MouNT ATHas

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 MouNT ATHos
RENEWAL IN PARADISE

by
Graham Speake

Yale University Press

New Haven and London
 for Tony

Copyright© by Yale University Press 2002

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any
form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written per-
mission from the publishers.

Designed by Beatrix Mcintyre

Set in Ehrhardt Mt
Printed in Singapore

Cover illustration: The monastery of Simonopetra seen from the west © Graham
Speake. Endpapers: (front) The monastery of Xenophontos; (back) The
monastery of Koutloumousiou. Both were drawn by the Russian pilgrim Vasily
Barsky in 1744 on his second visit to the Mountain.

ISBN o 300 093535

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002112133

 CONTENTS

Preface vn
Acknowledgements vm
Introduction I
I. Athos BC 9
2. The Garden of the Mother of God I7
3· Byzantine Athos 37
4· Palaiologan Athos 7I
5· Ottoman Athos I I3
6. Twentieth-Century Athos I 57
7· Athos Today: For the Monk I95
8. Athos Today: For the Pilgrim 233
Epilogue 265
Notes 268
Select Bibliography 279
Glossary 283
Index 285
Photographic Acknowledgements 295
The Mother of God as ephor ('overseer') of Athos, a modern icon
hugel y popular on the Mountain today (Bourazeri).
 PREFACE

F or many years I resisted the temptation to write a book such as this, just
as I resisted the temptation to become Orthodox. In the end I found
myself compelled to do both. I became Orthodox largely as a consequence of
the numerous visits that I had made to Mount Athos. My spiritual journey
into Orthodoxy was initially facilitated by the fathers of the monastery of
Vatopedi who are now my brothers. Since my reception it has been steered
by my spiritual father, Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia. Bishop Kallistos is the
closest approximation I know to an Athonite elder outside Athos and I feel
deeply honoured to be numbered among his many spiritual children. My debt
to him and to the Vatopedi fathers is incalculable. I wrote this book because
it seemed to me that there was a need for it. It is in no sense, I hasten to add,
a 'convert's confession': that will be a very different book, if indeed I ever
write it.
In writing this book, I have received generous assistance from the same
quarters. Bishop Kallistos has read the whole text and provided me with
numerous suggestions for its improvement. The fathers of Vatopedi, prob-
ably without realizing it, have contributed to it at every stage, and have pro-
vided the answers to many of my questions over the years. I am particularly
grateful for their assistance with Chapter 7, which I should not have been
able to write unaided. It goes without saying that any remaining imperfec-
tions are mine alone.
I have written this book for my friend Anthony Hazledine, who has
accompanied me on many memorable journeys to Athos. It is for him, and
others like him, who may not necessarily be academic or religious, but who
have spiritually inquiring minds and who share a desire to know something
more about the mysterious mountain of the monks, both its past and its pres-
ent. Athos remains one of the most fascinating places on earth. The renewal
that is currently taking place there makes it also one of the most challeng-
ing and dynamic. If in this book I succeed in conveying something of that
fascination and that challenge, then it will have been worth writing.

Graham Speake
Pentecost 200I
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

F or permission to quote from E. Amand de Mendieta's Mount Athos: The

Garden ofthe Panaghia I am grateful to Akademie Verlag GmbH, Berlin;
for permission to quote from the works of the late Philip Sherrard I am grate-
ful to his widow, Denise Harvey.
For assistance of various kinds in procuring illustrations I am indebted to
the Holy Community of Mount Athos, the Abbot and Fathers of Vatopedi,
Fr Ioustinos of Simonopetra, Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia and Mr John
Leatham of Athens.
Map by Andr s Bereznay: www. historyonmaps.com

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MOUNT ATHOS: RENEWAL IN PARADISE IX

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 INTRODUCTION

W hen Robert Byron stood on the peak of Athos at sunset one Septem-
ber evening in 1926, he claimed that to the east he could see not only
Lemnos but also the coast of Asia Minor beyond: 'the plains of Troy, whence
Tozer saw this platform of ours "towering up from the horizon, like a vast
spirit of the waters, when the rest of the peninsula is concealed below"'. To
the north he looked down on the coastline of Thrace stretching away to the
Dardanelles, 'with Turkey's remnant hovering in soft eternity'; to the west,
he saw the two other fingers of Chalkidiki and beyond them Mount Olym-
pus; to the south, the islands of Euboea and Skiathos (literally, the shadow
of Athos). But even he was forced to admit that 'the flat dome of St Sophia
rose only in the mind' .1 There is a tension between physical and spiritual
topography that sometimes stretches the limits of credulity.
If geography shapes the pattern of events, it dominates the history of
Greece. Consider the following natural configurations and the images they
bring to mind: the pass of Thermopylae, the island of Salamis, the island of
Sphakteria, the bay of Navarino, the volcanic peaks of the Meteora, the
mountains of Souli. It is largely thanks to geography that the flames of the
holy beacon that is Mount Athos have continued to burn so brightly to this
day. Our first definition of Athos must therefore be a geographical one.
Athos is a peninsula. The French word presqu 'ile is so much more
graphic-almost an island. Indeed Xerxes turned it into an island in 482 BC
when he cut a canal across the isthmus to save his ships from the rocks at the
southernmost point. The canal has long since silted up; but many people still
think of Athos as an island, perhaps because the only (legitimate) way to get
there is by sea. It has many of the characteristics of an island but it is in fact
part of the mainland of northern Greece, being the most easterly of the three
prehensile claws that Chalkidiki extends into the Aegean Sea.
From the isthmus in the north-west to Cape Akrathos in the south-east
the distance, as the eagle flies, is about 56 kilometres; that from the west coast
over the ridge to the Aegean Sea on the east is rarely more than eight kilo-
metres. The border between Athos and Greece is marked by a wall which
runs from coast to coast roughly eight kilometres south of the isthmus, at
the point where the land begins to climb. It continues to rise, steeply at first,
to densely wooded peaks of soo and 6oo metres. Then it levels off and
remains at approximately that height until a point no more than ten kilome-
tres short of the tip, when suddenly it rises dramatically to a majestic mar-
ble peak of 2030 metres before making its final plunge into the waves imme-
diately below. Few peaks of such relatively modest dimensions can have been
endowed with so spectacular a setting.
From physical geography we move to the anthropology of Athos, which
is the prime reason for embarking on its history. Athos is the spiritual capi-
tal of the Orthodox Christian world. Such awesome surroundings inevitably
result in divine associations and even in antiquity Athos was a holy moun-
tain, sacred to Zeus. For the last thousand years or so it has been dedicated
to the glorification of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos or Mother of God as
she is known to the Orthodox. Among Greeks, indeed among all Orthodox
Christians, Mount Athos is known simply as the Holy Mountain. Road signs
direct motorists to 'Agion Oros', even though there is no road to the Moun-
tain, and letters to the inhabitants must be so addressed.
Athos is a self-governing monastic enclave. All its permanent inhabitants
are monks, each of whom owes allegiance to one of the twenty ruling monas-
teries scattered over the peninsula. Not all the monks live in monasteries, but
only the monasteries may own land and property; and though there are many
smaller settlements and hermitages, all of them are dependencies of one or
another of the monasteries. The monasteries are called 'ruling' because
between them they govern the Mountain by means of a democratically
elected parliament (known as the Holy Community) to which each monastery
sends an elected representative. The Holy Community meets in Karyes, the
capital of Athos, a small town situated high up in the hills roughly in the mid-
dle of the peninsula. Karyes has a population of 300 or 400. Most of them
are monks, dressed uniformly in black from head to toe.
Athos is a male preserve. No woman may reside on the Mountain or even
set foot on its soil. All domestic animals must be male: only the birds and
wild animals (and evidently cats) are exempt from this ruling. The dedica-
tion to the Mother of God means that she alone is held to represent her sex,
and the monks believe that she herself issued the decree. They are not all
misogynists, but they regard the presence of women as a distraction from
their vocation. The exclusion of female animals apparently owes more to a
desire to avoid the inevitable interruptions that milking would cause to the
monastic routine than to any offence that might be given by their breeding,
although the official line given to monks has always been 'because you have
absolutely renounced all female beings'. 2
Athos is in Greece, but it is not Greek, it is Orthodox; more than that, it is
pan-Orthodox. The Greek government appoints a civil governor who with the
support of the Greek police is responsible for maintaining law and order. But
for all other purposes the monks govern themselves. A majority of the monas-
teries--seventeen of the surviving twenty-are Greek-speaking and mostly
peopled by Greeks. But there is one monastery for Russians, one for Serbs, and

2 INTRODUCTION
one for Bulgarians; and there are two sketes (dependent houses) reserved for
Romanian monks. In addition to these monks from the traditional Orthodox
heartlands, there are today monks from all over the world in most monasteries-
from Western Europe, the United States, Australia, even Peru. Throughout its
history Athos has been a supranational centre and at more than one stage Greeks
have formed a minority of the population. Unlike the Greek Church, which is
autocephalous (i.e. with its own archbishop as head), Athos falls directly under
the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Athos celebrated its millennium in 1963. It was then a thousand years since
the foundation of the first monastery, the Great Lavra, though there had been
communities of monks on the Mountain for some time before that. The cel-
ebrations included high-level visits, impressive publications, even the con-
struction of a road-the first on Athos-from the port of Daphne up to the
town of Karyes. But despite the junketing there was no hiding the fact that
the monasteries gave every appearance of being in terminal decline. Monks
were becoming noticeably older and fewer, buildings were falling into disre-
pair through lack of use, standards of spirituality were not all that they might
be, and there was serious talk of at least one monastery having to close.
The response to this disturbing situation was predictable, if-with hind-
sight-alarmist. As long ago as 1935 Michael Choukas concluded his per-
ceptive sociological study of the Holy Mountain with these words:

[The Mountain's] secularization looms imminent. And the next generation of

monks may be predestined by human providence to put the final stamp of fail-
ure upon the material remnants of this greatest of all human experiments of our
millennium-to close up shop and return to their homes and their worldly occu-
pations. To predict that this will happen within the next generation is haz-
ardous-not because it may not happen; but because it may occur sooner. 3

All the monasteries of Athos were originally founded as coenobia, that is com-
munities of monks living and working together and contributing any wealth
that they either brought with them or that they earned to the common purse.
In the late Byzantine period the so-called idiorrhythmic system was intro-
duced, allowing monks to retain their personal wealth and the profits from
any work that they might do. This made nonsense of the monastic vow of
poverty, though it served its purpose by attracting wealthy aristocrats to the
monasteries at a time when the future of the empire, and that of the Moun-
tain, hung in the balance and, in theory at least, it allowed for a greater meas-
ure of austerity than was available in the coenobia. Later, however, the system
began to be abused and Choukas feared that the idiorrhythmic system would
sweep through the whole Mountain, driving before it any remnants of true,
cenobitic monasticism. Happily his prediction was not fulfilled.
A more equivocal note was sounded by Philip Sherrard, an English con-
vert to Orthodoxy who knew and loved the Mountain as well as anyone from

INTRODUCTION 3
outside. In 1960 he estimated that the total number of monks was no more
than 3000 (in fact the total was then well below zooo):
This number continues to dwindle. New recruits to the monasteries each year are
few, firstly because in Greece itself a spirit hostile to the demands and purposes
of the monastic life continues largely to dominate both publicly and privately;
and secondly because the Greek state, for reasons not unconnected with that ten-
dency to destroy Athos as an Orthodox centre and to turn it into a purely Greek
concern, either directly prohibits or makes extremely difficult the admission of
probationers of non-Greek nationality, as, for instance, the Roumanians.
Whether this policy will have the effect it seems designed to promote, and Athos
be reduced to a kind of glorified Byzantine museum and a valuable tourist attrac-
tion--one eminent Greek politician has proposed that the monasteries be con-
verted into casinos-remains to be seen. 4

Most depressing of all were the comments of another English visitor,

John Julius Norwich, who wrote in 1966:
Athos is dying-and dying fast. In nearly every monastery the writing looms, all
too plainly, on the wall. We have suggested why this should be; we have even dis-
cussed what may happen when, probably within the lifetime of most readers, the
thousand-year history of the Holy Mountain comes to an end. What we have not
done is to make any proposals as to how the disaster may be averted. There are
none to make. The disease is incurable. There is no hope. 5

With hindsight we may commend the remarks of Constantine Cavarnos,

a Greek-American academic who visited the Mountain several times during
the 1950s. In the first of two books based on his visits, he wrote in 1959:
How to stop this unfortunate trend towards a decrease of the monastic popula-
tion of Athos, and to increase the number of monks there, is the biggest and most
vital problem that now concerns many Athonite monks. There are today about
two thousand monks living in the twenty Athonite monasteries and their depend-
encies, whereas at the beginning of the century there were nearly seven and a half
thousand. The problem, as the monks themselves see it, is not merely to increase
their number, but especially to increase the number of younger monks ...
Although serious, the problem is not one without parallel in the past, and it does
not cause the monks to think that the Mountain will soon cease to be a living real-
ity and become a mere library or museum ... they believe that this unique Pan-
Orthodox democracy of monks will continue to exist until the end of time. 6
Professor Cavarnos went on to report some practical ways of solving the
problem that were being put forward by the monks:
As to the measures that should be taken in order to reverse the present trend, they
[the monks] specify the following. First, steps should be taken to strengthen the piety
of men ... Secondly, the economic problem must be solved. The Greek government
must furnish regularly adequate financial compensation to the monasteries for the

4 INTRODUCTION
 estates it has expropriated ... Thirdly, bishops in Greece must stop taking monks from
Athos and employing them as deacons, priests, and preachers of their
dioceses ... Finally, Athonite monks, as well as friends of Athos, should strive to pro-
vide a better understanding and appreciation of the ideals of Athonite monasticism. 7

The fact that so many of these 'measures' have subsequently been realized
lends weight to the prophetic traditions of Athonite divines. In his later
book, written after another visit in 1965 and published in 1973, Cavarnos
returned to the same theme:
During the last four decades, there has been much speculation and concern about
the survival of monasticism on the Holy Mountain, prompted by (a) the reduc-
tion of the number of monks, (b) the anti-monastic spirit of our age, and (c) the
invasion of Athos by tourism ... Of the three dangers which I have discussed,
the first-the reduction in the number of monks-is regarded by the Athonites
as the most fearful. But these pious and determined men believe that they will
confront this danger, as well as the others, successfully. 8

What is especially commendable in Cavarnos's account is his description

of the then very recent changes at the monastery of Stavronikita. 9 He reports
that in 1968 the monastery had been forced to close 'because there were no
more monks there'. Later in the same year it reopened under new manage-
ment. Archimandrite Vasileios Gontikakis, a theology graduate of the Uni-
versity of Athens, was appointed abbot; a number of other devout monks
joined him and the monastery changed from the idiorrhythmic to the ceno-
bitic system. 'Thus the temporary closing down of the Monastery of
Stavronikita turned out to be not a disaster, but an opportunity for inaugu-
rating there a stricter mode of monasticism.' Cavarnos cannot have known
that the changes at Stavronikita were the first manifestation of a revival that
was to overtake the monasteries of Athos in the course of the following quar-
ter-century. The seeds of revival had been sown many years earlier in the
cells and hermitages in the most remote parts of the Mountain, although the
fruits were not to become apparent for some years to come. Describing this
revival is my first and principal motive for writing this book.
A second motive is that, although much has been written about various
aspects of the Holy Mountain, few authors to my knowledge have attempted
a complete history from earliest times to the present. The task has been made
more laborious and more rewarding as well as more necessary by the monas-
teries' ongoing publication of their archives. These archives represent a
uniquely valuable resource and include countless charters, chrysobulls and
other documents covering the entire period of Athonite monasticism from
the ninth century onwards. The information they provide extends way
beyond purely monastic or even ecclesiastical concerns and touches on polit-
ical, economic, legal, social and cultural matters. Their publication, in a sys-

INTRODUCTION 5
tematic and scholarly series initiated in Paris in 1937 by Gabriel Millet and
continued by Paul Lemerle, is an undertaking of immense historical impor-
tance which, when complete, will add immeasurably to our understanding
of the Orthodox world throughout the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Neither of these motives would be sufficient justification for the book if
Athos were not itself important. Athos matters to different people for dif-
ferent reasons. I shall select four areas of concern, all equally important.
The first concern must be the spiritual tradition. For more than a thousand
years Athos has functioned as the principal centre of Orthodox monasticism
and spirituality. At one time it is said to have sheltered 4o,ooo monks. The
Great Lavra alone has been the nursery of 26 patriarchs and more than 144
bishops. The monastery of Vatopedi has produced more than 44 recognized
saints. In the twentieth century there was a decline in numbers of monks, but
spiritual traditions were maintained, saints continued to emerge and, as Archi-
mandrite Gabriel (1886-1983), Abbot of Dionysiou for fifty years, has written,

The splendour and grandeur of the Holy Mountain is not to be judged by the
small or large number of monks who dwell on it. This fluctuation has occurred
many times during its thousand-year period of monastic life ... We Hagiorites
steadfastly believe that our holy abodes on Mount Athos will soon be filled with
monks ... We believe that the Mountain, by the Grace of God, will continue in
existence till the end of time. The piety of Orthodox people will always envelop
Athos, and souls beloved by God will never cease coming to it, because its spiri-
tuality will always have the power of attracting those who are heavy laden with
sin, and its holiness those who are pure in heart. 10

Fr Gabriel was just one of the most recent in an unbroken tradition of

holy men, scholars, teachers and ascetics that stretches back to the ninth cen-
tury. They are the men who have provided the Mountain with its life-blood
and its means of self-perpetuation. For Athonites are biologically incapable
of reproducing themselves: they cannot survive without an intake from the
world, and that intake will only present itself if there are enough men like
Fr Gabriel to draw them. That is why the current revival is so important. It
is in no sense a reform. It is simply yet another manifestation of the Moun-
tain regenerating itself in the way that it has always done-from within-
and attracting new blood that will enable it not just to survive but to shine
with the mystical radiance of an authentic icon.
Secondly, Athos is important for historical reasons. From the moment of
its inauguration by the emperor Constantine the Great in 330, the Byzantine
empire was a uniquely God-centred institution. However reduced his cir-
cumstances might become, the emperor remained God's viceroy on earth,
supreme among all other Christian princes, anointed by God, acknowledged
by all Orthodox patriarchs, bishops and peoples. Although his territories
might be threatened and even occupied by the enemy, God's authority would

