Mount Athos
The “Holy Mountain” of Athos in northeastern Greece is the spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church. For the past thousand years, a community of Eastern Orthodox monks has dwelled here, in search of a closer connection with God. The monks strive to live simple lives as they defend of intruding modernity. They wear black as a symbol of their death to the outside world.
For almost as long as there have been monks here, women have been barred – considered a distraction and undue competition for the Virgin Mary, the patron saint. The ban extends even to female animals – with the single exception of cats which even the most determined defenders of the faith have learned to leave alone.
There are few paved roads, just a handful of trucks and buses, and no electricity pylons or telegraph poles. Beaches that any travel brochure would praise of, have not been corrupted by beach bars or sunbathers. There are no hotels, no television and no swimming.
Everybody, whether orthodox or not, must obtain a special permit to enter the Athos peninsula. Permits are issued daily for 10 non-orthodox visitors and 100 orthodox visitors. They are valid for only a four-day visit and for specific dates.
Staying at a monastery is not an easy escape from the secular world. The monks follow the Julian calendar, which is a fortnight behind the rest of the world. Each morning I was woken at 3 a.m. to join the monks for Morning Prayer. Only much later the breakfast is served: cheese, bread, olives, beans and even a glass of wine, but not before a monk reads from scripture and delivers a short homily.
The outside world creeps ever closer. The difficult access and the high monasteries walls once built against pirates seemed to keep them back in time, but now the modern world began to penetrate on cell phone signals and internet connections. Yet the brotherhood proceeds as it always has: turned ever inward and glorying in the unseen.
Mount Athos
The “Holy Mountain” of Athos in northeastern Greece is the spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox Church. For the past thousand years, a community of Eastern Orthodox monks has dwelled here, in search of a closer connection with God. The monks strive to live simple lives as they defend of intruding modernity. They wear black as a symbol of their death to the outside world.
For almost as long as there have been monks here, women have been barred – considered a distraction and undue competition for the Virgin Mary, the patron saint. The ban extends even to female animals – with the single exception of cats which even the most determined defenders of the faith have learned to leave alone.
There are few paved roads, just a handful of trucks and buses, and no electricity pylons or telegraph poles. Beaches that any travel brochure would praise of, have not been corrupted by beach bars or sunbathers. There are no hotels, no television and no swimming.
Everybody, whether orthodox or not, must obtain a special permit to enter the Athos peninsula. Permits are issued daily for 10 non-orthodox visitors and 100 orthodox visitors. They are valid for only a four-day visit and for specific dates.
Staying at a monastery is not an easy escape from the secular world. The monks follow the Julian calendar, which is a fortnight behind the rest of the world. Each morning I was woken at 3 a.m. to join the monks for Morning Prayer. Only much later the breakfast is served: cheese, bread, olives, beans and even a glass of wine, but not before a monk reads from scripture and delivers a short homily.
The outside world creeps ever closer. The difficult access and the high monasteries walls once built against pirates seemed to keep them back in time, but now the modern world began to penetrate on cell phone signals and internet connections. Yet the brotherhood proceeds as it always has: turned ever inward and glorying in the unseen.
