Abune Antonios


Abune Antonios is the third Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. He was illegally and forcefully deposed by the Eritrean government in 2007. He has been under house arrest ever since.

Ecclesiastical career

Antonios was born on 12 July 1929 in the town of Hembrti, north of Asmara in the province of Hamasien. He was ordained priest in 1942, and later elected Abbot in 1955. When the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church sought autocephaly, he was one of five abbots of monasteries that went to Egypt to be ordained as bishops so that the church would have its own Holy Synod. He was ordained as Bishop Antonios of Hamasien-Asmara on 19 June 1994 in Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Cairo, by Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Following the death of Abune Yacob in 2003, he was elected Patriarch in popular elections which were unanimously endorsed by the Holy Synod of the church. His ordination and enthronement as Patriarch took place on 23 April 2004 in Asmara, at the hands of Pope Shenouda III, assisted by Eritrean and Coptic Orthodox Metropolitans and Bishops. He was the first Patriarch of Eritrea to have been enthroned who had not previously been a Bishop in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Removal from church

In January 2005, the Patriarch's annual Nativity message was not broadcast or televised. On 27 May 2007, he was replaced as Patriarch by Abune Dioskoros, with the support of the Eritrean government. Antonios remains under house arrest and strict surveillance and held without charge. He reportedly seldom receives visitors, including relatives, and has no telephone service. His removal at the behest of the Eritrean government was denounced by the other Oriental Orthodox Churches, who have refused to recognize Abune Dioskoros as Patriarch of Eritrea.
In July 2019, in an unprecedented move, bishops of the Holy Synod of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church excommunicated Abune Antonios for heresy. The letter from five of the six most senior Eritrean bishops declared that "His name should never be mentioned and remembered and those who do so will be punished severely." Although the Patriarch was expelled from being a member of the church, the bishops promised he could still live in a church building. Since 2007, Abune Antonios has been considered by the United States to be a religious prisoner of conscience. The president of the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches condemned the excommunication.