6 INTRODUCTION
soon be restored over the full extent of the ancient Roman empire. This
remained the confident belief of all Byzantines, one of the most devoutly
religious people of all times. The patriarch and other members of the hier-
archy enjoyed enormous prestige and great wealth, but oddly enough it was
individual monks and holy men who were far more influential in Byzantine
society in general, and if there was a conflict between the monks and the bish-
ops it was the monks who commanded the support of the people. This was
one reason why emperors were so generous with their monastic endowments,
and it accounted for the great wealth and power the monasteries acquired.
As the principal monastic survivor of the turmoil created by the Fourth
Crusade and the Latin empire of 1204-61, Athos emerged in a position of
great strength. The monks were able to influence political affairs, dominate
religious debate, and play an unprecedented part in the administration of the
Church. This was perhaps their most glorious period in terms of worldly
power. After the fall of the empire in 1453 they acquired a new role: they
became the guardians of Hellenism. During the long centuries of Ottoman
rule, it was largely the monasteries that kept alive the spirit of the Greeks as
a people, reminding them of their heritage, preserving the traditions of
Orthodoxy, and in due course fostering the idea of nationalism. Orthodoxy
and Hellenism had long been inextricably intertwined and it is impossible to
separate the secular aspect from the religious in this development. But it is
perhaps true to say that after the Greek War of Independence in 1821-32
and the eventual disintegration of the Ottoman empire in 1922 the monas-
teries were temporarily bereft of part of their raison d'etre. It was as if they
suddenly had to cast around for a new role and the search for that role may
be part of the explanation for the decline in the number of monks in the
half-century following the liberation of northern Greece in 1912.
The third area in which Athos is of supreme importance is its cultural her-
itage-the buildings themselves and what they contain. Architecturally the
monasteries are an amalgam. They represent an accumulation of structures of
all periods from the tenth century to the present day, when once again they
are being forced to expand in order to accommodate the new influx of monks.
Among the earliest surviving structures are the principal churches of some of
the first monasteries such as the Great Lavra, Vatopedi and Iviron and the
church of the Protaton in Karyes, the only basilica on the Mountain, all of
which date (at least in part) from the tenth century. Apart from some early for-
tifications and towers, not much else survives from the Byzantine period. But
the cells and other monastic buildings scattered over the peninsula represent
by far the best witness we have to domestic architecture in Greece during the
Ottoman period, with an interesting admixture of Russian, Serbian, Bulgar-
ian, Romanian and Georgian styles thrown in.
All Orthodox churches are decorated in an attempt to make them wor-
thy symbols of heaven on earth, and the decoration of Athonite churches is

INTRODUCTION 7
eminently suited to the earthly paradise which the monks are proud to
inhabit. Some of the best Byzantine artists and craftsmen were attracted to
Athos, and glorious examples of their work may still be admired in many of
the monasteries. In addition to the frescos which colour the walls, roofs and
domes of many a church and refectory, there are priceless collections of
icons, many of them believed to possess miracle-working properties. Icon-
painting is a tradition still practised by monks today and more than one skete
houses a school of painting. As well as icons, all monasteries have collections
of relics-mostly bones of the saints, fragments of the 'True Cross', and
other items associated with the early Church. Many of these are preserved
in elaborate reliquaries and put on display for pilgrims to venerate. Most
monasteries also have rich and important collections of medieval and later
manuscripts. The majority of these are liturgical, biblical or patristic texts,
some of them resplendent with fine illuminations, but an important minor-
ity are of ancient pagan literature. Libraries and treasuries often house other
valuable items such as jewelled book-covers, vessels of silver and gold,
embroidered vestments, mosaic icons, and countless gifts from benefactors
which together comprise the celebrated wealth of the Athonite houses.
Finally, as a fourth area of special importance, there is the natural environ-
ment. Due to its varied topography, geology and climate, the peninsula is home
to a wide range of flora, including a number of endemic species on the peak
itself. As a result of the exclusion of female domestic animals and the conse-
quent absence of flocks, the slopes of the Mountain have been very little grazed
and therefore retain much of their natural vegetation. Most impressive to the
visitor is the forest cover which, despite numerous fires, extends over more than
90 per cent of the Mountain. In the north the commonest tree is the Aleppo
pine, but in the uplands of the central region there is an extensive zone of
deciduous broadleaved forest in which the Spanish chestnut predominates. In
springtime the visitor will also be struck by the profusion of wild flowers which
seem to carpet every available slope and meadow. If he is lucky, he may be awak-
ened by the sound of jackals howling at night, and though the last wolves are
said to have died out there have been reports of their reintroduction.
In short, the environment of Athos in the twenty-first century is practi-
cally unchanged since the first monks arrived in the ninth. It is perhaps the
nearest thing to a natural landscape anywhere in southern Europe. It goes
without saying that it is almost indescribably beautiful and naturally con-
ducive to religious activity. Conservationists have toured the peninsula and
have made the monks aware of the value and the fragility of their natural
surroundings. The survival of this unique environment depends upon pre-
serving the seclusion of the Holy Mountain, which remains inviolate after
more than a thousand years of monkish activity. This is perhaps the most
important of all the areas of concern, since should it ever be lost the rest will
surely perish with it. And such an eventuality is unthinkable.

8 INTRODUCTION
 I

ATHOS BC

A thos is an extraordinary place. Its unusual physiognomy is conducive to

religious activity, and it is largely in that context that we think of it today.
But its pre-Christian past helps to explain something of the numinous quali-
ty that the place already possessed before the arrival of the monks. In fact, for
its size and its relative remoteness from the centres of contemporary cultural
activity Athos has a pagan past of quite exceptional importance. Three par-
ticular episodes merit narration, each connected with a momentous event in
Greek history, each the direct result of the peninsula's geography.

THE TROJAN wAR

Robert Byron may have been blessed with exceptional eyesight, or perhaps
with a creative imagination, when he described what he could see from the
peak of Athos on that evening in 1926 (see above, p. 1), but it is significant
that the first two places he mentioned were Lemnos and the plains of Troy.
The site of Troy had been positively identified by Heinrich Schliemann
some fifty years earlier, and there was no more celebrated episode in the
annals of prehistory than the capture of Troy by the Greeks after a ten-year
siege. News of the victory was relayed almost instantly to Argos, where
Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon's faithless queen, was waiting to proclaim the
joyful tidings to her people. How did she know so quickly, what messenger
could come so fast? Aeschylus explains it thus:
Hephaestus, launching a fine flame from Ida,
Beacon forwarding beacon, despatch-riders of fire,
Ida relayed to Hermes' cliff in Lemnos
And the great glow from the island was taken over third
By the height of Athos that belongs to Zeus,
And towering then to straddle over the sea ...
Blazing and bounding till it reached at length
The Arachnaean steep, our neighbouring heights;
And leaps in the latter end on the roof of the sons of Atreus
Issue and image of the fire on Ida ...
Such is the proof I offer you, the sign
My husband sent me out of Troy. 1
 Scholars argue over the precise location of some of the beacons, but the
principle is perfectly sound. Beacons were lit on hilltops all over England in
1988 to commemorate the manner in which news of the defeat of the
Spanish Armada had been signalled 400 years earlier. Athos was one of the
best-known eminences in the Aegean and a landmark familiar to all sailors.
Even the Argonauts, the most dauntless of all mythology's mariners, were
gratified to catch sight of it as they struck out across the open sea towards
the Hellespont, and the poet comments on the famous shadow which at sun-
set the mountain casts as far as the island of Lemnos, a distance of some
fifty miles. 2 Athos was therefore well placed to join the chain of beacons
between Troy and Argos that night.

THE PERSIAN wARS

The next time that the Greeks became involved in a major foreign war
occurred early in the fifth century BC when they were twice invaded by the
Persians. On each occasion Athos played a prominent role.
By the end of the sixth century the Persians were by far the strongest
power in the eastern Mediterranean and had established their rule from
the north Aegean as far as Egypt and India. In 492 BC a fleet under the
command of Mardonius, son-in-law of King Darius, was dispatched to
re-establish Persian authority over Thrace and Macedonia, which had
supported a recent rebellion. While a land army crossed the Hellespont and
began its march through Thrace, the fleet overran the island of Thasos and
then turned its attention to the mainland. Herodotus tells the story:
From Thasos the fleet stood across to the mainland and proceeded along the
coast to Acanthus, and from there attempted to double Athos; but before they
were round this promontory, they were caught by a violent northerly gale, which
proved too much for the ships to cope with. A great many of them were driven
ashore on Athos and smashed up--indeed, report says that something like three
hundred were wrecked, and over twenty thousand men lost their lives. The sea
in the neighbourhood of Athos is full of man-eating monsters, so that those of
the ships' companies who were not dashed to pieces on the rocks, were seized and
devoured. Others, unable to swim, were drowned; others, again, died of cold. 3

The rocks are still there off the southern tip of the peninsula for all to see.
As for the man-easting monsters, Athos has seen stranger things in its time.
Undeterred, the Persians continued with their invasion, only to be driven
back into the sea by the Athenians when they landed at Marathon in 490 BC.
Ten years later they were ready to try again. As before, the invasion was
planned by both land and sea, but this time Xerxes, who had succeeded to

10 ATHOS BC
I The isthmus of Athos from the south-west. Xerxes' canal ran close to the line of the
modern road.

the throne of his father Darius, decided to cut a canal through the isthmus
of Athos rather than risk his fleet on the rocks at the southern point. This
immense operation took three years to complete, with labour provided by
the inhabitants of Athos as well as by the soldiers of the Persian army based
in the Thracian Chersonese. Herodotus breaks off at this point to give an
engaging description of the peninsula. 'Everyone knows Mount Athos', he
writes,
that lofty promontory running far out into the sea. People live on it, and where
the high land ends on the landward side it forms a sort of isthmus with a neck
about a mile and a half wide, all of which is level, except for a few low hills, right
across from the coast by Acanthus to the other side near Torone. On this isthmus
to the north of the high ground stands the Greek town of Sane, and south of it,
on Athos itself, are Dium, Olophyxus, Acrothoon, Thyssus, and Cleonae-the
inhabitants of which Xerxes now proposed to turn into islanders. 4

Herodotus gives a detailed description of how the canal was dug and
concludes that the enterprise was primarily intended as propaganda to
demonstrate the extent of Persian power. Whatever the motive for building
the canal, the fleet escaped the rocks of Athas this time and the Persians
went on to sack the Athenian Acropolis. But their triumph was short-lived .
Their ships came to grief in the narrows off Salamis, and their army was

ATHOS BC II
routed at Plataea in 479 BC. The Persian threat had been decisively beaten
off and Greece was free to enjoy a cultural golden age.
Xerxes' enterprise aroused the curiosity of a number of eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century travellers and surveyors. The Compte de Choiseul-
Gouffier, subsequently French ambassador to the Sublime Porte and Elgin's
rival for possession of the Parthenon marbles, was on the scene in 1776 and
published a description of the canal together with a map. 5 Then the military
surveyor William Martin Leake examined the site after his tour of the Athos
peninsula in October-November 1806. Leake had a professional concern
with the canal's military potential and after a detailed description conclud-
ed that 'it might ... , without much labour, be renewed; and there can be no
doubt that it would be useful to the navigation of the Aegean'. 6 In 1838
another British officer, Lieutenant T. Spratt R.N. of H.M.S. Beacon was
detailed to survey it and published his results, again with a map, in 1847. 7
And in 1901 yet another survey was conducted and published, together with
another map, by A. Struck. 8
Perhaps surprisingly, it was to be ninety years before modern archaeo-
logical techniques were applied to the canal. In 1991-2 a topographical
survey and various geophysical investigations were carried out under the
auspices of the British School at Athens and the somewhat inconclusive
results were published in 1994-6.9 More positive results were claimed by a
team of Greek scientists who used seismic resistivity techniques to establish
the existence of a substantial channel which they have calculated to be 65
feet wide at its base, 114 feet broad at the top, and up to 47 feet deep. The
depth of the water was probably between seven and ten feet, which would
have allowed two unladen triremes to pass through the canal abreast. 10 It
begins to look as if there may indeed be detectable traces of what the British
excavator B.S.J. Isserlin has called 'not only the most impressive surviving
monument of Persia's short-lived imperial presence in Europe, but also one
of the most important pieces of ancient marine communication engineering
anywhere' .11
And the evidence of local tradition, which is often more graphic and
more colourful than that of the spade or the sledge-hammer, should not be
ignored. Joice Loch, an Australian who lived in the Byzantine tower at
Prosphori (now Ouranopolis) from 1928 until her death in 1982, records in
her autobiography that in the 1920s caiques were still being hauled across
the narrowest part of the isthmus on wooden rollers by teams of bullocks,
as had been the custom, she says, from before the time of Xerxes. 12 If there
was indeed a canal there, those bullocks would surely be following its route.

12 ATHOS BC
 THE CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

It was ostensibly to avenge the sack of Athens 1 so years earlier that in 334
BC Alexander III of Macedon set out to conquer the Persian empire. He
succeeded in his ambition and went on to become master of the known
world, taking Greek culture as far as Upper Egypt and Central Asia.
Megalomaniac he may have been, but no Greek has equalled his achieve-
ment before or since. Pandering to the general's vanity and confident in his
own ideas and skill, the young architect Dinocrates came up with an equal-
ly astonishing scheme to commemorate the conquests and reflect
Alexander's scarcely concealed pretensions to divinity. What Dinocrates
proposed was nothing less than the transformation of the whole of Mount
Athos into a monumental sculpture of the king. With his left hand he would
embrace the walls of a very extensive city, with his right a bowl overflowing
with water channelled from all the rivers that spring from that mountain.
The reaction of Alexander, as reported by the Roman architect
Vitruvius writing more than 300 years later, was entirely pragmatic. The
scheme was a bold one; but could the mountain grow enough corn to feed
the population of such a city? Dinocrates was forced to admit that the ter-
rain was too mountainous for the plough and that supplies of corn would
have to be imported. The king then congratulated the young architect on his
originality but quietly dismissed the idea on practical grounds:
I perceive that if anyone leads a colony to that place, his judgment will be
blamed. For just as a child when born, if it lacks the nurse's milk cannot be fed,
nor led up the staircase of growing life, so a city without cornfields and their pro-
duce abounding within its ramparts, cannot grow, nor become populous without
abundance of food, nor maintain its people without a supply. Therefore, just as
I think your planning worthy of approval, so, in my judgement, the site is worthy
of disapproval. 13

However the young architect was not laughed out of court and his services
were retained for other projects that were even dearer to the heart of the
king-first (according to Vitruvius), the design of the new city of
Alexandria in Egypt and later (according to Plutarch), the fantastically
grandiose tomb of Alexander's adored friend Hephaestion in Babylon. 14 As
for Athos, 'let the mountain stand as it is', Alexander is said to have
declared; 'it is sufficient that another king perpetuated his arrogance by hav-
ing a canal cut through it. >~s
Thus Mount Athos, which would ultimately have a very different com-
memorative role, was spared this proposed assault on its craggy features. The
hubristic fantasy of Dinocrates was also condemned by the Renaissance archi-
tect Leon Battista Alberti in his influential study of Vitruvius, written in

ATHOS BC 13
I452. In fact he criticizes it twice, the first time for purely practical reasons:
In choosing the region it will be proper to have it such, that the inhabitants may
find it convenient in all respects, both as to its natural properties, and as to the
neighbourhood and its correspondence with the rest of mankind ... For this rea-
son, more than any other, Alexander was perfectly in the right in not building a
city upon Mount Athos (though the invention and design of the architect
Policrates [sic] must needs have been wonderful) because the inhabitants could
never have been well supplied with conveniences. 16
Later in the same work Alberti attacks the plan again-for lacking a sense
of proportion, for contravening nature, and for being plain unnecessary:
What the hand or wit of man can add to the region, either of beauty or dignity,
is hardly discoverable; unless we would give in to those miraculous and supersti-
tious accounts which we read of some works. Nor are the undertakers of such
works blamed by prudent men, if their designs answer any great conveniency;
but if they take pains to do what there was no necessity for, they are justly denied
the praise they hunt after. For who would be so daring as to undertake, like
Stasicrates (according to Plutarch) or Dinocrates (according to Vitruvius) to
make Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, and in one of the hands to build
a city big enough to contain ten thousand men? ... But let us leave it to mighty
kings to be delighted with such undertakings: let them join sea to sea by cutting
the land between them: let them level hills: let them make new islands, or join old
ones to the continent: let them put it out of the power of any others to imitate
them, and so make their names memorable to posterity: still all their vast works
will be commended not so much in proportion to their greatness as their use. 17

Alberti's strictures however did nothing to discourage later artists from

depicting a realization of the scheme in order to appeal to the vanity of their
patrons or demonstrate their own antiquarian learning. Thus Pietro da
Cortona in about I655 portrayed himself kneeling before Pope Alexander
VII together with Dinocrates, who directs attention to the anthropomorphic
mountain as if to commend the new pope's propitious choice of name and
his ambition to be remembered as Rome's greatest builder. In his Sketch of
Historical Architecture (I 72 I), the Baroque architect Johann Bernard Fischer
von Erlach included a dramatic representation of the Athonite colossus
with fine detailing of the imagined city and the flowing streams. And in
I796 a blatantly political statement by the French artist Pierre-Henri de
Valenciennes shows a tranquil Arcadian pastoral scene in the foreground
under the watchful eye of the monumental Alexander, who represents the
benign but immutable authority of the republican state in the background.
The irony is that Alexander, epitome of the ruthlessly autocratic monarch,
had now become an icon of republican virtues for the delectation of sup-
porters of the French Revolution. 18
No such volte-face took place in the staunchly royalist waters of the

14 ATHOS BC
z Moun! Athos Carved as a Monument to Alexander the Great by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (qg6), a
recreation of the scheme of Dinocrates made during the Revolutionary period in France.

north Aegean, infested as they are thought to be by man-eating Gorgons

(can they be the same monsters that are referred to by Herodotus?).
According to the folklorists, these creatures usually surface on Saturday
nights in particularly stormy seas and, grasping the stern of a caique in dis-
tress, ask the captain, 'Is King Alexander living?' To this question he must
reply, 'He lives and reigns and keeps the world at peace.' Provided the cor-
rect response is given, the Gorgon will disappear and the storm will subside.
But if the captain is so foolish as to reply that the king is dead, the ship will
invariably be lost with all hands. No hero from antiquity is more celebrated
in modern Greek folklore than Alexander the Great. 19

THE END OF ANTIQUITY

We have observed Mount Athos implicated in or associated with three of

the most heroic episodes in ancient history- the Trojan War, the defeat of
Persia, and the conquests of Alexander the Great. Such associations are the
life-blood of legend, though none of these associations would have come
about were it not for the mountain's remarkable geography. It is also worth
remarking at this point that by the first centuries AD the inhabitants of
Athos had acquired a reputation for longevity, the reason for which may or
may not be related to the mountain's geography. 20 However it came about,
the reputation is well deserved, as is borne out by the experience of many of
its latter-day residents.
Given its history, and the fact that we know of the existence of at least

ATHOS BC 15
five cities on the shores of the peninsula in antiquity, it is perhaps surpris-
ing that so little of its pre-Christian past survives. The site of none of them
is known for certain. 21 And apart from a very few fragments of ancient
masonry or sculpture reused in the walls or preserved in the treasuries of
one or two of the monasteries, nothing of any substance has come to light.
But then archaeology is officially forbidden on Athos; monks, if they are not
positively prejudiced against it, take very little interest in the pagan past of
their present surroundings; and if any casual find is ever made, the chances
of its becoming widely known are remote.
Nor is the fate of those ancient cities recorded. It must be assumed, how-
ever, that by late antiquity they had become depopulated. Their citizens
may have sailed away in search of more fertile land elsewhere, or they may
have succumbed to some deadly plague, or they may simply have faded away
like old soldiers. The one thing that seems certain is that they were not driv-
en away by enemy action or by any occupying force. There is nothing to sug-
gest that when the first monks arrived they had to win the land by conquest
or displace an existing population. It seems that they found a deserted
peninsula, suitable in every respect for the purpose they had in mind. The
President of the Immortals had ended his sport with the mountain and gra-
ciously surrendered his seat to the Holy Mother of God.

