned of the great cataclysms that await us in our apocalyptic times; and also foretold the new technological developments.’

The second is St Paisios of Mount Athos (1924–1994), one of the most popular ascetic figures of modern Orthodoxy. Books, documentaries, and TV series about his charismatic personality are continuously produced and consumed by a great Christian audience. ⁵ Numerous prophecies (e.g. about the destiny of Constantinople) are attributed to Paisios by monks and lay people who visited him at Mount Athos. A Greek public library describes a book about his prophecies, which also contains a foreword by the Archbishop of Athens, as follows: ‘The shocking prophecies of the God-inspired Athonite monk are being fulfilled today! The book, which was sold out and is being re-released, was studied by the American Embassy!’. ⁶

Contemporary prophetic narratives: structure and content

Contemporary prophetic narratives are full of allusions to past prophecies and to current events integrated in a non-coherent way. Still one can discern the following tripartite narrative structure: (1) introduction describing the signs of the time; (2) main body containing the prophecy; and (3) ending section dealing with the problem of theodicy and suggesting remedies.

Signs of the time

Prophetic narratives open with various end-times signs, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, financial and health crises, wars, and forms of stigmatized sexual behavior like homosexuality (see Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2016, 2017, 2021b). These signs are offered as evidence that humanity has entered the final age of history, creating a feeling of imminent catastrophe: ‘a man of God (…) told me: “prophecies are now finished (…) from now on they are news; we are going to watch them on television and hear them on the radio”’, emphasized Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (2021b). In another sermon, he created an enigmatic atmosphere: ‘Now we live God’s haste; whoever understood, understood. Prophecies are becoming news’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020c).

The prophecy

In such a setting, the prophecy follows: first, a major earthquake in Greece will cause population movement. After this incident, the Turks will invade a small and then a bigger Greek island exploiting the Aegean dispute over the 6-mile territorial sea limit. Here, St Paisios is invoked, who ‘with his visionary mind’ interpreted nautically the ‘Six Miles’ prophetic saying of St Kosmas (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2017). This attack will last only 3 days and will happen either before or after the political or biological fall of Turkish President Erdoğan. Then, the Bosporus Straits issue will lead Russia and Turkey to war, bringing freedom to Cyprus, for the Turks will use all their military units against Russia. At this point, a new great World War will occur that will cause huge human losses. Russia will use nuclear weapons against Turkey and Israel. The United States, which is characterized as the ‘new Babylon’, will also greatly suffer because of its crimes: ‘“America will become meriki”, ⁷ St elder Vasilios Kausokalivitis was saying’, states Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (2020d), creating a sense of mystery: ‘What does this mean? I do not know (…) I do not have prophetic charisma. I am a prophetologist, not a prophet’. Despite the World War, the Greeks are reassured that they will experience only food shortages if they truly repent. Finally, peace will prevail and Orthodoxy will triumph all over the world.

The salvific plan of God

‘Why will all these happen?’, asks Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (2017). This is the well-known problem of theodicy, namely, why an all-powerful and omnibenevolent God permits human suffering (see Weber, 1978: 519). The answer to this question is crucial, for (if it is accepted) it can establish the plausibility of the prophetic narrative and mobilize support for the allegedly salvific behavior. Overall, the cause of disasters is attributed to acts that violate Orthodox ethics, for example, abortions, blasphemy, and homosexuality (see Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2017). God intervenes to bring sinful humanity back to the correct path of life. The suffering is thus portrayed as a golden opportunity for salvation. The Syrian war is framed as a ‘contemporary pedagogy’ that God applies in the context of his plan for humanity (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020d). Likewise, God will permit the Third World War as a ‘deep surgery (…) in order to remove all this sinfulness’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2021b). This will be a moment of divine judgment and punishment for crimes committed by all nations: ‘whole humanity groans under our sins (…) the satanic energy has been concentrated and now each nation (…) will pay, my brother, the bill’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020d). The economic metaphor underscores the unavoidable character of the consequences, while the medical vocabulary reinforces both the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for immediate divine intervention:

‘God has now a great plan, the development of which has started from Syria. He will carry out a huge surgery to humanity. The surgery is necessary; a man who is full of tumors, cancers, and his blood is poisoned must go through a detoxification process, and then he must even have surgery. In order for the health of humanity to be restored, these bitter events must be fulfilled. (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020d)’

The Greek Orthodox nation is believed to play a special role in the realization of God’s plan. Therefore, the apocalyptic consequences of the new World War will not completely shatter this nation, ‘because Christ will not leave Orthodoxy and Hellenism to be lost’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2021b). For their own part, people need to repent, and fear is a useful means to this end: ‘[My] prophetic discourse (…) aims at repentance (…) Yet before repentance, panic and fear come first’ (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, 2020a). Although God’s redemptive plan refers to the whole world, it nevertheless has as its epicenter the geographical area of God’s beloved nation, namely, Greece and Cyprus.

