The Athos community is concerned about the closure of the Daphne post office

Sacred Kinot of Mount Athos sent a letter to the head ELTA Grigorios Sklikasas with a request don’t close department in Daphnecalling it the “main gate” of Athos.

Mail Daphne serves 8 monasteries, 4 hermitagesdozens of cells and more 2,000 inhabitants. Delivery is only possible by sea; replacement for department in Karye (Καρυές) practically impossible.

October 31, 2025 Hiera Kinotis of Holy Mount Athos sent a letter to the general director ELTA Grigorios Sklikas with an expression of deep anxiety due to the intention to close Daphne Post Office. The document is signed representatives and primates of all 20 monasteries and emphasizes the exceptional importance of the department for the daily life of Athos and its connection with the rest of the world.

Why Daphne is irreplaceable

Daphne – sea harbor, “main gate” of the Holy Mountain. Branch ELTA serves here daily more than 2,000 permanent residents (monks and laymen), as well as many pilgrims. It provides delivery and dispatch parcels with supplies, books, publications, products of monastery workshops and shrinesand through connected services Eurobank And Western Union performs basic financial transactions because in Daphne no bank branch.

Daphne Post serves eight monasteries – Dionysiou, Xiropotamus, Zograf, Dohiariu, Simonopetra, Agiou Pavlou, Xenophon, Grigoriou And Agiou Panteleimon — as well as four large monasteries: Agias Annis, Neas Skitis, Kavsokalivion, Katunkionplus dozens of cells and hesychastiria.

Arguments of Athos

• Logistics: Daphne is accessed exclusively by seaso transfer of service to Career due to distance and lack of direct communication unreal.
• Economy: department has almost zero transaction costs and is considered cost-effectivebut is still included in the list for closure.
• Identity: collapsing the branch will become moral blow to the Greek presence in a thousand-year-old monastic republic.

Hiera Kinotis asks for guidance ELTA preserve and strengthen the work of the Daphne department as “the vital core of the administrative and social services of the Athonite Polity”, emphasizing that Daphne must remain a symbol state concerns and respect for a unique institution of global importance.

Closure of 204 post offices throughout Greece

Athens News previously reported that ΕΛΤΑ close more than 200 branches throughout Greeceexplaining this “reorganization for sustainability”. The decision caused a storm of protests from local authorities.

After a large-scale scandal caused by publication of this informationgovernment Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to resign chapter Ελληνικά Ταχυδρομεία (EΛTA) Grigorios Sklikas.

Information about “freezing” of branches appeared on the evening of November 30 and caused a storm of protests. Residents of the provinces and postal employees demanded that the decision be reversed, arguing that it would lead to the isolation of entire areas.

The prime minister’s office hastened to distance itself from the scandal, declaring through sources that “all decisions on ΕΛTA are made Υπερταμείο” However, in society this was perceived as an attempt to abdicate responsibility.

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