16 ATHOS BC
 2

THE GARDEN OF THE MoTHER OF GoD

A visit to Mount Athos requires careful preparation. The pilgrim-and

every visitor is by definition a pilgrim-must prepare himself not
only materially and physically but also intellectually and spiritually. For the
journey he is about to make is no ordinary pilgrimage, no mere passage
through time and space, but a journey to another world. He must prepare
himself to leave this world and to enter a world where every stone breathes
prayers, a world where he will experience a foretaste of paradise, a world
known to its inhabitants as the Garden of the Mother of God. It will be
helpful if the reader too makes these preparations, for they will help him or
her (and readers, unlike pilgrims, may be of either sex) to acquire the intel-
lectual agility required to enter into the Athonite mentalite. On Athos things
are not always what they seem to be, and people do not always think or
behave in the way you expect them to. A different set of assumptions needs
to be applied. Facts that appear to be black and white in the world sudden-
ly acquire many different hues on the Mountain. Conversely, notions and
beliefs that are subjected to endless scrutiny or uncertainty in the world may
be accepted as gospel by Athonites.lt does not mean that they are dement-
ed or brain-washed or naive: they simply do things differently there.

THE VISIT OF THE VIRGIN MARY TO ATHOS

According to Athonite tradition, after the death of Jesus the Virgin Mary
accepted an invitation to visit Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha,
who was ministering to the Church in Cyprus as the bishop of Kition. In
the course of the voyage her ship was blown off course, and when it finally
came to land, it was on the east coast of Mount Athos, near where the
monastery of Iviron stands today. There was then a pagan temple there, and
an oracle of Apollo. She went ashore, and immediately all the idols cried out
and called on the people living roundabout to go and meet the Holy Mother
of God. The people abandoned their pagan practices and were converted to
Christianity. The Virgin for her part was so enchanted with what she found
that she fell on her knees and besought her Son to grant her the land on
which she knelt as her personal domain. Her prayer was granted and before
she departed she announced that the Mountain was hers and blessed Athos
and all its residents.
The conversion of the inhabitants reminds us that in antiquity Athos
was not a deserted land. Another tradition relates that the pagan cities were
in time depopulated, by divine providence and through the intercession of
the Mother of God, to make way for the arrival of the monks. This process
became a reality in the fourth century when, according to tradition, the
Christian emperor Constantine the Great founded three great churches on
the Mountain, on sites that are now occupied by the monasteries of lviron
and Vatopedi and the church of the Protaton in Karyes. 1 Constantine was
indeed a great church builder, but sadly no traces have come to light on
Athos to confirm his activity there.
Ever since the arrival of the first monks the Virgin is believed to have con-
tinued to visit the Mountain and reveal herself as its patron and protector. Her
words to St Peter the Athonite, one of the first hermits known by name to be
living on Athos in the ninth century, are recorded by St Gregory Palamas:

In Europe there is a mountain, very high and very beautiful, which extends
towards the south and very deeply into the sea. This is the mountain that I have
chosen out of all the earth, and I have decided to make of it the country of the
monastic order. I have consecrated it to be henceforth my dwelling: this is why
people will call it the 'Holy Mountain'. All who shall come to live there after hav-
ing decided to fight the battle against the common enemy of the human race will
find me at their side throughout their lives. I will be their invincible aid, I will
teach them what they must do and what they must avoid. I myself shall be their
tutor, their physician, their nurse. I shall take care to give them both food and the
care that their bodies require, and that which is necessary for their souls, to
inspire and invigorate them, so they depart not from virtue. And all who finish
their lives on this mountain in a spirit of love for God and repentance, I prom-
ise to recommend to my Son and God that He accord them complete remission
of their sins. 2

This declaration by the Mother of God provides every Athonite with his
raison d'etre. The Mountain is her garden and she is ever present in it. She
is the archetype of monasticism, the paradigm of Christian holiness, the
abbess of the whole Mountain, every monk's guide to the Kingdom of
Heaven. Her role is symbolized in the famous nineteenth-century Russian
image that portrays her dressed as an abbess, complete with purple cloak
and pastoral staff, presiding on clouds of glory over Mount Athos. Every
monk is deeply conscious of her presence and her protection. This is why
she occupies so exclusive and privileged a place on the Holy Mountain.

18 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 THE RoLE OF THE VIRGIN MARY IN ORTHODOXY

For all Orthodox Christians the Virgin Mary occupies a very special position
among the saints. 3 She is revered as the most exalted of God's creatures. In
the words of the Axion estin ('It is meet'), a hymn to the Virgin sung at the
Divine Liturgy and at other services, she is 'greater in honour than the
Cherubim, incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim, without corrup-
tion you gave birth to God the Word; truly the Mother of God, we magnify
you.' She is revered, venerated and honoured, but in no sense is she wor-
shipped. She was chosen as a virgin to be the Mother of God, but she her-
self did not become God, nor does she rank with the members of the Trinity.
Mary's name is frequently mentioned in the course of Orthodox church
services and she is generally referred to by her full title: 'Our most holy,
pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin
Mary'. This title incorporates the three principal epithets with which she is
endowed: Theotokos, meaning God-birthgiver, the Mother of God, a title
awarded to her by the Council of Ephesus (AD 431); Aeiparthenos, Ever-
Virgin, assigned by the Council of Constantinople (AD 553); and Panagia,
All-Holy, a title which was never dogmatically defined but is nevertheless
used by all Orthodox.
The title Theotokos is particularly important because it defines the rea-
son why Mary is honoured-because she is the Mother of God. She is
revered not in her own right, but because of her relationship with her Son;
veneration of her in this role is to be encouraged specifically because it pro-
vides a defence for the doctrine of her Son as 'the Word made flesh'. She
accepted this role of her own free will: 'Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
as you have spoken, so let it be' (Luke 1:38). She is therefore the model of
co-operation between God's purpose and human freedom, and a voluntary
participant in the mystery of the Incarnation. Bishop Kallistos quotes the
fourteenth-century theologian St Nicolas Cabasilas: 'The Incarnation was
not only the work of the Father, of His Power and His Spirit ... but it was
also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin ... Just as God became
incarnate voluntarily, so He wished that His Mother should bear Him freely
and with her full consent. ' 4 Just as Christ is regarded as the Second Adam,
who came into the world to reverse the effects of the first Adam's disobedi-
ence, so Mary is the Second Eve, who by her voluntary submission to the
will of God counteracts the first Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
The virginity of Mary is important because it acts as a pointer to the
uniqueness of her Son, and it does so in three distinct but closely connect-
ed ways. First, the absence of an earthly father underlines the divinity of the
Son: He is truly human, but He is not only human. He is of this world, but
He also transcends the world. He is at the same time both completely man

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 19

and perfect God. Secondly, the virginity of Mary demonstrates the fact that
the birth of Christ was the result not of sexual union between a man and a
woman but of divine initiative; it was, truly, literally and uniquely, an act of
God. Thirdly, it emphasizes the fact that the birth of Christ did not result
in the creation of a new person but rather the incarnation of the second per-
son of the Trinity, the already existing Son of God, who was and is since the
world began. It therefore reflects the eternal presence of the Son.
The Orthodox Church regularly refers to Mary as 'All-Holy' (Panagia)
and as 'pure' or 'spotless' (achrantos), but it has never proclaimed a doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception such as was defined by the Roman Catholic
Church in 1854. The Orthodox view is that such a doctrine is unnecessary
and unhelpful, since it would divorce Mary from the saints of the Old
Testament, the descendants of Adam, among whom, together with John
the Baptist, she is the greatest and the last representative. Similarly, the
Orthodox subscribe to the bodily Assumption of the Virgin and believe
that after her death she was taken up into heaven where she dwells, both
physically and spiritually, in eternal glory with her Son. For the Orthodox
the Virgin is 'the joy of all creation' (Liturgy of St Basil), 'the precious
treasure of the whole world' (St Cyril of Alexandria), 'the flower of the
human race and gate of heaven' (Dogmatikon in Tone One). And the feast
of the Dormition or 'Falling Asleep' of Mary on 15 August is celebrated
with great joy and intensity throughout the Orthodox world. But the
Assumption of Our Lady has never been affirmed as a dogma by the
Church.
The twentieth-century theologian of the Eastern Church Vladimir
Lossky summarizes the Orthodox view of the Virgin as follows:
The Mother of God was never a theme of the public preaching of the Apostles;
while Christ was preached on the housetops, and proclaimed for all to know in
an initiatory teaching addressed to the whole world, the mystery of his Mother
was revealed only to those who were within the Church ... It is not so much an
object of faith as a foundation of our hope, a fruit of faith, ripened in Tradition.
Let us therefore keep silence, and let us not try to dogmatize about the supreme
glory of the Mother of God. 5

As Bishop Kallistos has written, 'The doctrines of the Trinity and the
Incarnation have been proclaimed as dogmas, for they belong to the public
preaching of the Church; but the glorification of Our Lady belongs to the
Church's inner Tradition.' 6 Her role in the world, as the supreme offering
made by the human race to God, is perhaps best summed up in the words
of a hymn sung during the Great Vespers of Christmas:
What shall we offer thee, 0 Christ,
Who for our sakes hast appeared on earth as man?

20 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 Every creature made by thee offers thee thanks.
The angels offer thee a hymn; the heavens, a star;
The magi, gifts; the shepherds, their wonder;
The earth, its cave; the wilderness, a manger;
And we offer thee-a Virgin Mother.

THE RoLE oF THE VIRGIN MARY oN ATHos

On Athos the role of the Mother of God is no different from what it is in

the world, except that it is more sharply focused. If she is the Second Eve,
Athos is the Second Garden, her Garden, and she is everywhere present in
it, not only in spirit but in body too. Axion estin is not only the name of a
hymn sung at the Divine Liturgy. It is also the name of the most celebrated
icon on the Holy Mountain which is preserved in the sanctuary of the
church of the Protaton in Karyes. It is of course an icon of the Mother of
God, credited with miracle-working properties, and by tradition it dates
from the tenth century. Axion estin is also the name of one of the ferries
operating between Ouranopolis and the Athonite port of Daphne; as such,
it provides the pilgrim's first contact with the Mountain and serves to
remind him whose territory he is approaching.
The majority of the most important icons on Athos represent the
Mother of God. One such is the so-called Portaltissa, or Our Lady of the
Gate, at the monastery of lviron. It is said to have travelled to Athos of its
own accord during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Theophilos (829-42)
and to have arrived off Iviron in a pillar of fire. The monks, or rather the
hermit monk Gabriel whom the icon asked for by name, took it from the sea
and placed it in the katholikon (that is, the main church) of the monastery,
only to find next day that it had removed itself to a spot over the old
entrance gate of the monastery. They took it back to the church, and again
it repositioned itself over the gate. This happened three times, after which
the Virgin appeared in a vision to Fr Gabriel and told him that a special
chapel should be built for the icon next to the gate, 'for I have not come here
for you to guard me, but for me to guard you'. The chapel was duly built
and to this day it houses the icon, which is therefore known as Our Lady of
the Gate.
Another icon of the Mother of God said to date from the period of icon-
oclasm is the so-called Tricherousa, or Our Lady with Three Hands, at the
monastery of Chilandar which is dedicated to the Presentation of the
Virgin. This icon apparently belonged to the eighth-century theologian St
John of Damascus, whose hand was cut off by the Caliph when he mistak-
enly thought John was plotting against him. The mistake was discovered
and the hand restored, in gratitude for which John had a silver hand

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 21

 3 The A.rion estin icon of
the Mother of God, the
holiest ico n on Athos
(Protaton, K aryes).

attached to the icon. In the twelfth century the Tricherousa was given to St
Savvas, archbishop of Serbia and co-founder (with his father Stefan
Nemanya) of the monastery of Chilandar, though the icon itself did not
reach Athos until 1371. As at lviron, the monks placed it in the chancel of
the katholikon, where it remained until a dispute occurred over the election
of a new abbot. Then one morning the monks noticed that the icon had repo-
sitioned itself over the abbot's throne. They put it back in the chancel, and
again it removed itself to the throne. This happened three times, after which
a hermit told the monks that the Mother of God had appeared to him in a
vision and told him that this was her way of settling the dispute. From now
on she would take the role of abbot and the monks should elect only a deputy
abbot. And to this day the abbot's throne is occupied by the Tricherousa.
The most cherished sacred treasure at the monastery of Vatopedi is the
so-called Holy Zone, the girdle of the Mother of God, which is the only
surviving relic of her earthly life. Now in three pieces, it is made of camel's
hair, supposedly fashioned by the Virgin herself. At her Assumption she
gave it to St Thomas and it remained in Jerusalem until the fourth century,
when the emperor Arcadius removed it to Constantinople. Always prized as

22 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

4 The Virgin Hodegetria ('she who shows the way'), a twelfth-century mosaic icon from
Chilandar, traditionally associated with the foundation of the monastery in 1198.

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 23

5 This fine reliquary contains the holy girdle of the Mother of God. Its feast day, 13 September, is the
occasion for a major celebration at Vatopedi.

an agent of healing, it cured the empress Zoe, wife of Leo VI, and in grati-
tude she embroidered it with the gold thread that still adorns it today. After
further adventures in Bulgaria and Serbia the girdle was presented to
Vatopedi by the Serbian prince Lazarus I ( 1372-89) and since then has
resided in the sanctuary of the katholikon of the monastery. Over the years
it has performed many miracles, particularly in the case of barren women,
and it is still occasionally taken out into the world to heal the faithful.
Vatopedi alone has no fewer than eight other miracle-working icons, all
of them representations of the Virgin (Vimatarissa, Paramythia,
Esphagmeni, Antiphonitria, Eleousa, Elaiovrytissa, Pyrovolitheisa, and
Pantanassa). Each one has a miraculous legend attached to it dating from
some point in the monastery's 10oo-year history, and many of them contin-
ue to work miracles of healing to this day. The collection at Vatopedi is
especially large, but nearly every monastery has at least one or two such
icons: the Koukouzelissa at the Great Lavra, the Phoveraprostasia at
Koutloumousiou, the Gerontissa at Pantokrator, the Glykophilousa and
another Gerontissa at Philotheou, the Gorgoypekoos at Dochiariou, the
Myrovlitissa at Dionysiou, and many others.
Several monasteries are dedicated to the Virgin: Vatopedi and Philotheou

24 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

to the Annunciation; St Paul's to the Purification; Chilandar to the
Presentation of the Virgin; and Iviron to her Dormition. All these feasts are
celebrated with enthusiasm throughout Athos, none more so than that of the
Dormition (15 August). The church of the Protaton shares this dedication
with the monastery of Iviron, and since it is a public holiday in Greece, many
pilgrims converge on the Holy Mountain to celebrate the panegyri there.

THE ExcLUSION OF WoMEN oN ATHOS

In those days, we are told, Athos was visited by the Virgin. It became her
personal domain and the whole Mountain is dedicated to her glorification.
It is linked directly with the events and characters of the New Testament.
It is holy ground. But why then is it closed to all other women? Can it real-
ly be that the Pantanassa is so possessive a queen that she denies access to
her garden to all others of her sex? Many monks offer some such explana-
tion.' Indeed the icon of Our Lady Antiphonitria (which means 'she who
answers back') at Vatopedi is so called because when the empress Galla
Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great, is said to have visited the
monastery her family was building and prepared to enter the church, she
heard a voice from the icon saying: 'Stop! Come no closer; for another
queen than you reigns here.'
But the exclusion of women on Athos is in fact based on the time-
honoured principle of abaton (literally a 'no-go' area) which is common to
all monasteries, whether for men or for women, and which enables them, in
so far as they wish to enforce it, to close their doors to members of the oppo-
site sex. The abaton is by no means peculiar to Athos. Women were at first
excluded from Patmos by imperial chrysobull (a document bearing the
emperor's gold seal) when the monastery there was being built, but the ban
had to be rescinded when it proved impossible to recruit celibate construc-
tion workers. Meteora banned women from entering the monastic area in
the fourteenth century and other holy mountains facilitated the exclusion of
women from men's monasteries by allowing them to establish a house of
their own. In the case of Athos the principle is extended to cover the whole
Mountain, as if it were one huge monastery. Furthermore, it is an unwrit-
ten law. Legislation exists to prohibit eunuchs and beardless youths and
even female animals, but there is no ancient monastic rule or Byzantine law
that specifically excludes women from Athos. Such an exclusion order is
implied in certain legal documents, such as the typikon (charter) for the
Great Lavra of about 970 which states: 'You will not own any animal of the
female sex, for the purpose of doing any work which you require, because
you have absolutely renounced all female beings. ' 8 The typikon for Athos of

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 25

6 Mount Athos, its monasteries, their found ers and saints, surveyed by the Mother of God
and groups of archangels and apostles: a Romanian icon dated 1859 from the skete of
Prodromos (StJohn the Baptist).