Ethno-religious nationalism: ‘The roots of our ancestors’

Such discourses recycle common apocalyptic themes (e.g. destruction, redemption), symbolic images (e.g. Babylon) and magical numbers (e.g. three). All these elements support the core function of the narrative, namely, the incorporation of contemporary events (e.g. immigration flows, Greek–Turkish dispute, Cyprus Problem) into a unified interpretive scheme. Following what Moltmann (2004: 6) argued for Christian eschatology, we could also say here that such prophetic narratives are political too. In fact, national longings are dressed in the colors of prophecy.

This is even more vivid in the case of monastic prophetologists. The manichaistic structure (good vs evil) of their discourse serves more aggressively irredentist aspirations against various national enemies. The devaluation of categories of people as enemies is an old-age phenomenon with deep roots in religious and magical thinking (see Eco, 2012). But, it is also a central framing device employed for political purposes particularly by the ultra-conservative Christian Right in various national contexts (see Burack and Wilson, 2009). The Greek prophetic discourse demonizes the West, the Pope, the Turks, the Jews, and any ‘Other’ perceived as a threat to national and religious identity. Orthodoxy and ‘Greekness’ are believed to form an organic unity, a situation aptly conveyed by the notion of ‘ethnodoxy’ (see Karpov et al., 2012).

An excellent example is a speech from elder ⁸ Joseph of Vatopedi disseminated as an accurate prediction of Greece’s debt crisis: ‘The elder had envisioned everything: The financial crisis, the lay-offs, the poverty’, we read at the description of a YouTube video. ⁹ Specifically, we hear this elder to foretell Greece’s ‘institutional anomaly’ and the ‘lay-offs of all public servants’, while he speaks with a rising intonation against the global, Jewish capital. He prophesies a 3-day war between Russia and other nations in the region of Byzantium, which will cause 700 million casualties. An angel will reinforce the murderous hatred among them and everything will be destroyed except from the symbol of Orthodox Christianity, Hagia Sophia. Then, the angel will physically appear and end the massacre, resurrecting the Greek political and church leaders in order to govern the liberated Constantinople. From that moment on, the ‘revival of the [Greek] race and generally of humanity will begin’. Elder Joseph goes on: ‘we will return again to our bases: Pontus, Minor Asia, Cappadocia … all these are ours; there are the roots of our ancestors’. This will be a period of peace, which will last until the coming of the Antichrist. In the End Times, God will win the battle against evil and will make the whole creation anew.

On the one pole of this dualistic narrative are the devil and his instruments for world domination, first and foremost the Jews who work to ‘uproot Christianity from earth’. On the other pole is the Greek Orthodox nation charged with a divine mission to save humankind from all anti-Christ forces. To that end, the nation’s restoration to its glorious Byzantine past is framed as a necessary presupposition. This narrative reproduces common themes found in every version of apocalypticism, for instance, in the modern American one (see Boyer, 1992; Pike, 2000). Greek Orthodox apocalypticism additionally blends popular religious myths and political aspirations that come from the Byzantine and post-Byzantine prophetic tradition associated with great traumas in the nation’s history like the Fall of Constantinople and the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Thus, the prophetic discourse acquires ‘cultural resonance’, increasing its chances for acceptance (Benford and Snow, 2000: 622).

Tselikas, another monk prophetologist, left no room for doubt to the viewers of the public TV of Cyprus that ‘the signs of the times prove that we are today at the end of times’. ¹⁰ The Greek and English publications of his book entitled ‘The Events that are rolling out the Red carpet for the Antichrist’ show that there is a consumption market for such apocalyptic goods. These signs include biological weapons, financial crises, earthquakes, manufactured diseases, vaccines, and so on. Masons and Jews are portrayed as agents of the Antichrist, who control the banks, aiming at implementing the New World Order – beliefs widely circulated within circles of fundamentalist Christianity, be it Orthodox fundamentalism (see Kessareas, 2018) or the Christian Identity Movement (see Barkun, 1997). All these disastrous events are presented as a necessary stage toward salvation: ‘God tells us that in order to reach at the Resurrection, we will go through the crucifixion. Antichrist is the crucifixion of humanity’, monk Tselikas stresses. This view is not a novelty at all. To highlight the prospect of a glorious future after the dreadful signs of the present time, prophetic discourses reproduce the religious scheme of divine passion and resurrection (see Hatzopoulos, 2009).