1045 9 begins with the exclusion of eunuchs and beardless youths, presum-
ably because this rule had been flouted; and in another typikon of 1406 the
reason for it is given: 'a woman wearing masculine dress and pretending to
be a eunuch or beardless youth might dare to enter the monastery' .10 The
document of 1045 also remarks on the presence on the Mountain of domes-
tic animals-sheep, goats, even cows-despite earlier legislation banning

26 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

them. The reason for this too is given in the later source: so that the monks
may be pure in all respects and 'may not defile their eyes with the sight of
anything female' .11 Here again the exclusion of women is implied, but it is
never specifically stated. Presumably it was considered unnecessary to do so.
The principle of abaton was so well established, so widely understood and
so deeply respected that there was no need to spell it out. No one ever ques-
tioned it; and so it has (almost) always beenY

TALES OF EARLY FOUNDATIONS

There is no documentary evidence for any monastery prior to the founda-

tion of the first monastery, the Great Lavra, in AD 963, but, as usual on
Athos, legends abound. We have already noted the tradition of Constantine
the Great's activities at Iviron and Vatopedi and at the Protaton and the
story of Galla Placidia's visit to Vatopedi in the early fifth century. What are
we to make of these tales? Let us look at the traditions at Vatopedi.
According to the monks, the monastery was first built by the emperor
Constantine the Great (324-37), was subsequently destroyed by Julian the
Apostate (36o-3), and refounded by Theodosius the Great (379--95) as a
thank-offering for the miraculous rescue of his infant son Arcadius. The
story is told that Arcadius was shipwrecked off Athos, saved from drowning
by the Mother of God and found by the sailors in a bramble bush on the
shore. In gratitude for his son's delivery the emperor founded the monastery
on the spot where the child was found. The story also accounts for the
monastery's name, vatos meaning a bramble bush and paidi a child. To this
day the monks prefer the spelling Vatopaidi out of respect for the tradition
(as opposed to Vatopedi, from pedion which means a plain) and they revere
a holy well near the arsanas (landing stage) where they say the miracle
occurred. The water for this well is said to spring from another well which
is now in the sanctuary of the katholikon.
The same tradition goes on to relate that this monastery was in turn
destroyed by Syrian pirates in the early tenth century. In the course of the raid
the sacristan (vimataris), whose name was Savvas, concealed the so-called
cross of Constantine together with an icon of the Virgin and a candle beside
it inside a well. Savvas himself was taken prisoner and carried off to Crete.
After the liberation of Crete in 961 he regained his freedom and, now an old
man, returned to the monastery after an absence of seventy years.
Remembering the well, he instructed the younger monks to open it, and
inside they found the cross with the icon standing upright on the water and
the candle still burning beside it. The well is the one now under the sanctu-
ary of the katholikon. The cross to this day stands on the high altar. And the

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 27

icon, the miraculous Virgin of the Sacristan (Vimatarissa), with its inextin-
guishable light beside it, keeps a constant watch over the holiest part of the
monastery. Because these events took place at the time of the historical foun-
dation of the monastery (or refoundation, as the monks would have it) around
the year 972, the icon is also known as the Ktitorissa (from ktitor meaning
founder). The events are commemorated every Tuesday, when the Divine
Liturgy is celebrated in the katholikon (weekday liturgies are normally cele-
brated in one of the many smaller chapels scattered around the monastery).
What are we to make of stories like these? Similar tales are told by the
monks at many of the monasteries: that Karakalou was founded by the pagan
emperor Caracalla in the third century; Xeropotamou by the empress
Pulcheria and Esphigmenou by the emperor Theodosius II in the fifth centu-
ry; Xenophontos by a sixth-century St Xenophon, and so on. Furthermore,
as if to add credence to the myth, a portrait of the 'founder', labelled ktitor for
the avoidance of doubt, is generally included among the saints represented on
the walls of the monastery concerned. Earlier writers like F.W. Hasluck have
generally written off such stories as 'pious patriotism':

Athos, where miracles and wonders were (and doubtless are) seen almost daily by
fasting anchorites, is not a place where we should expect a critical spirit, and, now
that the beginnings of monastic life on the Mountain have been investigated, there
is less reason than ever to give credence to legends of foundations earlier than the
tenth century ... These and other such legends obviously spring partly from pious
credulity, partly from a desire to give one monastery or another exalted status. 13

Hasluck's judgement is perhaps a little harsh. In most instances he may be

right, but tradition does not usually manufacture itself out of thin air. It is often
created in order to provide an explanation for something that happened that
could not otherwise be explained. In the case of Vatopedi, it is quite likely that
the monastery stands on the site of one of the ancient cities of Athos. Some
fragments of ancient sculpture are built into the exterior walls of the katholikon
and others are preserved in various parts of the monastery. Recent investiga-
tions of the shape and layout of the courtyard have led architectural historians
to draw some highly tentative but potentially very interesting conclusions:
The general layout of this enclosure [the lower part of the courtyard of
Vatopedi] clearly echoes that of late Roman and early Byzantine fortifications, as
we learn from the numerous Kastra and Kastella of the Roman Frontiers. It is
fascinating to speculate on the existence, beneath the present-day monastery, of
such an earlier foundation; this would support the monastic tradition which
attributes the origins of Vatopedi to Theodosius the Great. 14
Perhaps it is wise to conclude with the monks themselves: 'Tradition and
history are interlaced, giving us the beauty of today's reality, which has been
handed down by the elders to the younger members continuously for more
than a thousand years. ' 15

28 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GARDEN

Because of its history and the unusual circumstances of its dedication to the
Mother of God for more than a thousand years, Athos embodies a unique
cultural landscape. This landscape cannot be described as entirely natural,
since even monks make some impact on their environment, but it is proba-
bly closer to being a natural landscape than any other area of comparable
size in the eastern Mediterranean. As such, it is of inestimable value to the
ecologist, before the results of any human activity are taken into account. A
number of factors have combined to create it. 16
The Mountain enjoys wide variety in both its relief and its geology.
From sea level south of the isthmus Megali Vigla rises sharply to a peak of
510 metres within 1.5 kilometres of the frontier, creating a natural barrier
against the outside world. This is followed by undulating hills that run
down the spine of the peninsula, gradually increasing in altitude until they
become a mountain range with heights of between 450 and 900 metres. At
the southern tip the range shoots up to a rocky eminence of 2033 metres
before plunging headlong into the sea. The relief is so dramatic that it is
perhaps a matter for some surprise that only 20 per cent of the area of the
peninsula is above 500 metres.
Geologically Athos, unlike its peninsular neighbours, is a continuation of
the Rhodope Mountains of western Bulgaria and contains both igneous and
metamorphic rocks. Much of the peninsula consists of granite, and there
are also bands of schist and gneiss in the central area, but the peak itself is
made of pale marble, stands of which are strikingly visible from the sea.
These are all highly durable rocks which are resistant to erosion and weath-
ering and provide an environment hospitable to dense vegetation. Despite
the durability of the rocks, however, the land has risen rapidly (by some 14
metres in the last 2500 years). This means that caves that were once hol-
lowed out by marine action now stand well clear of the water line and are
available for human occupation. It also means that the whole peninsula is an
area of maximum earthquake intensity. 17
Athos also develops its own micro-climate which gives considerable
variation according to the altitude. In the lower regions the climate is mild
and typically Mediterranean. As the height increases, so does the rainfall
and even the snow, which on the peak lies for some months into the sum-
mer. The whole peninsula is subject to strong winds from the north or
north-east which frequently result in stormy seas, and the climate on the
higher slopes is distinctly harsh.
This combination of relief, geology and climate, together with the gen-
eral inaccessibility of the region and the absence of destructive flocks of
sheep and goats, is conducive to the development of forest and woodland

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 29

7 The east coast of Athos from Stavronikita. The last rays of the setting sun illuminate the peak, which
for once is free of its customary cap of cloud.

and enables the Mountain to enjoy a dense and varied vegetation cover. As
a result, the forest cover, which includes maquis, extends to more than 90
per cent of the peninsula, and the landscape is astonishingly varied. Bare
hillsides, however, which characterize so much of the Greek landscape else-
where, are not a feature of the Holy Mountain.
As the land rises, so the vegetation changes and passes through a number
of zones. Above the coastal strip, where mosses predominate, there is first a
zone of broadleaved maquis consisting mainly of evergreen shrubs and small
trees. These include most commonly the strawberry tree or Arbutus, which
in autumn is hung with great clusters of cream-coloured flowers; the laurel
or bay, which flourishes particularly beside streams, where also oriental
plane, alder, and white willow are found; the kermes oak (Quercus coccifera)
and holm oak or Quercus ilex, and the wild olive. The cultivated olive and vine
are common in the immediate vicinity of monasteries; elsewhere their
appearance on crumbling terraces often indicates an abandoned grove or
orchard, dating from a time when there were more mouths to feed, now gen-
tly reverting to the wild. Other flowering trees at this level include the Judas
tree with its unmistakable splash of purple in early spring and the flowering
ash, which produces sprays of creamy-white flowers in May.
The next zone is occupied largely by the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis),

30 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

8 M ixed woodland on the slopes of the mountain itself near the skete of Lakkou.

which accounts for more than a quarter of the total forest cover. It is espe-
cially widespread in the north of the peninsula, perhaps because that area
has suffered more from forest fires, and there it more or less takes the place
of the broadleaved maquis found further south. The export of timber has
long provided the monks with a source of income; but while disciplined
forestry is entirely beneficial for the environment, overexploitation of the
reserves is not. 'Do not pick the flowers', warns a notice to pilgrims; 'this is
the Virgin's garden.' But the trees are just as much a part of the garden as
the flowers. Bishop Kallistos is fond of quoting the words of the late Fr
Amphilochios of Patmos (d. 1970 ): 'whoever does not love the trees, does not
love Christ.'
Above the Aleppo pine is a similar-sized zone of deciduous broadleaved
forest in which the sweet chestnut is dominant. Earlier admixtures of fir, black
pine and deciduous oaks are less common than they used to be as a result of
long-term coppicing, but in some parts these species survive, as does beech on
some north-west-facing slopes. Other trees found at this level include the lime,
aspen, hop hornbeam and several acers. There is also an endemic type of fir.
Finally, above 1500 metres, is the alpine zone of the peak itself. Here,
above the tree line, mosses again predominate, and there are a number of
endemic species. According to K . Ganiatsas, who has studied the vegetation

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 3I

9 Left: Vegetable gardens and cypress trees near the monastery of Zographou in the
northern part of the peninsula where gradients are less steep.

ro Above: Bees and olive trees make important contributions to the monks' economy.

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 33

I I The west coast from near Simonopetra. In April the Mountain blossoms but the higher

slopes are still streaked with snow.

and flora of the Mountain, 18 there are 35 plants that are endemic to Athos,
most of them found on the peak. This compares with only 82 for the whole
of the north Aegean (which of course includes Athos) and 206 for Crete.
The botanical names for the varieties peculiar to Athos are often quite
charming: Crocus athous and Viola athois are named after the Mountain
itself; others recall the names of monasteries or sketes such as Campanula
rupestris subsp. andrewsii var. lavrensis and a pink called Centaurea sanctae-
annae; Astragalus monachorum is called after the monks; and Campanula
rotundifolia subsp. sancta, a harebell, and A rmeria sancta, a thrift, are
reminders of the sanctity of the garden.
Wildflowers are one of the most arresting and memorable features of the
Athonite landscape at every level and in every season. Botanists tell us that
the flora is not as rich as elsewhere in Greece, but the depredations of flocks
and herbicides, not to mention human intervention, often create a contrary
impression. On Athos, especially in springtime, the profusion and richness
of the flowers can only support the belief that horticulture there is in good
hands. Bulbs, corms and tubers do particularly well, notably crocus,
anemone, cyclamen and fritillary, and as many as thirty different orchids have
been identified. Monks also seem to cultivate flowers and flowering shrubs
with a greater enthusiasm than most people in Greece, either because they
are more in tune with nature or because they simply have more leisure.

34 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 One might expect that so secluded an environment would provide the
ideal habitat for a wide variety of wild animals, but it seems that the fauna
of the Mountain are less interesting than the flora. It is unclear whether
there are still wolves. Certainly there were until recently; then came reports
that they were extinct, perhaps exterminated, then that they had been rein-
troduced. The same goes for red deer. Hunting is officially prohibited on
Athos, but that does not mean that it does not take place and both species
would represent an attractive bag. Other mammals roaming the Mountain
include jackal, wild boar, roe deer, fox, hare, red squirrel, badger, hedgehog,
tortoise and wild cat. Lizards are ubiquitous; snakes are said to abound, but
are less often seen; most commonly heard is the edible frog which frequents
the environs of many a monastery. The monk seal, however, is an endan-
gered species and is rarely seen. The bird population includes eagles,
hoopoes and some hawks, but around monasteries these are uncommon.
Swifts and swallows arrive with the spring, when the nocturnal vicinity is
also well nightingaled. The butterflies are out of this world.

ANOTHER WORLD

Despite a climate that is at times harsh, vegetation that is often impenetra-

ble and rock formations that challenge the most experienced of climbers,
Athos presents a landscape that is unmatched in Europe and, to most
observers, incomparably beautiful. Perhaps the two most striking attributes
are its seclusion and its variety. This variety is well described by Professor
Dimitrios Kotoulas of the University of Thessaloniki in an evocative
description of the Holy Mountain's natural environment:
The steep slopes, the deep gorges, the tall cliffs and the outcrops of rock, the
shades of green of the vegetation, changing in autumn to variations of yellow and
russet, the bare boughs of the trees in winter, the deep or light azure of the sea-
these all ease the eye; the roaring of the gales, the lapping of the waves, and the
cries of birds delight the ear, and the sweetness of the natural aromas and the fresh
air make glad the visitor's sense of smell. All together, these features make up the
incomparable natural harmony of Mt Athos, to which the lissom cypresses around
the monasteries and along the stream beds add a note of austere gravity, sanctity
and peaceful melancholy. The grandeur of the physical environment is the natural
background in which the monks of Mt Athos, guardians of the ancient institutions
of Orthodoxy and the Greek race, root their mystic life and spiritual presence. 19

As for the seclusion, the quality of the silence that is to be found on

Athos, there is no more moving account than that of Gerald Palmer, an
Englishman who visited the Mountain nearly every year from 1948 until his
death in 1984:

THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD 35

 This stillness, this silence, is everywhere, pervades all, is the very essence of the
Holy Mountain. The distant sound of a motorboat serves only to punctuate the
intensity of the quiet; the lizard's sudden rustling among the dry leaves, a frog
plopping into a fountain, are loud and startling sounds, but merely emphasize the
immense stillness. Often as one walks over the great stretches of wild country
which form much of this sacred ground, following paths where every stone
breathes prayers, it is impossible to hear a sound of any kind. Even in the
monastery churches, where the silence is, as it were, made more profound by the
darkness, by the beauty and by the sacred quality of the place, it seems that the
reading and chanting of priests and monks in the endless rhythm of their daily
and nightly ritual is no more than a thin fringe of a limitless ocean of silence.
But this stillness, this silence, is far more than a mere absence of sound. It has
a positive quality, a quality of fullness, of plenitude, of the eternal Peace which
is there reflected in the Veil of the Mother of God, enshrouding and protecting
her Holy Mountain, offering inner silence, peace of heart, to those who dwell
there and to those who come with openness of heart to seek this blessing. 20

The creative response that the Mountain inspires in its visitors and res-
idents has taken many forms. Poetry, painting, music of one form or anoth-
er can all be cited. But probably the commonest response, and certainly the
one that unites all its inhabitants, is prayer. The monks do not regard them-
selves as living in the same world as the rest of mankind. They often refer
to themselves as the living dead. In order to be a monk on Mount Athos, it
is said, a man has to die and be born again. He must cast himself off from
this world, and through a process of purification he must achieve union
with the divine and must himself become God-like, a process known as theo-
sis (deification). Each day the monk undergoes a new martyrdom; each day
he grows closer to Christ; Christ is his bridegroom, his cell his bridal cham-
ber. Thus it is that the Garden of the Mother of God is also known as the
gate of heaven. It is a foretaste of Paradise, truly another world. It is time to
examine how and when the first monks arrived there.

36 THE GARDEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

 3
BYZANTINE ATHOS

N early everything about Athos, even today, is Byzantine, but of course

there have been changes. There is nothing Byzantine about the com-
puters that many monks now operate, or about the Unimog four-by-four
vehicles they drive, or the hot water, central heating and telephone systems
that most monasteries have recently installed. But these are merely ephemer-
al conveniences that enable monks to manage their lives and communicate
with each other and with the world in a suitably pragmatic fashion. The fun-
damentals of Athonite life, the things that matter most-the monastic way of
life, the forces that drive monks to Athos, the inspired teaching of charismatic
elders, the austere humility of the hermit in the desert, the commanding pres-
ence of the abbot in his ruling monastery-these things have not changed at
all. These are the things that make Athos important and unique; they are the
reasons why it is there and why it has survived. And everyone knows that if
they were to change, Athos would cease to survive; there would be no reason
for its existence and it would die. There have been moments when Athos
seemed moribund and prophets of doom have sounded the death knell. But
Athos has an inner resilience that is at times latent; it has reserves of strength
that are not always apparent to the casual observer, and, most importantly to
the monks, it lies under the ever-loving protection of the Mother of God. So
the prophets have been confounded; monastery gardens have blossomed again,
and Athos is as much alive today as it was when God's chosen representative
reigned in Constantinople-a paradigm of Byzantine monasticism but not a
museum. Far from being stuck in a fourteenth-century time-warp, Athos looks
forward to the third millennium and the opportunities it will provide to per-
petuate eternal principles that were initially put into practice in the first.
In this chapter we shall trace the evolution of Athos from its first begin-
nings as a monastic centre until the end of the Latin empire in 1261. To
avoid the tedium of a chronicle, I shall try to concentrate on the activities of
a number of individuals or groups of individuals who have illuminated and
characterized the passage of time.

THE FIRST HERMITS

Icons and Orthodoxy are inseparable, but it was not ever thus. There was a
movement, known as iconoclasm, that sought to deny the sacred value of
icons and to forbid their veneration. 1 This movement had much earlier
origins but it gained ground rapidly in the early eighth century, when the
empire had suffered a number of humiliating reverses, and it became official
imperial policy when in 730 the emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of
all icons of the saints and in 754 Constantine V decreed that the veneration of
icons and relics was idolatrous. The policy was enforced until the 78os, most
rigorously in the capital, and was revived, with somewhat less enthusiasm, in
the early ninth century; those who resisted it were persecuted. Monks were
(and still are) among the most enthusiastic iconophiles, and many fled to
escape the persecution. It is in this context that some historians have suggested
that the first monks came to Athos, by then an uninhabited peninsula
sufficiently far from Constantinople to be undisturbed by iconoclastic emper-
ors. It is an attractive notion, but sadly there is no evidence for it, and it has
been demonstrated that most monastic centres have their origins in the imme-
diate vicinity where their founders lived. 2 We can say no more than that it is
possible that among the first monks to settle on the Holy Mountain there
may have been some refugees from iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm came to an end in the year 843, when the empress Theodora
and Patriarch Methodios I led a procession through the streets of
Constantinople to the great church of Hagia Sophia (formerly an iconoclast
stronghold) and celebrated a liturgy to mark what has since been known as
the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Eager participants in the procession were
monks from a number of holy mountains, among them Athos, according to
the chronicler Genesios. Genesios is an unreliable source writing a century
after the event, but there is no reason to doubt him here and we can assume
that by 843 there were monks on Athos in sufficient numbers for a contin-
gent of them to be worth remarking upon in the celebrations to mark the
end of iconoclasm. 3 The Triumph of Orthodoxy is commemorated annual-
ly by the Orthodox on the first Sunday in Lent, nowhere with greater
enthusiasm than on Athos.
Some ninth-century Athonites are known to us by name, and we even
know something about their lives from surviving hagiographical accounts. 4
There was, for example, one Euthymios, St Euthymios the Younger as he is
now known, who had lived for many years on another holy mountain,
Mount Olympus in Bithynia, before moving to Athos in about 859 'because
he had heard of its tranquillity'. 5 For three years he lived alone in a cave.
When he emerged, he found a number of other monks had taken up resi-
dence around him and were waiting for him to become their spiritual father.
This he did, and in so doing founded the first known lavra or informal
group of hermits on Athos. Among his disciples a few years later we hear of
one John Kolobos, who was said to be 'already advanced in spirituality'.
John went on to found the first known example of a monastery on Athos, in
the northern part of the peninsula near Ierissos; he received a chrysobull

38 BYZANTINE ATHOS
from Emperor Basil I (before 881) giving him and his monastery jurisdic-
tion over the Mountain and its hermits. After John's death the monks of his
monastery attempted to take over the territory of the hermits, who prompt-
ly appealed to Constantinople. The hermits sent as their negotiator Fr
Andreas, who held the office of 'first hesychast' (protos hesychastes), subse-
quently shortened to Protos (as the primate of Athos is still known). As a
result of Andreas's appeal the emperor issued another chrysobull guaran-
teeing the independence of the monks. There were by now several monas-
tic houses and, although the difficulties with the monks of the monastery of
Kolobos were overcome, the need was felt for a central meeting-point or
council of elders; this was established at Karyes, where it still meets today.
Three times a year, at Christmas, Easter and the Dormition, they had
assemblies (synaxeis) of representatives of all the communities, including
the smallest, and matters of common concern were discussed.
Perhaps the best-known figure of ninth-century Athos is Peter, or St
Peter the Athonite as he is always called. As a young man Peter vowed to
become a monk but instead went as a soldier to Syria where he was captured
by the Arabs, a misfortune he ascribed to his broken vow. On his release he
travelled to Rome and was tonsured by the pope. He began the journey back
to the eastern Mediterranean but his ship was miraculously diverted to
Athos, where he saw a vision of the Mother of God. Despite favourable
winds, the ship would sail no further, and Peter realized that this was a sign
for him to be put ashore. Scrambling up the hillside, he found a dark cave,
'surrounded by thick vegetation, and in which there were more crawling
animals than the sky has stars or the sea sand, and with them a host of
demons nesting, who raised up a swarm of trials against the holy man such
as no tongue could recount or ear could credit'. 6 Peter made this cave his
home for the next fifty years, living, according to a contemporary source,
'like Elias on Mount Carmel'. When he died, around 890, his relics were
deposited in the monastery of Clement, where lviron stands today.

THE FIRST MoNASTERIES

Thus by the end of the ninth century the eremitical tradition was well estab-
lished on Athos and it was as a hermit (eremites in Greek) that St Athanasios
first moved to Athos around the year 958. He went on to found the first of
the monasteries that still survive today, the Great Lavra. We shall return to
this momentous event in the history of the Mountain shortly, but for
reasons that will emerge we should first consider the earliest imperial doc-
ument concerned with the organization of the Mountain as a whole, the
so-called Tragos signed by the emperor John Tzimiskes around the year

BYZANTINE ATHOS 39
972. 7 This is one of the earliest documents to survive on Athos and one of
the greatest treasures in the collection of the Protaton in Karyes. It is called
Tragos ('goat') because it is written on a goatskin parchment. Its provisions
are conveniently summarized by E. Amand de Mendieta: 8
The three customary gatherings of the whole Athonite community, formerly held
at Karyes at Christmas, Easter, and the Assumption, are reduced to only one, on
the Assumption. In future these gatherings are only to be attended by the Protos,
with three followers, by Athanasios, with two, by Paul of Xeropotamou, with one,
and by the other hegoumenoi [abbots], unaccompanied. This is done to avoid the
disorders and disputes which have occurred very frequently at these gatherings.
The Protos cannot legally do anything without the agreement of the assem-
bly of the hegoumenoi, nor can the assembly do anything without his agreement,
even if it is a matter for the common good.
A novice must undergo a period of one year's probation before he can take
his vows as a monk. All novices must be put in the charge of a spiritual father or
the head of their monastery, and must obey him. The novice may not apply to
join another monastery without his permission.
Monks who have made their vows in other places and have come to the
Mountain are not allowed to buy land or to settle on unoccupied land, unless
they get the permission of the Protos and the assembly.
Every hegoumenos may sell, give, or transfer his property, his house, and his
cultivated land to his own disciples, or to some other person who has no prop-
erty, but any gift of a house or land to any monastery is forbidden. Wills relat-
ing to such transfers of property are valid and effect is given to them. Any resale
for the sake of profit is disgraceful and is forbidden.
Only those monks who have received a training in discipline, under the
supervision of a spiritual father, and have proved themselves suitable, may
(under supervision) retire to hermitages as solitary ascetics or hesychasts.
A monk may not return to the world after he has taken his vows.
Monks may not go for visits to towns or to country places, act as sponsors,
or join in associations with lay persons.
Wine, made in excess of the maker's requirements, and pinewood may not
be sold outside the Mountain. Such goods may be sold to monks who need
them. If in need and stricken with poverty, monks may however sell them to
laymen living on the Mountain.
During Great Lent all manual work is forbidden except on Saturdays. All
visiting and conversation is forbidden during this season which must be devoted
to prayer and contemplation.
Priests from outside cannot be admitted unless they bring letters of intro-
duction.
It is forbidden to bring in pack animals belonging to the monastery of
Kolovou, near lerissos, unless it is threatened with an attack by barbarians. Any
question as to the admission of animals which normally enter Athos is to be
decided by the elders.
Eunuchs and beardless youths (even the children of masons and labourers)
are forbidden to enter Athos.

40 BYZANTINE ATHOS
 The hegoumenoi are forbidden to force kelliots or hermits, living in cells or
kellia, to undertake any work.
No pair of oxen may be kept on the Mountain, except for one pair allowed at
Lavra. This monastery is very big and clearly needs beasts.
The existing rules regarding the election of the Protos are to be strictly
enforced.
The administrator of Mese [the old name for Karyes] must render an
account of his receipts and expenditure to the assembly each August. He is eli-
gible for re-election by the Protos and hegoumenoi.
The adminstrator must prevent all scandalous talk and quarrelling in Mese.
If any scandal is reported to him from some other part of the Mountain, he is to
go there, accompanied by three or four hegoumenoi living in the district in which
the trouble has occurred, and to take such action as is required.

This document is signed not only by the emperor and by Athanasios,

hegoumenos (abbot) of the Great Lavra, but by no fewer than 46 other
hegoumenoi as well. It shows how many houses were already in existence at
this very early date and makes us wonder therefore to what extent the Lavra,
founded in 963, was such an innovation.

FOUNDATION OF THE GREAT LAVRA (963)

Let us now retrace our steps to the arrival of St Athanasios on Mount Athos
as a hermit in 958. 9 What sort of a Mountain did he find then? And what
changes did he make to it?
Athanasios was born into a prosperous family in Trebizond some time
between 925 and 930 and baptized with the name Avraamios. Orphaned
young, he was sent to Constantinople to be educated. Here he came into
contact with Michael Maleinos, hegoumenos of the lavra of Mount
Kyminas in Bithynia, and with his nephews Leo and Nikephoros Phokas
{the future emperor). He worked as a teacher in Constantinople for a while,
and then went to Kyminas with Michael where he became a monk with the
name Athanasios. Kyminas was one of several 'holy mountains' in western
Asia Minor which may have been formed as a result of monks fleeing to the
west in the face of the Muslim conquests of the seventh century, though the
connection has yet to be proved. 10 It was also among the communities that
sent monks to Constantinople to celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy in
843. Pending archaeological investigation, we have little idea what form
these lavras took, but it is likely that they were scattered settlements of
semi-solitary monks rather than full coenobia, and they may have operated
and looked a bit like the idiorrhythmic sketes on Mount Athos today. After
four years working as a humble and obedient copyist, Athanasios was given

BYZANTINE ATHOS 41
 r2 St Athanasios of Athos, founder of the
Great Lavra, depicted in a fresco at the cell
of Mylopotamos. Hymns sung on his feast
day (5 July) liken him to the dawn and the
morning star.

permission to become a hermit. At about the same time Nikephoros Phokas,

who was then serving as a general on the eastern frontier, visited Kyminas
to see his uncle and renewed his friendship with Athanasios. Shortly after
this Michael announced his intention to retire and name Athanasios his suc-
cessor; alarmed at the prospect and desirous of greater solitude, Athanasios
fled to Athos.
For a while he retained his anonymity, living in seclusion at Zygos in the
north of the peninsula, but Nikephoros got the authorities to trace him and
provide him with a cell near Karyes. Here he was visited by Leo, who gave
him money to extend the church at Karyes. Then he moved to the remote
southern tip of the peninsula, occupying a cell at Melana. Still there was no
peace. Nikephoros sought him out again: he was about to sail for Crete with
a view to liberating that island from occupation by Arab pirates and he
wanted Athanasios's company as his spiritual father. Athansios agreed to go.
After the recovery of Crete, in March 96 r, the two men discussed plans to
found a monastery on the strength of their Cretan spoils and Nikephoros
promised to become a monk.
In 96r Athanasios returned to Athos and started to build . But what he
built was not a lavra of the sort that he had lived in himself at Kyminas, a
collection of cells grouped round a central church like a modern Athonite
skete, but a fully fledged cenobitic monastery such as existed in
Constantinople in the Stoudios monastery of StJohn the Baptist. No such
monastery had previously existed on Athos. The other 46 signatories of the

42 BYZANTINE ATHOS
Tragos can be assumed to have been hegoumenoi of lavras-no doubt per-
fectly well-run holy houses in their way, but they lacked the architectural
grandeur of the Great Lavra, and they lacked its staying power too.
The katholikon was completed in 963 and the foundation of the
monastery has always been associated with that date. In the same year
Nikephoros, who had contributed so much thought and money to this new
venture, was crowned emperor. Athanasios was distraught and went to
Constantinople to protest at his friend's broken promise. Nikephoros
begged his spiritual father to forgive him, undertaking to abdicate as soon as
possible and become a monk, and he continued to give the monastery his full
support. He presented it with a number of relics, including a fragment of
the True Cross; he appointed Athanasios hegoumenos and gave the broth-
erhood the right to elect his successor; he fixed the number of monks at
eighty and he granted the monastery an annuity of 244 gold nomismata.
The success of this new-style monastery, with its grand buildings, its
imperial connections, its special privileges, its artificially created spiritual
associations, and its fabulous wealth, was offensive to the older inhabitants
of the Mountain, who practised a simpler life-style in their lavras and her-
mitages elsewhere on the peninsula. No doubt they were jealous of it too.
They protested to Athanasios that he had brought 'the world' to Athos and
they feared for their independence in the face of this huge monastery with
its numerous brotherhood and its imperial backing. In December 969 the
emperor Nikephoros was murdered by his nephew John Tzimiskes. The
lavriots and hermits of the old Athos seized their opportunity and sent a
delegation to Constantinople to plead their case with the new emperor.
They were well received, but to get the full picture, the emperor summoned
Athanasios too. With the help of his friend John of Georgia (later one of the
founders of Iviron), Athanasios won over the emperor and gained yet more
support for his monastery with a doubling of the annuity, the allotment to
Lavra of a monastery in Thessaloniki, and an increase in the size of the
brotherhood from eighty to 120.
Despite this further success Athanasios was persuaded that something
must be done to address the hermits' grievances and to put and end to the
frequent disturbances and arguments that broke out at meetings of the
whole community at Karyes. With this in view the emperor instructed
Euthymios, a senior monk of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople, to
visit the Mountain and settle the differences between the various parties. On
arriving in Karyes, Euthymios summoned the hegoumenoi of all the lavras
to a meeting in the church of the Protaton and together they drafted the
first typikon or charter for the whole Mountain. Once it had been agreed,

13 Overleaf: Walls and towers of the Great Lavra, the largest and oldest of the surviving
monasteries.

BYZANTINE ATHOS 43
14 The katholikon of the Lavra, seen here from the east. Built by the founder in the tenth
century, it was the model for all subsequent churches on Athos.

Athanasios got the emperor to sign it as well so that it acquired the force of
law and became the basis for the settlement of disputes between the various
communities and the hermits. The charter also confirmed the fact that the
cenobitic system, as employed at the Stoudios monastery according to the
rule of St Basil, was now established on Athos. That document, duly signed
by the emperor John Tzimiskes and all the hegoumenoi of the time and still
preserved in Karyes, is the Tragos, the provisions of which have been
described above.

THE MOUNTAIN A CITY

Athanasios was equally renowned for his piety, for his learning, and for his
qualities as a ruler. He was abbot of the monastery from its foundation in
963 until his death nearly forty years later. During that time not only the
Lavra but the whole of Athos flourished, attracting monks from all over
eastern Europe and even from Armenia and Italy. By the time of
Athanasios's death there were more than three thousand monks on the
Mountain. Through Athanasios, as his biographer wrote, 'the whole moun-

46 BYZANTINE ATHOS
15 Vatopedi from the north-east. The houses along the seafront are for fishermen and other workers.
The grain store, beyond the quay, is kept well stocked.

tain became a city', 11 a conscious echo of the Life of St Antony of Egypt

which stated that through him 'the desert became a city'.
Though himself a product of the lavra at Kyminas, Athanasios was
entirely converted to the principles of cenobitic monasticism as propound-
ed by St Basil and practised at the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople.
This he believed was the best system for the vast majority of monks and he
enshrined it in a charter or typikon he drafted for the Lavra in about 970, 12
shortly before the ratification of the Tragos. Taking as his model the monas-
tic programme established by St Theodore the Stoudite (759-826),
Athanasios laid stress on the links between the monastic life and martyr-
dom. He expected monks to struggle, 'like athletes and martyrs'. He also
expected them to devote their lives to prayer and had chosen a remote site
for his monastery specifically so that they should be 'undistracted and free
from external activities'. Everything was to be shared under a rule of obe-
dience to the abbot. 'Let the only things that you call your own be your body
and soul, and let even these be shared in an equality of love among all your
spiritual children and brethren.' Poverty was the rule, not only for individ-
uals, but also for the house as a whole: the monastery was to own no slaves.
'Nor will you own any animals of the female sex, for the purpose of doing
any work which you require, because you have absolutely renounced all

BYZANTINE ATHOS 47
16 The interior of the katholikon at Vatopedi, a close approximation to heaven on earth. The marble floor
dates from the time of the foundation in the late tenth century; the mosaics of the Annunciation, high up
on the columns that support the dome, from the mid-eleventh.

female beings.' The abbot was elected for life and exercised supreme author-
ity within the monastery. Yet he too was to a lead a simple life, not travelling
abroad and neglecting his flock but wherever possible sharing in the life of
the monks. And according to his biographer, Athanasios practised what he
preached: he was both 'leader and yet servant of all ... both humble and
exalted', a 'most shepherdly' pastor to his flock. 13

48 BYZANTINE ATHOS
17 Vatopedi has a fine collection of icons. One of the earliest is this eleventh-century image
of St George carved in green steatite.

BYZANTINE ATHOS 49
r8 Vatopedi's library is one of the richest on Athos. This illumination of St Mark is from a
gospel book dated 948 which is older than the monastery itself.

50 BYZANTINE ATHOS
 In one respect, however, Athanasios departed from his Stoudite model.
While proclaiming the cenobitic system as ideal for most monks, he also
accepted the idea that a small minority should be allowed to live as solitaries.
Their number was limited to five. They should live outside the walls of the
monastery, but not too far away. Each should be allowed to have one disci-
ple with him and the monastery should take care of their material needs, 'so
that they may be free from all care concerning bodily matters and entirely
undisturbed' .14 Thus Athanasios made provision for the eremitic system to
coexist with the cenobitic, as it has continued to do on Athos ever since.
The katholikon built by Athanasios remains the principal church of the
monastery, though it has seen many changes and accretions. Probably in the
year 1002 the finishing touches were being put to the dome and the abbot
was anxious to see how the work was progressing. On 5 July, as he inspect-
ed the church, the dome collapsed without warning, killing Athanasios and
four others. The saint's tomb is within the church, in the chapel of the
Forty Martyrs, and is said to have the power to drive away evil-doers. His
name is commemorated on 5 July in all Orthodox churches.
Athanasios's achievement was monumental and enduring. He had built
a great monastery, a fully fledged coenobium on the Stoudite model, that
was to be a 'city' in its own right, a fully independent and self-governing
community. Since its foundation in 963 the Great Lavra has held first place
in the hierarchy of Athonite monasteries; the model was copied many
times-within Athanasios's lifetime some half-dozen other monasteries were
founded on the Mountain-but the supremacy of the Lavra has never been
challenged. At the same time Athanasios had contrived a reconciliation with
the older inhabitants of the Mountain. He accepted that there was a place for
the eremitic life alongside the cenobitic and that the cenobitic houses should
take responsibility for the material needs of their eremitic dependants.
Athanasios's typikon remains the model for Athonite monasticism to this day.
No significant changes have been made to its principles and more than a thou-
sand years after they were first laid down they are still in force today.

VATOPEDI AND IVIRON

Of the monasteries that were founded during Athanasios's lifetime, not all
of which survive, particular mention must be made of two that do. Second
in the hierarchy, though the third to be founded, 15 is the monastery of
Vatopedi. According to tradition there were three founders, noblemen from
Adrianople named Athanasios, Nicholas and Anthony, who visited Mount
Athos while the Great Lavra was being built. With the support of
Athanasios of Lavra the tradition is that they founded, or rather refounded,

BYZANTINE ATHOS 51
19 Iviron, a tenth-century Georgian foundation, seen from the east. This has been a predominantly
Greek house since the mid-fourteenth century.

the monastery of Vatopedi further north on the east coast of the peninsula.
There is also a tradition that they are buried beneath the sarcophagus that
stands at the south end of the mesonyktikon (the part of the katholikon
between the nave and the narthex). This tradition has now been confirmed
by archaeology: three burials were indeed placed in an underground tomb
which is contemporary with the church itself, and the relics of three men
were subsequently placed in the sarcophagus above it. Their names are
commemorated daily at the end of Vespers, when the priest reads a
Trisagion (the Thrice-Holy Hymn of the Angels) over the tomb.
The word 'founder' (ktitor) is often used rather loosely by Athonites to
refer to any major benefactor of a monastery whose generosity or services
have been on such a scale that he deserves to be ranked among the
'founders'. This may help to reconcile the apparent discrepancy between
the archaeological evidence (which supports the tradition) and the archival
(which superficially does not). The monastery is first mentioned in a doc-
ument of 985, 16 where the name of the abbot is indeed Nicholas. Nicholas
of Adrianople, no doubt the monastery's actual founder, signs last, after all
the other hegoumenoi, and presumably the monastery was then very new
and very small. But it flourished, the number of monks grew quickly, and

52 BYZANTINE ATHOS
zo lviron also has a fine collection of manuscripts. This illustrated copy of the romance of Barlaam and
loasaph carries a French translation alongside the Greek text and dates from the early thirteenth century,
the time of the Latin empire.

by roiO it was reckoned as one of the great monasteries, on a par with the
Lavra and lviron. Athanasios was abbot from ro2o to ro48, and in 1045,
when the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos issued his typikon for the
Holy Mountain/ 7 he signed second, immediately after the hegoumenos of
Lavra. This second 'founder', Athanasios, also from Adrianople, had clear-
ly been responsible for the monastery's ascent to the summit of the hierar-
chy. As abbot of Vatopedi he was granted many privileges in this new
typikon which he exercised in common with the abbots of Lavra and
lviron, and the monastery itself gained privileges, such as the right to have
a ship and keep a yoke of oxen, which set it above the majority of Athonite
houses. The contribution of Anthony, the third 'founder', is uncertain, but
there is a reference in r 142 to another abbot by the name of Anthony with
whom he may perhaps be identified. 18
The association of the monastery with Adrianople at this point in its his-
tory is interesting. As the capital of the Byzantine theme (province) of
Macedonia, Adrianople was a major centre of the landowning aristocracy of
the empire. This aristocracy became increasingly powerful in the course of
the eleventh century and in ro8r the landowning family of the Komnenoi
seized the throne and founded a new dynasty. Given Vatopedi's close con-

BYZANTINE ATHOS 53
 21 A mosaic icon of

StGeorge dating
from the second half
of the twelfth century,
one of a pair of
mosaic icons (the
other being of St
Demetrios) preserved
at the monastery of
Xenophontos.