Another interesting case is that of a discussion among experts on prophecies that was held in a Cypriot TV channel at the beginning of the Greek debt crisis. ¹¹ St Paisios, St Kosmas, and elder Joseph are presented to have prophesied the fate of Greece and Cyprus, as well as a Third World War. The structure of this program is illuminative. It begins with various prophecies about the Turkish invasion in the so-called ‘six-mile’ area. Then, the experts analyze the prophecies and respond to the viewers. While one watches the figure of the prophet and hears his prophecies, the video plays scenes of Greek and Turkish fighter planes and warships, of battles from the Middle Ages and the modern epoch. Also, images of Hagia Sophia are depicted without the Ottoman minarets but with the cross. Such visualization techniques aim at instilling the ethno-religious message of the prophecies in the viewers’ mind.

Another illustrative example is a 5-hour Russian documentary about the life of St Paisios produced amid the Greek debt crisis. ¹² Paisios is presented to have accurately predicted not only personal life events, but also historical ones like the re-emergence of Russia as a powerful state after the fall of Soviet Communism and like the Greek financial crisis. On this issue, lay prophetologist Rakovalis, who published a bestselling book about his personal conversations with Paisios at Mount Athos, ¹³ transmits the words of Paisios:

‘He was saying that Greece will be today in such a mess (…) Our enemies want to rip us apart and our friends want to crumple us. However, it does not mind; humans have their plans; God also has his own plans. In the end, God will bring in such a way the interests of the great powers that they will help us (…) They will tell: ‘neither we nor you will take Constantinople. We will give it to the Greeks’.’

In the same documentary, Metropolitan Neophytos gives his own testimony: ‘Paisios has predicted the freedom of Cyprus (…) He told me: “the problem in Cyprus, my son, is spiritual, not political. The monasteries (…) will become spiritual bases, and these bases will kick out the [military] bases”.’

No doubt, Paisios is much cited for his alleged predictions of events. A YouTube video, which has over 2.6 million views, warns people with Paisios’ saying that ‘a great shake is coming’. ¹⁴ Again, while the viewer hears various prophecies, in the background images inculcate a political interpretation of them. For instance, Paisios’ reference to those who are against God is accompanied by an image of the Greek parliament; his warning about the imposition of the mark of the beast is accompanied by images of credit cards, vaccines and lockdown announcements; his sayings about the alleged friends and enemies of the Greek nation are accompanied by images of the European Union, of Merkel and Erdoğan; the prediction of the freedom of Cyprus is accompanied by images of the 1974 Turkish invasion and of the 1996 killing of Solomou, while trying to remove the Turkish flag. The nationalistic character of this discourse is also evident by the deep belief that God will save the Greek nation and that the Byzantine Empire will re-emerge: ‘He believed that a monk can help the whole Nation (…) [that] Mount Athos can re-create Byzantium’.

The recapturing of Constantinople lies at the heart of these narratives. Prophetologists invoke St Paisios, who is said to have prophesied this in early 1991. ¹⁵ Specifically, a believer claims that Paisios told him that

‘the king Constantine will contribute as mediator [so as] the Poli [Constantinople] to be given to Greece (…) [The Great powers] will give the Poli to us not because they will want it, but because this solution will serve the interests of the foreigners.’

This belief was greatly disseminated through the Internet; for instance, a commentator on a relevant YouTube video ¹⁶ clarifies: ‘Paisios’ prophecy mentions that the former king Constantine will act before the giving of the Poli to the Greeks, whereas the king John who is mentioned in the prophecies will act after the giving of the ‘Poli’. This discourse recycles the popular myth of the king, who will liberate Constantinople; In the Balkan wars, it was Constantine I, as we have mentioned. This time, it is the last king of Greece Constantine II, who carries the same symbolic name. What is more, his old age reinforces the sentiment of imminence: things are going to happen very soon!