54 BYZANTINE ATHOS
nections with Adrianople, it was inevitable that the monastery should thrive
in the wake of the local landowners. Though it had no imperial endowment
at first, it quickly established itself as what Nikos Oikonomides has called 'a
monastery of the high aristocracy'. To some extent, it has retained that rep-
utation ever since. Not for nothing did Osbert Lancaster term it the Christ
Church of Athos. 19
The second surviving monastery whose tenth-century foundation
deserves special mention is lviron.lt identifies itself as the monastery of the
Iberians (i.e. Georgians: Iberia was the Greek name for Georgia) and its
foundation is due to the presence on the Mountain of a group of Georgian
monks who after 963 became disciples of St Athanasios at the Lavra. They
were led by John the Iberian and his son Euthymios, who were members of
the distinguished Georgian family of the Tornikioi. They were joined there
by the head of the family, who had also been tonsured a monk with the name
John. Georgia was an independent kingdom outside the territory of the
Byzantine empire but cultural contacts between the two states were close and
the Georgian Church was (and still is) in communion with Constantinople.
Tornikios was well connected with the court in Constantinople, but earlier
requests (in 972 to John Tzimiskes and in 976 to Basil II) for a monastery on
Athos to be handed over to the Georgians had been rejected. When in 976
the general Bardas Skleros staged a rebellion in the east, the emperor Basil II
summoned Tornikios to his assistance. In return for his services, which con-
tributed to the defeat of the rebels in 979, the emperor granted Tornikios a
number of rewards, including agreement to his proposal for the foundation
of a Georgian monastery on Mount Athos. That the grant was a personal
one, to John himself rather than to the Athonites as a whole, provoked an
outburst of anti-Georgian xenophobia on the Mountain which was only
quelled by generous donations to the Protaton.
The monastery of lviron was founded in 979 or 980 on the site of the
earlier monastery of Clement, on the east coast of the peninsula between
Vatopedi and the Lavra. The foundation was strengthened by the gift of
extensive landholdings in Chalkidiki and Thessaloniki which were granted
by imperial chrysobull and which had until 979 been the property of the
monastery of Kolobos at Ierissos. 20 The material prosperity of Iviron, which
placed it on a level with the Great Lavra, was matched by spiritual and intel-
lectual developments within the monastery. The founders together pos-
sessed a combination of talents that underpinned its success. John the
Iberian, a true ascetic who provided his flock with spiritual leadership, was
appointed abbot in 980 with the full support of St Athanasios. He was suc-
ceeded in 1005 by his son Euthymios, who had received an excellent educa-
tion in Greek culture and devoted himself to the translation of Greek
patristic literature into Georgian. Meanwhile Tornikios had the necessary
organizational skills to ensure the physical well-being of the monastery and

BYZANTINE ATHOS 55
superintend the restoration of its buildings. In addition to the building of
the katholikon they also made provision for a library and scriptorium in
which liturgical texts could be copied for use by the monks. The library of
Iviron is still one of the richest on Athos and includes the largest collection
of Georgian manuscripts outside Georgia and the largest of Byzantine
music in the world. Already in the tenth century the monastery was acting
as an international cultural entrepot disseminating Greek culture to Georgia
and Georgian to Byzantium.

THE LATIN MONASTERY OF THE AMALFITANS

Before the end of the tenth century, the international standing of the Holy
Mountain was further enhanced by the foundation of a Benedictine
monastery which no longer survives. 21 Amalfi, on the south-west coast of
Italy, was an independent state outside the territory of the Byzantine empire
(though until 839 it had belonged to the Byzantine duchy of Naples). Its
ships traded throughout the Mediterranean and its traders were granted a
quarter of their own in Constantinople. Monks from Amalfi were first
attracted to Athos by the charismatic reputation of St Athanasios, but it was
John the Iberian who helped them found a monastery of their own in about
985 on the east coast of the peninsula between the Lavra and Iviron.
This was a house of substance, with estates in Macedonia and the right
to keep a large ship enabling the monks to trade with their compatriots in
Constantinople. It was founded by a Benedictine monk named Leo who
came from Benevento with six disciples; they were no doubt joined by oth-
ers from the Amalfitan colony in Constantinople, with whom they would
have maintained close contact. Nor was it the only Italian monastery record-:-
ed: a monastery 'of the Sicilians' was founded in 986 and a monastery 'of·
the Calabrians' in 108o, though both of these were Greek houses and both
were dissolved in 1108. The Amalfitan monastery was ranked in fifth place
in the hierarchy in the eleventh century. The fact that it endured for more
than 300 years, surviving not only the exchange of anathemas in 1054 (tra-
ditionally held to mark the 'great schism' between the Orthodox east and
Latin west) but also the Latin empire of 1204-61, is a tribute to the truly
ecumenical nature of Athonite monasticism at the time. The house was
eventually absorbed by the Lavra in 1287, but its tall lonely tower, which
still stands on a wooded eminence above the bay of Morphonou, is a forlorn
reminder of this once great Latin monastery.

22 Previous page: The tower of the Amalfitan monastery of St Mary, all that survives of
this tenth-century Benedictine foundation, seen from the north in winter.

58 BYZANTINE ATHOS
 THE LAVRA OF THE PROTATON AT KARYES

It is now time to examine the pan-Athonite institutions at Karyes and how

they came into being. Karyes (which means 'hazel nuts') is the administra-
tive centre of the whole Mountain, a status that is made more explicit by its
earlier, more prosaic name, Mese ('centre'). As such, it was in existence by
the mid-tenth century, by which time it had become the seat of a governor
(Protos) who administered the affairs of the monks and represented them in
the outside world. Before then the administration had been based at Zygos
in the north of the peninsula, where assemblies of elders representing all the
communities on Athos were held every year at Christmas, Easter and the
Dormition of the Virgin to discuss matters of common interest under the
presidency of the Protos. The increase in numbers of monks and the foun-
dation of new monasteries compelled the Protos to move his base to a more
central location and it seems that Karyes (or Mese) was first founded then
as one of the new lavras.
This lavra came to be known as the Protaton (by association with the
office of the Protos) and initially it owned all the buildings that sprang up
in Karyes. Its wealth was therefore considerable, and it was able to build a
substantial church, still known as the church of the Protaton, which is the

23 The church of the Protaton in Karyes, seen here from the south-east. The oldest church
on Athos, it dates from the first half of the tenth century.

BYZANTINE ATHOS 59
oldest church on the Mountain (dating from the first half of the tenth cen-
tury) and the only one in the style of a basilica. This church, dedicated to
the Dormition of the Virgin, has seen many alterations over the centuries,
but it still stands as a proud reminder of the now defunct lavra of Karyes
and it remains the usual focus for any form of pan-Athonite worship. If
Karyes is a capital city, then the Protaton is its cathedral, or its Parthenon as
some have described it.
As the administrative centre of Athos, it is natural that Karyes should be
the depository for archival material relating to the Mountain as a whole, and
although the lavra of the Protaton has not survived, its archives remain.
They are stored today in the magnificently refurbished interior of the
Protaton Tower, where they are available for the use of scholars.

THE TYPIKON OF CONSTANTINE IX MONOMACHOS

In the eleventh century the Byzantine empire reached its zenith. Victories
won by the emperor Basil II over the Arabs and the Bulgarians brought a
period of peace and stability. There was an intellectual and artistic flower-
ing in the city of Constantinople and emperors felt free to indulge their taste
(or cultivate their image) by making lavish endowments. Monasteries flour-
ished as never before, especially on Athos; new foundations elsewhere
included the Mangana in Constantinople itself and the Nea Mone on Chios,
both resulting from the munificence of Constantine IX Monomachos, who
reigned from 1042 to 1055.
The increase in the numbers of monks on Athos-by 1045 there were
700 at the Lavra alone and a similar number at Vatopedi-brought new
problems and, not surprisingly, the legislation of seventy years earlier was
inadequate to answer all of them. The rules were being flouted in several
respects: underage boys were found to be living on the Mountain; the lavra
at Karyes had turned into an open market where even eunuchs were for sale;
the larger monasteries were absorbing portions of the common land for
their own use and some were in dispute with their neighbours; there was
widespread use of illegal boats and animals, and it was alleged that the
hegoumenoi were plotting against the Protos. The monks asked the emper-
or to intervene to restore order. This he did by sending a representative to
Karyes with the task of enforcing the existing law.
After a period of consultation with all 180 hegoumenoi22 in Karyes, a sec-
ond typikon was drawn up in September 1045 and ratified by imperial chryso-
24 Left: The tower of the Protaton, adjoining the headquarters of the Holy Community in
Karyes, acts as a depository for an important collection of archives, manuscripts, and
treasures. There is a reading room on the top floor.
bull in June 1046 by Constantine IX Monomachos. 23 Once again I quote the
provisions of this document as summarized by E. Amand de Mendieta. 24
It is absolutely forbidden to receive or to tonsure any eunuch or beardless
youth; it is equally forbidden to give them shelter in any monastery or cell. All
such must be sent away from the Holy Mountain.
It is equally forbidden to keep large boats. By means of these many monks are
engaged in illegal trade, under a variety of pretexts ... It is agreed that monks
are allowed to own small boats (up to 10 tons burden), in which they might sail
to Thessaloniki and there sell their surplus produce. Any person breaking this
rule is to be punished by the confiscation of his boat. An exception is made in
favour of any monastery which requires a larger boat and has imperial authority
for it. For example, the Latin monastery of the Amalfitans was supported by
help which it received from the Amalfitan colony at Constantinople.
No monk is allowed, on any pretext, to leave Athos during Lent.
Once again, the ban on the keeping of sheep, goats and cattle is repeated. The
Great Lavra is allowed to keep cows, to supply milk, cheese and butter for the
aged and sick, but these animals must be kept at least 12 miles from any
monastery. Lavra is also allowed three further pairs of oxen (making four in all)
for making dough. These animals are not to be used for other work or for culti-
vation.
The monastery of Vatopedi, by reason of its size, is allowed one pair of oxen ...
No monk may move from one monastery to another; but any hegoumenos,
with the approval of the brotherhood of which he is the head, may send one of
its members to another monastery.
It is forbidden to refuse to fulfil contracts such as sales, gifts and exchanges
of small farms or of monastic lands, if these have been made in good faith ...
Any person may collect firewood in any place ...
It is, for the future, forbidden to give away or to sell any part of the lands
owned by the whole community of Athos.
Karyes has become a market town, where illegal trading, even in eunuchs,
takes place. Therefore the old regulations must be enforced.
Some persons have ordained, as deacons, as priests, and as hegoumenoi,
monks who were under twenty years of age. This practice is strictly forbidden.
The hegoumenoi of the larger monasteries have been in the habit of coming
to the assemblies with many servants. This practice leads to quarrels and disor-
der. Therefore it is laid down that, for the future, the Protos may be accompa-
nied by three servants only, the hegoumenos of Lavra by six, the hegoumenoi of
Vatopedi and Iviron by four each, and other hegoumenoi by one only.
In future, all important matters must be decided by the Karyes General
Assembly; less important matters will be dealt with by the Protos with the help
of from five to ten hegoumenoi.

This document is important in a number of respects. First and foremost,

it re-established the rule of law. It also established that it was the task of the
Protos and the assembly to govern the affairs of the Mountain as a whole, to
settle any disputes (for example, over boundaries), to enforce proper behav-

62 BYZANTINE ATHOS
iour at meetings, and to apportion land to monasteries. The Protos also con-
firmed the election of all Athonite hegoumenoi and he carne to represent the
official face of the Mountain to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the
surrounding area. We may also note the first official reference to Athos as 'the
Holy Mountain', though it had borne this title unofficially since 985. When
ratifying this typikon with his own seal, the emperor confirmed all previously
granted imperial rights and privileges. Further privileges were granted by
Alexios I Komnenos ( 108 I- I 11 8), giving the monks complete autonomy,
independence from the authority of both the bishop of Ierissos and the
Ecumenical Patriarch, and exemption from all taxation. The personal interest
displayed by successive Byzantine emperors in the development of the
Mountain was very important to its survival, to its well-being, and to its cred-
ibility: until I3I2 the Protos was appointed directly by the emperor himself.

VLACH SHEPHERDS (AND SHEPHERDESSES) ON THE

MouNTAIN

The Vlachs are a transhumant people with their own (Latin) language who
inhabit the mountains of northern Greece and the central Balkans. Most
Byzantine references to Vlachs are unflattering, no doubt because as
nomadic shepherds, and given to treachery, they were largely outside the law
and thus made uncertain tax payers. That they should have infiltrated the
Athonite peninsula is no great surprise; that they should have done so with
the complicity of the monks was cause for great scandal.
From the start of the twelfth century as many as 300 Vlachs had strayed
on to the peninsula with their flocks. Their presence was at first tolerated
by the monks in return for a share of their produce. But they abused this
licence by bringing in their wives and daughters, disguised as men, some of
whom entered into the service of the monasteries and befriended the
monks. One monk wrote, 'It would be disgraceful to tell or to hear what
happened between them and some of the monks. ' 25 Many of the monks were
horrified by this lawless behaviour and, having failed to persuade the assem-
bly at Karyes to evict the intruders, took their complaint to the Patriarch,
Nicholas Grarnmatikos. He issued a severe warning to the offending monks
but apparently stopped short of direct interference in the affairs of the
Mountain, whereupon the leader of an opposing group, who was the
hegoumenos of the Lavra, took the law into his own hands and forged an
imperial command ordering the expulsion of the Vlachs. His action result-
ed in further protests, followed by further delegations of Athonites to
Constantinople. No one seemed willing to take responsibility for the situta-
tion until eventually, in I I I I, when the Patriarch was on his deathbed, a far-

BYZANTINE ATHOS 63
deal scene took place in the presence of the emperor at which the dying
Patriarch demonstrated from his own records that the command was not in
his own hand and the abbot then arrived to confess to the forgery. Even
more amazing is the later revelation that, despite all his denials, the
Patriarch had indeed issued such a command.
No one emerges with credit from this sorry affair, for which there is full
documentary evidence which has absorbed many generations of scholars. 26
The dispute, and others related to it, went unresolved for much of the
twelfth century. As a result of it many monks left the Mountain, but many
more took their places, and soon the physical and economic resources of the
Mountain were insufficient to accommodate the growing population. This
led to disputes over landownership, further delegations to Constantinople,
and numerous recriminations affecting all those concerned. Reflecting the
state of the empire, the Mountain descended into a state of unrest and fac-
tion. Rosemary Morris, whose masterly survey of monks and laymen in
Byzantium terminates in the year I I I 8, paints a gloomy picture of the years
to follow the death of Alexios I Komnenos:
The practitioners of the monastic life became increasingly subject to criticism
and rebuke, their individuality stifled in a new era of repression and conformity.
Holy men there were, but their continuing popularity in many quarters was
against a barrage of criticism from court-orientated intellectuals and the secular
church. Where once miracle working, predictions and cures had been admired,
now scepticism and fear of charlatans was evident. The monastic saints were
deemed to be figures of the past; the present was a world in which the figure of
the monk had, for many, lost much of its spiritual aura. 27

THE COMING OF THE SLAVS

Ever since the days of St Athanasios the Holy Mountain had been an inter-
national centre, attracting monks from all parts of the Byzantine world. The
Byzantines had been particularly successful in spreading their influence
across Central Europe in the second half of the ninth century and they had
responded with enthusiasm to the request of Rastislav of Moravia for
Christian missionaries with a knowledge of the Slavonic language to visit his
country. In 863 the emperor Michael III sent the brothers Constantine
(whose monastic name was Cyril) and Methodios (who was the abbot of a
monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor) to preach Christianity to the
Moravians in their own language. Having devised a suitable alphabet
(known as the Glagolitic), the brothers translated the Liturgy of StJohn
Chrysostom, the New Testament and various other Greek texts into
Slavonic and also established a local church in Moravia. This language, now

64 BYZANTINE ATHOS
25 The Russian skete of Bogoroditsa stands on the site of Xylourgou, the first Russian monastery on Athos.

known as Old Church Slavonic, became the ecclesiastical and literary lingua
franca of all the peoples who gained entry to the Byzantine Common-
wealth-Russians and Serbs, Bulgarians and Romanians-though the
Moravian state, where it had been devised, soon fell to the Magyars and lost
its allegiance to Byzantium. By the end of the ninth century the Glagolitic
alphabet was replaced by the simpler 'Cyrillic', named after Constantine
Cyril but devised by a disciple after his death, and the peoples of Eastern
Europe now shared a religious bond with Byzantium, having all accepted
Orthodox Christianity.
Politically, relations between Byzantium and the Slavs were often
strained. After a series of wars Bulgaria was finally defeated and brought
within the empire in ror8, but Serbia remained independent and there
was often tension with the principalities of Kievan Rus'. Culturally, how-
ever, close contacts were maintained and relations were entirely harmo-
nious and mutually tolerant, especially on ecclesiastical matters. There is
evidence for a monastery 'tou Rhos' (i.e. of the Rus') on Athos as early as
ror6; this was probably the monastery of Xylourgou, the first cenobitic
Russian house, mentioned by name in documents from 1030 on. In the

BYZANTINE ATHOS 6$
26 The courtyard of Chilandar, the Serbian monastery founded in u98. In the foreground stands the
phia/e ('canopied basin') in which water for use in the church is blessed at the start of each month.

mid-eleventh century ascetics from Kiev visited Athos and spent some
time attached to the monastery of Esphigmenou, eventually returning to
Kiev where they founded the so-called Lavra of the Caves, 'with the bless-
ing and in accordance with the statutes of the Holy Mountain', as
described by the Russian Pl'imal'y Chronicle. The monks of Xylourgou are
likely to have remained a small community until II69, when they were
granted full title to the ruined monastery of St Panteleimon with permis-
sion to rebuild it and repopulate it. Thus was founded the monastery
which remains to this day (though now removed to a different site) the
focus of the Russian presence on Mount Athos. X ylourgou soon dwindled
to the status of a skete, which it remains.28
The Serbian monastery has a similar history. A Greek monastery of
Chelandarios ('of the boatman') was founded in the tenth century and is
mentioned in a document of 1015 29 as being empty and abandoned. It was
then given to the monastery of Konstamonitou and continues to appear in
Greek documents of the eleventh and twelfth centuries until II69. By the
end of the twelfth century, as the Byzantine empire descended into political
chaos, a state of affairs that was reflected in the condition of many of the
Greek houses on Athos, the monastery was once again deserted. Meanwhile

66 BYZANTINE ATHOS
the Serbs, who under the Nemanjid dynasty took advantage of the growing
weakness of Byzantium, cultivated cultural relations with their venerable
but vulnerable neighbours.
In I I 93 the younger son of Stefan I N emanya, ruler of Serbia from I I 68
to 1196, went to Athos and was tonsured a monk at the monastery of
Vatopedi with the name Savvas. 30 Three years later, Stefan himself abdicat-
ed and became a monk, and in I I98 he joined his son on Athos with the
name Symeon. In that year Symeon and Savvas were granted by imperial
chrysobull ownership of the derelict Greek monastery of Chelandarios 'to
be a gift to the Serbs in perpetuity'. They founded the new cenobitic
monastery of Chilandar, which was to have the same status as the Georgian
monastery of Iviron and the Latin house of the Amalfitans. 31 Symeon died
the following year, but the work of establishing the monastery was contin-
ued with tireless energy by Savvas. The buildings were completed on a
grand scale: a typikon32 was devised along the lines of that in use at the
Evergetis monastery in Constantinople, large estates in Serbia were granted
to the monastery, and further privileges were assigned to it by the emperor
Alexios III Angelos, including the right to own a ship and to take over the
abandoned monastery of Zygos. By I204 Chilandar had ninety monks and
was well established as a centre of Serbian Orthodox religion and culture. In
1208 Savvas returned to Serbia and founded the monastery of Studenica.
Here too he introduced a typikon based on that of the Evergetis monastery
and incorporating elements derived from Chilandar; this became the model
for all subsequent monastic foundations in Serbia.
Similar too is the history of the Bulgarian monastery, Zographou. This
house may have been founded as early as the tenth century, during the hey-
day of monasticism in Bulgaria; there is a story that its founders were three
brothers from Ohrid, the capital of the first Bulgarian empire. It is men-
tioned in documents of I049 and IOSI as the monastery 'of the great mar-
tyr George', though it may have been a Greek house at this time. 33 Like
many of the smaller monasteries, Zographou was in disarray by the end of
the twelfth century, just as Bulgaria was reasserting itself and throwing off
Byzantine rule. It was certainly back in Bulgarian hands by about I270,
when it became a ruling monastery with estates and other privileges grant-
ed to it by Bulgarian tsars, Byzantine emperors and Serbian kings.
All three Slav houses-St Panteleimon, Chilandar and Zographou-
were flourishing centres of Byzantine literary culture. All three housed
scriptoria where Greek texts were translated into Slavonic and diffused to
the monasteries and cities of Eastern Europe. All three attracted holy men
who were anxious to be trained in the monastic life and who were sent back
to their homelands to found monasteries on the Athonite model and to
transmit the ideas and learning they had absorbed. In short, Athos was
already operating as the spiritual heart of Orthodoxy, playing host to 'an

BYZANTINE ATHOS 67
27 The port buildings of Zographou, the Bulgarian monastery. Though an early fo undation, the
monastery has no surviving Byzantine buildings, but the tower at the port dates from the late fifteenth or
early sixteenth century.

alternating current of men and ideas flowing to and from the Mediter-
ranean' which the Oxford historian Dimitri Obolensky has graphically
likened to 'the pulsations of a living heart' .34

THE LATIN EMPIRE

The second half of the twelfth century saw a marked decline in standards of
spirituality and even of discipline not only on Athos but in monasteries
throughout the Byzantine empire. Archbishop Eustathios of Thessaloniki
(c. I 178-95) was so shocked by what he found that he wrote a treatise On the
Improvement of Monastic Life in which he drew attention to some of the
worst abuses in an attempt to eradicate them. His complaints ranged over
such matters as the admission of unsuitable candidates (such as beggars and
criminals) to the monasteries, the worldliness of monks who divided their

68 BYZANTINE ATHOS
time between hunting and the pursuit of wealthy patrons, the consequent
neglect of spiritual matters, and the careless management of libraries.
Eustathios was so outspoken in his criticisms that he was temporarily
expelled from his see, a clear enough indication that there was a good deal
of truth in what he wrote.
As usual, the state of the monasteries was a reflection of the state of the
empire. The last two decades of the twelfth century witnessed a serious
weakening of the imperial administration, a massacre of the Italian mer-
chants in Constantinople, riots over the succession, the loss of Bulgaria and
Cyprus, and the appearance of separatist regimes in various parts of the
empire. Byzantium was already beginning to fragment when in 1204 the
unthinkable happened and self-styled crusaders captured and sacked the
city. Steven Runciman, a historian renowned for his balanced and sober
judgement, has written of this event with uncharacteristic passion:

There was never a greater crime against humanity than the Fourth Crusade. Not
only did it cause the destruction or dispersal of all the treasures of the past that
Byzantium had devotedly stored, and the mortal wounding of a civilisation that
was still active and great; but it was also an act of gigantic political folly. It
brought no help to the Christians in Palestine. Instead it robbed them of poten-
tial helpers. And it upset the whole defence of Christendom. 35

In an earlier book he had put it bluntly: 'The conquests of the Ottomans

were made possible by the Crusaders' crime.' 36
The immediate repercussions of this disaster on the Holy Mountain
were dire. The territories of the empire were parcelled out among the con-
querors, with the Venetians taking the western half of Greece and the
Franks the eastern. Boniface of Montferrat, passed over for the throne of
Constantinople, was installed as ruler of Thessaloniki. Throughout the
empire there was an attempt to introduce the Latin rite, Greek bishops were
replaced by or made subservient to Latin bishops, and monks suffered per-
secution and expulsion. On Athos the bishop of Sebaste, who had formal
jurisdiction over the monasteries, was succeded by a Latin bishop, who
promptly built a castle from which he could dispatch raiding parties to
attack them. Stories are still told of the outrages perpetrated by this despot-
ic prelate. So unspeakable were they that he had to be removed by the Latin
emperor. Despite the aspirations of the pope, the chasm between the
Orthodox east and the Latin west was reinforced by the atrocities commit-
ted by the Franks, and the breakdown in relations now became permanent.
Pope Innocent III was genuinely shocked not only by the sack of
Constantinople but by the reports of subsequent ill-treatment of the sub-
ject churches and monasteries. The monks of Athos were so demoralized by
the situation that they turned to him for protection and restoration of their

BYZANTINE ATHOS 69
rights. In a bull dated 17 January 1213 the pope declared his support for
them and their way of life; he confirmed their rights, privileges and immu-
nities, and denounced the behaviour of the former bishop of Sebaste and his
thugs. Even the Emperor Henry of Flanders (1206-16) was persuaded to
intervene on behalf of the monks, as a result of which there was a tempo-
rary respite in the Frankish raids. But ten years later a new pope complained
that the Athonites were showing signs of disobedience and were inclined to
revolt. Small wonder that the Mountain remained in a state of turmoil as
long as a Latin emperor reigned in Constantinople.

70 BYZANTINE ATHOS
 4
PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS

I n the wake of the sack of Constantinople and the subsequent dismem-

berment of the empire, a number of successor states sprang up in what
had been imperial territory. The province of Epirus, together with all of
north-western Greece and much of Thessaly, was united under a dynasty of
rulers (so-called despots) who held it until I3I8, when it came under Italian
rule. In the east, another state was founded at Trebizond by the Komnenos
family, who had been forced to give up the throne of Constantinople to the
Angeloi in I I85. This self-styled empire extended along a strip of Black Sea
coastline and survived for 250 years before falling to the Ottomans in I46I.
Most successful of all was the state founded at Nicaea in north-west Asia
Minor, which in I2o8 became the capital of the Byzantine empire in exile.
Nicaea was also the seat of the patriarch and became the centre of an admin-
istratively and financially efficient regime that lasted until the recapture of
Constantinople in I26I.
As the Latin empire gradually weakened during the thirteenth century,
there was a race between Epirus and Nicaea for the recovery of
Constantinople. Epirus took an early lead with the capture of Thessaloniki
in I224, but was soon ousted by a revived Bulgaria, which took over most of
the European territories of the Latins. These territories were in turn
acquired by the emperor of Nicaea. After defeating an alliance of the des-
pot of Epirus, the Latin prince of Achaea and Manfred of Sicily at the bat-
tle of Pelagonia in I259, Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea was free to turn
his attention to Constantinople. He entered the city in triumph on I 5
August I26I, thereby founding a dynasty that would rule Byzantium until
its fall to the Otomans in I453·
The Palaiologoi began strongly. During the years in Nicaea, they had
cast off most of the bureaucratic baggage that had weighed down the earli-
er imperial administration. They had abandoned their claims to universal
dominion. They had fostered good relations with the aristocracy and the
monasteries by granting them additional privileges and estates, and they had
made a concerted effort to preserve their Hellenic heritage by founding
schools, collecting manuscripts from monastic libraries (including those of
Mount Athos), and editing texts. Once they were re-established in
Constantinople, the new regime was in most respects better equipped to
serve the remnants of the empire than its predecessor.
 THE UNION OF CHURCHES

The emperor's first task was to restore the city itself, to repair its damaged
churches and public buildings, repopulate its residential quarters and
strengthen its defences. The most immediate danger was from the west, and
there remained a serious threat of invasion by Charles I of Anjou. Michael
VIII was a skilful diplomat who realized that the best way to secure the
empire from further attack by the Latins was an ecclesiastical union with
Rome; this was effected by the emperor's representatives at the second
Council of Lyons in 1274. Having secured the submission of the Byzantine
Church to the supremacy of Rome, Pope Gregory X agreed to honour his
side of the bargain and remove the threat of attack by Charles of Anjou.
Michael and his Latinizing patriarch John Bekkos won this diplomatic vic-
tory in the teeth of opposition from monks, clergy and the populace in
Byzantium. The Church was the most conservative element in Byzantine
society and was fiercely proud of its Orthodox traditions. To have them
compromised by a 'Latin-minded' emperor was deeply offensive. The sur-
vival of the empire had been ensured, but at the cost of the loyalty of the
majority of the emperor's subjects. Seeds of disaffection had been sown for
which the empire would pay dearly in the years to come.
Violent persecution of those unwilling to accept the union ensued,
nowhere more so than on the Holy Mountain. Stories are still told of the
acts of heroism performed by Athonite fathers willing to die for their faith,
though there is some confusion with similar stories relating to the attempt-
ed union of churches in the dying days of the empire in the fifteenth cen-
tury. The emperor is said to have sent an expedition to Athos, which he may
even have accompanied, to enforce the union on the monks and punish
those who refused to accept it. At Iviron, for example, it is said that the
tombs of the founders were desecrated and that some monks were drowned.
At Vatopedi some monks were taken to the top of a hill and hanged; others
suffered the same fate outside the monastery; and the abbot Euthymios was
drowned from a rock in the bay (a cross still marks the spot).
R.M. Dawkins's Monks of Athos is a rich source of such accounts,
though he suggests the reader approaches them with a degree of scepticism.
In a chapter devoted to 'The Latinizing Persecutions' he describes the hill-
top now called the Abbot's Seat, where the monks are said to have been
hanged, and urges caution:

The stories now told about this place vary. One is that an abbot of Vatopedi was
hanged there. Another is that the Pope of Rome came to Athos and brought the
abbot of Vatopedi up to this place and beheaded him. This story comes from the
muleteer Panayotis, to whose muddled mind nothing seemed improbable. It was
he who failed to find the path down to Pantokrator, and in his efforts to guide us

72 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 there from Vatopedi brought us very nearly all the way to Karyes. A matter of fact
version of the legend is that an abbot after walking up the very steep hill from
Vatopedi, here sat down and expired: hence the name The Seat of the Abbot. 1

A particularly gruesome story is told of the monks of Zographou who

resisted the Latinizers. 2 Twenty-six of them denied the papal claims,
refused to flee, and locked themselves inside the tower of the monastery,
whereupon the tower was burnt to the ground. Their martyrdom is depict-
ed in a fresco in the narthex to the katholikon. The site of the tower is
marked by a cenotaph in the north-west corner of the courtyard. A lamp
burns continually in front of it, and an inscription tells the story of what
happened on that fateful day, 10 October 1274.
Other monasteries, such as Megiste Lavra and Xeropotamou, are said to
have yielded to the emperor's demands and allowed the Latin mass to be cel-
ebrated in their churches. Terrible fates overtook the monks as a result of
their treachery.
What are we to make of such stories? No doubt they have been embel-
lished with the passing of the years. There is no hard evidence to support
them/ and suggestions that the Protaton was burned and all the monks in
Karyes massacred clearly tax the limits of credulity. But rather than dismiss
them out of hand, as E. Amand de Mendieta does/ it seems to me prefer-
able, as so often with Athonite oral tradition, to regard them as embroideries
of a fundamental truth. Michael VIII had after all accepted the union of
churches; he had to make some effort to enforce it, if only to show his
friends in the west that he was serious about what he said; it was inevitable
that, if he did so, he would encounter opposition, not least among the
defenders of the faith on the Holy Mountain. Suffice it to say that the
Latinizing policies died with the emperor in 1282, and his successor,
Andronikos II, repudiated the union that had saved the empire for his
father, albeit with short-term traumatic consequences.

PIRATE RAms
For Athos, Andronikos II Palaiologos was a good king. Even Donald Nicol,
who takes a pragmatic approach in his history of the last centuries of
Byzantium, has to admit that it is surprising that he achieved as much as he
did, given the problems with which he had to contend at the end of the thir-
teenth century. 'Politically and internally the Empire and the Church were
divided into warring factions. There was never enough money, there were
never enough troops. ' 5 He was a great benefactor of the monasteries in the
course of his long reign (1282-1328) and he was to die a monk himself (in

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 73
1332). But with hindsight it is unfortunate that in order to counteract the
advances being made by the Turks in Asia Minor he chose to hire a band of
Spanish mercenaries known as the Catalan Grand Company who fought,
not under his command, but under that of their own leader Roger de Flor.
At first the Catalans achieved some success, driving the Turks out of
Cyzicus and relieving Philadelphia. But after their fleet was lost in a skirmish
with the Genoese and their leader was assassinated during a meeting with the
emperor's son in 1305, they turned on the Byzantines, blaming them for their
misfortunes. They took over the Gallipoli peninsula, declaring it Spanish
territory and massacring all the inhabitants; and from there they launched
devastating attacks on the coast to the west. For two and a half years, with
the backing of the Bulgarians, they instigated a reign of terror throughout
Thrace before moving further west. They then established themselves on the
peninsula of Cassandra for two years (1307--9) from where they attacked the
neighbouring peninsula of Athos. No monastery was spared. Churches were
desecrated, books and archives were burnt, works of art were plundered.
According to the account left by Abbot Daniel of Chilandar, his monastery
resisted the attacks for almost three years. He eventually escaped to seek help
from Serbia. Meanwhile the monks of the Lavra were so desperate that they
appealed to James II of Aragon to deliver them. According to E. Amand de
Mendieta, 'This was the most dreadful experience that the Holy Mountain
had to undergo in its thousand years of existence. ' 6
Sated with hagioritic loot, the Catalans eventually moved on by way of
Thessaly and Boeotia to conquer Thebes and Athens. There in 1311 they
took over the duchy set up by the Franks in 1204, thus succeeding, where
they had failed in Asia Minor, Gallipoli and Cassandra, in establishing a
principality of their own which they ruled for nearly eighty years.

RECONSTRUCTION AND RENEWAL

After more than a century of deterioration and disorder, which encompassed

periods of foreign rule and scenes of violent confrontation, the monasteries
were at a low ebb. To their rescue came an emperor determined to make good
the havoc created by his seditious mercenaries. Regardless of their ethnic alle-
giance, Andronikos made grants to all the monasteries. Their buildings were
restored, their estates were extended, their numbers of monks were increased,
their privileges were confirmed. Nor was all the munificence Byzantine. The
tsar of Serbia, Stefan Dushan (1331-55), who had enlarged his empire to
encompass much of Macedonia and Chalkidiki (including Athos), also
became a benefactor on a grand scale, and not just of Serbian Chilandar, but
Dochiariou, Esphigmenou, Lavra, Philotheou, Vatopedi, Xenophontos,

74 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
Xeropotamou, and Zographou all benefited from his generosity. Since its cap-
ture by the Mongols in 1240, Kievan Rus' had ceased to send monks to St
Panteleimonos, and the buildings had been ransacked by the Catalans in
1307-8; but now they were repopulated with Serbian monks and the
monastery received generous donations from Tsar Stefan Dushan.
In addition to this refurbishment of the existing monasteries, seven
major monasteries were either founded or refounded during the fourteenth
or early fifteenth century. All seven quickly established themselves as
prominent institutions and all survive today. In fact, apart from the founda-
tion of Stavronikita in 1541, the list of monasteries has not changed since
the early fifteenth century.
The monastery of Grigoriou is first mentioned in documents of 1347
and 1348, though the precise date of its foundation is unknown, as is the
identity of its founder. His name was Gregory, but he is probably not to be
identified with Gregory of Sinai who by 1330 had left Athos to found anoth-
er monastery in Thrace. In 1489 Grigoriou is described as being Serbian.
Simonopetra also was founded (or refounded if one credits the Life of
Simon which describes an earlier foundation in about 1257) around the
middle of the fourteenth century.7 Prince John Ugljesa, the Serbian despot
of Serres ( 1365-71 ), was given permission by the Holy Community to erect
buildings 'in that empty place' (which suggests that, if there had been a
monastery there before, it had now completely disappeared). Their inaugu-

28 Simonopetra seen from the west. Perched on top of a rock 300 metres above sea level,
the monastery has a most spectacular location.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 75
ration is celebrated in a royal chrysobull which he issued in 1368. He
endowed it not only with magnificent buildings, treasures and works of art
but also with estates and properties to provide for its income.
More is known about the monastery of Dionysiou which was founded
between 1356 and 1362 by one Dionysios, a Greek from Kastoria whose
brother was the metropolitan of Trebizond. As a result of this connection
the monastery easily won the support of the emperor of Trebizond, Alexios
III Komnenos, who, in the expectation that the monastery would be named
after himself (which it never was), saw it as a means of enhancing his per-
sonal prestige. His imperial chrysobull, dated September 1374, is preserved
in the monastery's archives, a magnificent document decorated with minia-
tures of the emperor and his empress being blessed by StJohn the Baptist
and still retaining its gold seal. In it he endows the monastery with lavish
gifts and an annual income, in return for which he and his family were to be
commemorated in perpetuity at services in the church. 'For all emperors,
kings, or rulers of note have built monasteries on Mount Athas for their
eternal memory; and since the emperor of Trebizond surpasses many of
them, he too should add a new foundation in order to live eternally in the
memory of the people and to enjoy unending pleasures of the soul. ' 8
The monastery of Pantokrator was founded by two brothers, Alexios and
John, who were high up in the service of the Byzantine emperor John V
Palaiologos (1341--91) to whom they were related by marriage. In the confused
political situation of the time, when the empire was riven by civil war, these
two brothers had carved out for themselves a small principality in eastern
Macedonia based on the castle of Chrysoupolis. Branded as 'adventurers' by
Nikolaos Oikonomides, they obtained legitimacy for their operation by means
of an imperial chrysobull granted to them in March 1357. At the same time
they also acquired land on the Holy Mountain where they instigated the con-
struction of Pantokrator, providing it with revenue and estates, half of which
they retained for themselves. After the death of Alexios in 1368/9, John con-
tinued to defend his territory against the advancing Turks until 1383 when it
was taken at the same time as Serres. John withdrew to Pantokrator where he
died in 1386/7.
This was the end of the adventure [writes Oikonomides]. A company of soldiers
of fortune, like so many others in the fourteenth century, ended by creating a
semi-independent principality-a Greek 'emirate' combining piety with aggres-
sive greediness. The phenomenon was not unique and was too small in scale to
influence the course of events. But it left a permanent legacy: the monastery of
Pantokrator.9

29 Right: Dionysiou seen from the south. This monastery was founded in the second half
of the fourteenth century with the support of Alexios III Komnenos, emperor of
Trebizond.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 76
 -z r·#{'· ./.

~r~~r~~l?.;t~~~~d~
"·~
r(
:;, .. t. j

. '

30 The chrysobull of 1374 recording the endowment of the monastery of Dionysiou by the
emperor of Trebizond. In this miniature StJohn the Baptist, to whom the monastery is
dedicated, gives his blessing to the emperor and empress.

78 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
3 r Pantokrator, another fourteenth-century foundation , seen from the south. The
monastery stands on a headland overlooking a small harbour.