This kind of discourse appeals particularly (but not exclusively) to right-wing segments of society, for which God is protector of the Greek nation. ‘Everything will be done according to the Prophecies. God is with our side!!!’, reacts emphatically a commentator to a YouTube video about prophecies concerning the retaking of Constantinople by the Greeks. ¹⁷ The same commentator cites the well-known slogan of the Greek dictatorship: ‘Greece of the Christian Greeks’. Likewise, another commentator emphasizes that ‘GREECE WILL WIN, because Greece has great History and she never dies’. This phrase comes from a march song entitled ‘Greece Never Dies’, which extols the immortality of the Greek nation. Greek junta used this song to promote its nationalistic ideology (see Papaeti, 2019: 140). Other commentators delighted by this prospect state: ‘I wish to (…) see the Greek army to enter Constantinople’; ‘May we light a candle in Hagia Sophia!’. The prophecies are also reinterpreted in light of the pandemic crisis, fueling contemporary conspirational thinking: ‘They will try to bent us through vaccination. Do not accept vaccination. Our good GOD will protect us’, states a commentator. Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (2020b) also interprets in his public speeches the coronavirus as a biological war that serves the secret aims of the New World Order.

History, miracle, and modern media

How can we explain the prophecy belief proliferation in contemporary Greece and Cyprus? Adopting Weber’s (2013) thesis that cultural phenomena are a result of complex interconnected processes within a chaotic empirical reality, we should avoid single and deterministic causal explanations.

I shall start with the historical conditions. Both Greece and Cyprus found themselves in the whirlpool of severe crises that shattered their social, economic, and political life. Moreover, their geographical position in the sensitive Eastern Mediterranean region, the historical rivalry with Turkey with the unresolved Cyprus issue and the continuous Greek–Turkish disputes over the Aegean Sea intensified collective feelings of an endangered nation surrounded by mighty enemies. The public instrumentalization of memories of great national disasters (e.g. Asia Minor Catastrophe) has worked in the same direction.

The devastating consequences of these crises stimulated prophetic beliefs, which appeal particularly to those who have a strong religious mentality and are indignant with the political system. Instead, these actors search to tradition for alternative defenders of the ‘endangered’ religious and national identity. Prophecy becomes a lens through which they attempt to explain and endure the frustrating historical exigencies, be it the immigration flows caused by the Syrian war or the implications of the financial crisis. The following prophecy posted on a religious news website ¹⁸ is illuminating in this respect:

‘A great crisis is coming to Greece at any minute. Stores will close; servants will be dismissed. Do not ask how much hunger is coming! All things they knew are gone (excessive life, extravagance, comforts (…)!). Now they throw the food! But in the approaching crisis (…) they will call the ‘bread, small bread’. ¹⁹ There will be no jobs. Poverty and hunger are coming, Fr. Paul. I am telling you this, so as you know!’

Another interesting example is a YouTube video entitled ‘hunger and calamities are coming to the world’, ²⁰ which reproduces a past sermon of Metropolitan Kantiotis, renowned as a preacher of passionate sermons against the adulteration of Orthodox ethics. St Kosmas is presented to have predicted the financial crisis and the austerity measures. The viewers see images of crisis (e.g. people searching for food in garbage), while they hear Kantiotis passionately recycling old prophecies and recalling traumatic memories:

‘Hunger is coming, my brothers; the new hunger. We, who have experienced the difficulties of hunger, tremble and say ‘my God, save us’ … Would you like to see an image of hunger? Open here the Apocalypse [and] read the 6th chapter … Kosmas of Aitolos said: ‘A day will come, my brothers, when a handful of flour, a handful of gold’ (…) In 1943, how much did bread cost? (…) Who will save us? (…) I am going to tell you a prophecy said (…) by a holy Russian, Dostoevsky (…) He writes: ‘My Russia, my suit fatherland, you will be hungry; and you whole world will be hungry, because you have crucified Christ.’

But, it is also necessary to examine why prophecy belief finds fertile soil for proliferation within Orthodox milieus. Prophecy belongs to the magical-religious mode of thinking, as it extolls personal communication with the divine, charismatic knowledge of future events, and intervention of God in history. Eastern Orthodoxy with its mystical theology, rich Byzantine rituals, strong monastic tradition, and church decoration retains a profound otherworldly orientation, which has been weakened in Western Christianity, particularly in Protestantism. This does not mean that the processes of rationalization, intellectualization, and scientific calculation have not affected Orthodox Christianity or that the latter is diametrically opposed to any change (see Makrides, 2012).

But the point is that for the deeply Orthodox believer the modern world, despite great scientific and technological advances, remains mutatis mutandis a ‘great enchanted garden’ (Weber, 1978: 630), in which miracles still happen. In such a religious environment, the probability of accepting prophetic narratives is higher, compared to one that rejects the magical elements of faith as superstitions. It is not surprising that believers continued to receive Holy Communion from the single spoon during the coronavirus pandemic, for they literally perceive it as a ‘medicine of immortality’. As a Greek Metropolitan stated,

‘Is it possible the partaking of Holy Communion to cause a psychosomatic disease? This is not possible. The believer, who comes to Holy Communion, believes that he/she comes to God, who has the power to heal, anticipate and intervene miraculously.’ (Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, 2020)

In the Orthodox cosmos of spirits, angels, and saints miraculous intervention is taken for granted. What is more, it is used as an explanatory framework for every historical event, be it a pandemic, a war, or a political decision of Erdoğan or Putin.

Another reason for the wide circulation of prophecies is the significant role that the Internet plays in our daily lives. Modern technology permits the speedy transmission of prophecies to large audiences beyond the narrow circle of those who physically attend the church. At first sight this has the markings of a paradox, since prophecy condemns the ‘spirit’ of modernity, calling for the restoration of the ‘traditional’ way of life. Roudometof (2010: 34) has argued that although the rigorist rhetoric of church officials stems from a broader cultural reaction to globalization, it is more a means to an end (e.g. public role of the Church), rather than an expression of religious fundamentalism. No doubt, prophetologists use modern media as the best means of diffusing and of making relevant their beliefs and values to contemporary audiences. But here, the ‘devil’ is hiding: the use of digital media, popular cultural forms (e.g. videos, films), promotional strategies (e.g. advertisement, book presentations, interviews), and secular argumentation (e.g. geopolitics) has unintended secularizing effects (e.g. modernization, individualization, commercialization). The more the prophetologists oppose secular culture by using the same means and strategies that serve this allegedly ‘beast’, the more they get accustomed to the latter and finally look like it. ²¹

Conclusion

Contemporary prophetologists resorted to the rich Christian prophetic tradition in order to explain the multiple crises of our time and to publicly promote conservative moral values and nationalistic fantasies as salvific remedies. Specifically, they disseminated through sermons and modern media end-times signs, as well as popular Byzantine and post-Byzantine myths, adapting them to contemporary reality. Differently put, they provided a vision for the future by drawing upon past formulations in order to address the urgent needs of the present.

Although their apocalyptic narratives are imbued with anti-globalization rhetoric, they play in fact an ideological role, because they aspire to maintain traditional values and valorize unrealizable premodern socio-political formations like the Byzantine Empire. Social agents who attribute responsibility to the political ‘system’ not only for their bad economic conditions, but also for the promotion of new values (e.g. gay rights, multiculturalism) are particularly receptive to such discourses. In their eyes, secular modernity will destroy the Greek Orthodox nation unless people return to an idealized ‘traditional’ way of life organized around the triptych ‘family, fatherland, and religion’, which is believed what God wants so as to make the Greek nation great again.

The socio-political function of such narratives is not a new trait. However, within the present conditions of crisis, politicized prophetic discourses have been reinforced and multiplied. Prophetologists are not satisfied with the public stance of the official church, despite the fact that the latter too develops ethnocentric discourse and has traditionally a close relationship with the state and the nation. The reason is that the institutional position of the Church makes it prone to compromises. They thus accuse it of receding in favor of the state interests, especially during critical times like the coronavirus pandemic. On the contrary, prophetologists call for a dynamic mobilization of the people against the ‘dark’ forces of globalization that threaten God’s beloved nation. It is not an accident that the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (2022: 2) published an encyclical against the ‘false prophets’ who ‘delude the people with their false prophecies, leading them to the catastrophe’. The need for such a publication demonstrates the proliferation of such agents within the ranks of the Church, who are perceived as a threat to its authority. Thus, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece (2022: 4–5) urges the faithful to ‘honor and obey the Shepherds and Bishops of the Church’, avoiding those who provoke ‘noise, disturbance, and scandalisation’.

Eastern Orthodoxy has a strong otherworldly orientation evident in its mystical theology, monastic tradition, and ritual practices. In conditions of crisis, agents whose habitus has been formed by magico-religious beliefs and practices are more prone to endorsing prophetic narratives that presuppose belief in extraordinary miracles. The instrumentalization of apocalyptic eschatology as a useful tool for the promotion of conservative moral values and nationalistic longings blurs the differentiation between the sacred (religion) and the profane (politics) that characterize secular modernity. But at the same time, the use of digital media and of secular strategies for sacred purposes has secularizing effects on the religious field, contrary to the wishes and intentions of the prophetologists.