The monastery now known as St Paul's has its origins in the late tenth
or early eleventh century when it was first set up as a dependency of
Xeropotamou with the same name as its parent house. By 1035 it seems to
have won its independence, and later assumed the name of an abbot named
Paul. But this early foundation had long been abandoned when in the 138os
two Serbs from Kastoria, named Gerasimos Radonias and Antonios-
Arsenios Pagasis, purchased the site and, with support from both the
Serbian and Byzantine royal houses, created a flourishing new Serbian
monastery, full y endowed with income and estates. 10
The monastery of Koutloumousiou also was an earlier foundation, dat-
ing from the eleventh century, but by the 136os it was seriously dilapidated .
The abbot Chariton sent a plea to the voivodes of Wallachia, Alexander
Basarab (1352- 64) and his son John Vladislav (1364- 74), who undertook the
rebuilding of the entire monastery. Chariton also had played on the
Wallachians' eagerness to enhance their personal prestige. According to a
document preserved in the archives, John Vladislav was advised that 'he
should act in the same fashion as many other rulers have acted before him,
that is Serbs and Bulgarians, Russians and Georgians, who obtained the
right to be commemorated and honoured in this admirable Holy Mountain,
the eye of the Universe one might say, and who acquired the right to rest
body and soul for their people' . 11 In return Chariton agreed to admit

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 79
32 St Paul's from the south-west. The monastery overlooks a fertile valley but is itself
overshadowed by the peak of the mountain which towers over it.

8o PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
Romanian monks to his monastery which for a while was known as the
'monastery of the voivode' or the 'lavra of Wallachia'. In the light of
Romanian support, so generously given not only to Koutloumousiou but to
numerous other monasteries, especially during the Tourkokratia, it seems
one of the injustices of Athos that the Romanians have never been given
permanent control of a ruling monastery.
Konstamonitou was originally an eleventh-century Greek foundation. It
had been founded by a man from Kastamon in Asia Minor (or by a member
of the Kastamonites family) and was therefore properly known as
Kastamonitou. But the name was changed to lend credence to the myth of
an earlier foundation by the emperor Constans (34o-50) for which there is
no evidence whatever. This monastery too was in a bad way after a fire in
the 1420s when the abbot Neophytos appealed to a wealthy Serbian aristo-
crat and general with the name of Radic. Radic owned silver mines at Novo
Brdo and poured his own money into restoring the monastery. He himself
was tonsured before his death, and the monastery flourished as a Serbian
house for the rest of the fifteenth century. 'The case of the Celnik [general]
Radic', writes one scholar, 'indicates that Mt Athos had become a place of
refuge not only for poor Christians, but also for rich aristocrats, all of whom
wished to escape the warfare and pillaging which had become such a feature
of life in the fifteenth-century Balkans. m

THE INFLUENCE OF SERBIA

The influence of Serbia on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Athos

deserves comment. The empire created by Stefan Dushan did not long sur-
vive his death (1355): Athos was lost by 1371; and by 1389 the Serbs had
become vassals of the Ottomans. But cultural, and especially ecclesiastical,
contacts between Serbia and Byzantium were maintained; and Serbian
rulers and feudal lords continued to support the Athonite monasteries most
generously until the downfall of Serbia in 1459. When the Russian monk
Isaiah visited Athos in 1489, he listed no fewer than five monasteries as pre-
dominantly Serbian (Dochiariou, Grigoriou, Dionysiou, St Paul's and
Chilandar), a list that a few years earlier would presumably have included
Konstamonitou as well. 13 But Chilandar was always the jewel in the Serbian
crown, and the basis of its wealth was its landed property. By the end of the
fourteenth century it possessed more than thirty metochia and 360 villages
over which it exercised full administrative, fiscal and judicial rights so that
it operated almost like a state within a state. According to the monk Isaiah,
by the late fifteenth century the number of its properties had increased to
6oo villages, and this included a total of 18o,ooo vineyards. The power that

PALAIOWGAN ATHOS 81
33 Left: By tradition a tenth-century foundation, the courtyard of Dochiariou climbs steeply up the
hillside. The katholikon (right) was built in the sixteenth century and the defence tower is dated
!617.

34 The so-called Milutin diptych from Chilandar. This astonishing work of the late thirteenth or
early fourteenth century contains twenty-four miniatures painted on parchment and encased in rock
crystal, apparently in imitation of enamel, depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

Chilandar wielded, not only spiritually but economically and politically, was
unequalled among Athonite monasteries at the time. 'Without exaggera-
tion', the historians of the monastery have written,
Chilandar may be described as the centre of medieval Serbia's spiritual life and
an important intermediary and representative in Serbia's relations with
Byzantium. Without its intermediary role, it is inconceivable that Serbia would
have adopted Byzantine civilization and the classical heritage. As it was, the elite
of the Serbian Church, literature and theology passed through Chilandar. In the
eyes of Byzantium, Chilandar was a lasting proof of Serbian legitimacy, recog-
nized and confirmed by imperial chrysobulls. Enjoying the status of a Byzantine
'imperial lavra', this rich and independent monastery was Serbia's best diplo-
matic mission in Byzantium . 14

Among these imperial chrysobulls is that issued by the emperor John V

in July 1351 confirming the privileges of Chilandar at the request 'of the

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 83
35 Detail of the Annunciation from the so-called Milutin diptych from Chilandar .

84 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
sublime emperor of Serbia, his beloved . . . Lord Stephen'. 15 This Lord
Stephen, otherwise known as Stefan Dushan, had already had himself
crowned as 'emperor of the Serbs and Greeks' and variously described him-
self as 'lord of almost the whole Roman empire' and 'successor of the great
and holy Greek emperors'. It is interesting to find him deferring to the
emperor of Byzantium as the only legitimate ruler of the entire Christian
Commonwealth at a time when the Holy Mountain itself was Serbian terri-
tory. As Donald Nicol remarks, Stefan Dushan 'had played cat and mouse
with the Byzantine emperors for many years'. 16
To this day Chilandar controls as much as twenty per cent of the terri-
tory of the Holy Mountain as well as a large proportion of the cells in and
around Karyes. It still holds fourth place in the hierarchy; its buildings are
as beautiful as those of any monastery; and its library and treasury bear wit-
ness to its former wealth and power.

EMPERORS AND PATRIARCHS

Since the tenth century Athos had been under the direct jurisdiction of the
emperor. By tradition the hegoumenoi had elected their own Protos or pri-
mate, whose election and powers were then confirmed by the emperor. In an
act designed to strengthen to authority of the patriarchate and to make the
monks more accountable, Andronikos II Palaiologos issued a solemn
chrysobull in November 1312 by which he transferred jurisdiction over the
monasteries, including the appointment of the Protos, to the ecumenical
patriarch. In future, every newly elected Protos was required to visit
Constantinople to be ordained by the patriarch. This had the effect of weak-
ening the position of the Protos and would have been unthinkable a centu-
ry earlier.
Further threats to the independence of the Athonites came from closer
at hand. Successive bishops of Ierissos attempted to capitalize on their hon-
orific title of 'bishop of the Holy Mountain' and exercise their episcopal
authority over the monasteries. After lengthy disputes the matter was final-
ly resolved by Patriarch Anthony IV, who in 1392 confirmed the traditional
rights and privileges of the Mountain and of the Protos and decreed that the
bishop of Ierissos was not to enter its territory without invitation from the
Protos. Furthermore the Protos was given the authority to appoint spiritu-
al fathers and confessors.
By the end of the century problems of monastic discipline and obedi-
ence again surfaced and the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos attempted to
resolve these issues by sending a delegation of bishops to issue a third
typikon. 17 This charter, dating from about 1400, defined the order of prece-

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 85
dence between the hegoumenoi and it restored some of the respect and
powers of the Protos: his permision was required before the patriarch could
send an exarchate to the Mountain; no bishop should exercise episcopal
authority there without his consent; he had the right to confer blessings on
all the hegoumenoi except that of the Lavra; he was to be honoured and
respected by all; he had jurisdiction over the vicinity of Karyes; he was to
be elected by the hegoumenoi, but upon his election be sent to
Constantinople to be ordained by the patriarch. All the monasteries were
required to commemorate the name of the patriarch during the Liturgy.
Any layman who had spent three years on the Mountain was required either
to be tonsured or to leave. And there were the usual exclusion orders relat-
ing to 'beardless youths' and female animals.
The emperor's own authority was tottering meanwhile. In 1383 eastern
Macedonia had fallen to the Ottomans though the monasteries of Athos and
their estates remained untouched by their raids, presumably because the
monks had earlier done a deal with the sultan whereby in return for their
submission to him they would receive his protection. Twenty years later,
after the sultan's defeat at Ankara by the Mongols under Timur
(Tamerlane), the area surrounding Thessaloniki and including Athos was
restored to the empire, only to be conquered again in 1430. Meanwhile in
1424 a delegation of monks paid homage to Sultan Murad II in Adrianople.
Despite its submission to the Turk, however, the Mountain maintained
close relations with Constantinople as long as a Christian emperor reigned,
and indeed a party of Athonite monks joined the emperor's delegation to
the Council of Florence in 1438--9. 18

ST GREGORY PAl.AMAS AND THE HESYCHAST CONTROVERSY

We have already seen that, despite the internal and external threats to the
survival of the empire, the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries were a
time of physical renewal and resurgence for the Athonite monasteries. In the
spiritual, intellectual and cultural spheres a similar pattern may be observed,
and it is not inappropriate to speak in terms of a Palaiologan renaissance.
It was on Athos that the so-called hesychast controversy first arose
which was eventually to spread throughout the Orthodox world and split
the Byzantine Church. The controversy shook the very foundations of the
state and probably hastened its fall. No fewer than four church councils in
Constantinople were needed before it was finally settled and the interpreta-
tions of St Gregory Palamas were incorporated into Orthodoxy, reviving a
tradition originating from the earliest days of monasticism.
The word 'hesychasm' derives from the Greek word for stillness or tran-

86 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
36 St Gregory PaJamas (1296--1359), defender of the hesychasts, a near-contemporary
portrait in the chapel of the Agioi Anargyroi at Vatopedi.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 87
quillity (hesychia). It occurs in the 'Sayings of the Desert Fathers' with ref-
erence to inner tranquillity, but a hesychast could refer to someone seeking
either inner or outer stillness. Hesychasm as a spiritual tradition is most
fully developed by StJohn Klimakos in the seventh century for whom hesy-
chia is a state of inner silence and vigilance, closely associated with the name
of Jesus and the repetition of short prayers. The tradition was revived by St
Symeon the New Theologian in the eleventh century in Byzantium and
then again around 1300 by St Gregory of Sinai, whose hesychast teachings
were particularly warmly received by the monks when he arrived on Athos.
As Gregory travelled around the empire, so the hesychast tradition spread
throughout the Orthodox world.
Hesychasts devote themselves especially to the prayer of silence, what is
often referrred to as 'prayer of the heart'. This means prayer that is not
merely said by the lips or thought by the mind, but generated spontaneous-
ly by the whole of one's being until it eventually takes over one's whole con-
sciousness and repeats itsel( Developing out of the invocation of the name
of Jesus, this prayer of the heart became known as the Jesus Prayer: 'Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me.' Ceaseless repetition of this
prayer, combined with certain breathing exercises and a particular bodily
posture, induces a state of mind which enables the participant to experience
a vision of divine and uncreated light such as that which was once shown to
the apostles and prophets at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
In the mid-fourteenth century the practices and claims of the hesychasts
were challenged by a learned monk called Barlaam of Calabria. Barlaam
argued that it was impossible to know or experience God in this world; he
jeered at the physical contortions that the hesychasts employed to induce a
state of ecstasy; and he attacked their claims to experience visions of the
divine and uncreated light as shockingly materialistic. Meanwhile the hesy-
chasts found a champion in the brilliant Athonite theologian Gregory
Palamas, later archbishop of Thessaloniki (1347-59). Gregory had been
tonsured at Vatopedi and had lived at the Lavra before becoming abbot of
Esphigmenou, but he had abandoned that office for a life of asceticism as a
hermit near Verria.
In his principal contribution to the debate Gregory stressed the bodily
presence of Christ in the sacramental life of the Church (which was ques-
tioned by Barlaam) and thus linked his defence of the hesychasts with a
defence of the Gospel itself:

Since the Son of God, in his incomparable love for men, did not only unite his
divine Hypostasis with our nature, by clothing himself in a living body and a soul
gifted with intelligence ... but also united himself... with the human hypostases
themselves, in mingling himself with each of the faithful by communion with his
Holy Body, and since he becomes one single body with us and makes us a tern-

88 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 pie of the undivided Divinity, for in the very body of Christ dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, how should he not illuminate those who commune
worthily with the divine ray of his Body which is within us, lightening their
souls, as he illuminated the very bodies of the disciples on Mount Tabor? For, on
the day of the Transfiguration, that Body, source of the light of grace, was not
yet united with our bodies; it illuminated from outside those who worthily
approached it, and sent the illumination into the soul by the intermediary of the
physical eyes; but now, since it is mingled with us and exists in us, it illuminates
the soul from within. 19

Gregory took a moderate line in his explanation of the uncreated light of

Tabor and in drawing distinctions between the divine energies (which we do
know) and the divine essence (which we do not) and was thus able to recon-
cile hesychasm with traditional Orthodoxy. But there were extremists on
both sides and a dispute which had initially involved only monks and theolo-
gians rapidly escalated into a controversy in which the whole population
became embroiled. After a synod in Constantinople in 1341 at which his
attacks were deemed to be unsubstantiated, Barlaam returned to Calabria.
Still the dispute rumbled on; a second council, later in 1341, came to a sim-
ilar conclusion and it took a third council in 1347 and a fourth in 1351 before
Gregory's teaching was finally vindicated, a vindication that was sealed by
his canonization in 1368, just nine years after his death. Bishop Kallistos, the
historian of the Church, concludes his discussion of the controversy on a
positive note: 'Certainly Gregory Palamas was no revolutionary innovator,
but firmly rooted in the tradition of the past; yet he was a creative theologian
of the first rank, and his work shows that Orthodox theology did not cease to
be active after the eighth century and the seventh Ecumenical Council. ' 20
The victory of the hesychasts had profound repercussions throughout the
Orthodox world, for there were few subjects that engaged the Byzantine mind
more than theology, and in the Byzantine world theology and politics were
frequently intertwined. Socially and politically the dispute had divided the
Byzantines into two factions. On the Palamite side were the aristocrats, the
landowners, the rich, and of course the monks. On the opposing side were the
poor, the landless, the intelligentsia, and the common people. The victory of
the monks represented a victory for the forces of conservatism. Louis Brehier,
the historian of the empire, reaches a more sobering conclusion:
The victory of the hesychasts over the humanists perpetuated the triumph of
monasticism. In the fifteenth century, the monks were among the largest
landowners; they have control of the Church, and the upper ranks of the hierar-
chy are selected solely from their numbers. They have enormous influence
among the people, which they use to arouse anti-western feeling, and they
obstruct imperial policy by opposing all friendly advances towards Rome. They
ended by controlling the Church, and by ruining the State. 21

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 89
 A less speculative, more judicious statement is offered by Steven
Runciman: 'In the outcome Palamism triumphed, partly because it had the
approval of the majority of the Greek clergy, partly because it had the polit-
ical support of John Cantacuzenus, and partly because of the personality
and intellect of Palamas himsel£ ' 22 But there can be no doubting the fact
that the tradition of hesychasm was now deeply embedded in the Holy
Mountain and that as a result the monks acquired an unprecedented degree
of influence and authority over the development of spirituality throughout
the Orthodox world. As Dimitri Obolensky writes,
Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Rumania and Russia were all affected by this new
cosmopolitan movement: monks, churchmen, writers and artists, travelling from
country to country-'wandering for the sake of the Lord', as a fourteenth-cen-
tury writer put it-found themselves in a similar spiritual and cultural environ-
ment; and through this 'Hesychast International', whose influence extended far
beyond the ecclesiastical sphere, the different parts of the Byzantine
Commonwealth were, during the last hundred years of its existence, linked to
each other and to its centre perhaps more closely than ever before. 23

Nor did the influence of the hesychasts come to a halt in 1453. Far from
it: Bishop Kallistos believes it was the hesychasts-'those who emphasized
the inner, spiritual values of the Greek Christian inheritance'-who pro-
vided the oppressed Greek Church with the strength to survive the long,
dark centuries of Tourkokratia. It was they who provided the inspiration for
the compilation of the great anthology of spiritual texts known as the
Philokalia, first published in Venice in 1782. 24 Moreover it is hesychasm that
provides the spiritual basis of the monastic revival that is taking place on the
Holy Mountain today.

ST MAXIMOS OF KAFSOKALYVIA

Prominent among the generation of ascetics that upheld the traditions of

hesychasm on the Holy Mountain around the time of the controversy is the
name of St Maximos Kafsokalyvitis ('of the burning hut'). Like many
Athonites, St Maximos was an eccentric character: his name, we are told,
derives from his habit of regularly changing his abode, which was never
more than a temporary hut made of branches, and this he always burnt
before seeking another resting place. He spent much of his life wandering in
the desert of Athos, at the southernmost tip of the peninsula, near where
the skete of Kafsokalyvia (founded in the eighteenth century) now stands:
the skete is named after the saint.
Four lives of St Maximos survive, of which two have been published. 25
One was written by St Niphon, who had shared a cell with St Maximos

90 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
towards the end of the latter's life. It is not a work of great literary merit,
but it contains a great deal of anecdotal information and seems to be
grounded in historical fact. The other, by Theophanes, hegoumenos of
Vatopedi, is a more polished account, based partly on Niphon's life but also
containing information from other sources. 'These two biographies', writes
Bishop Kallistos, 'despite their shortcomings, provide a relatively detailed
"icon" of the saint, indicating how his life and personality were remem-
bered by his friends in the years immediately following his death.' 26
We are told that from an early age St Maximos, whose baptismal name
was Manuel, was attracted to the life of the holy fool, the fool in Christ
(salos). Such fools in Christ occupy a respectable if unconventional place in
the spiritual tradition of the Christian east. 27 'To his parents and to every-
one he pretended to be an imbecile', writes Theophanes of the young
Manuel, though at the same time he already exhibited a particular devotion
to the Mother of God. At the age of seventeen he became a monk on Mount
Ganos in Thrace and after further wanderings as a homeless vagrant he
finally moved to Athos, where he settled for a while at the Great Lavra. One
day, when he was standing in the church, he saw a vision of the Mother of
God calling him to climb to the peak of Athos. The vision appeared three
times and the third time, on Whitsunday, he obeyed. At the summit there is
a chapel dedicated to the Transfiguration, and there Maximos remained
alone for three nights, despite violent storms and demons that were sent to
dislodge him. At last the Theotokos appeared to him again, gave him her
blessing, and fed him with heavenly bread.
Feigning madness to cloak his humility, Maximos now embarked on a
nomadic existence, wandering in the desert from cave to cave, burnt-down hut
to burnt-down hut, clothed in a single garment and sustaining himself on a
diet of nuts and berries. He kept this up for about ten years; then, after a meet-
ing with St Gregory of Sinai, he occupied a fixed abode for a further fourteen
years, though never relaxing his ascetic way of life: 'his cell was altogether bare
of possessions', writes Theophanes; 'he did not possess even a needle or a
spade or two garments; he had no bread, no wallet, not a single coin.' Finally,
assailed by demons, he bequeathed his cell to Niphon and moved closer to the
Lavra, so that he could hear the monastery's bells. Here he died, we are told,
at the age of ninety-five, some time between 1365 and 1375.
Why does this eccentric character merit our attention? Some of his con-
temporaries dismissed him as not so much a fool in Christ as simply a fool.
But others esteemed him as a prophet and miracle-worker. He was said to
be able to cast out demons, and Theophanes claims that he saw him fly
through the air. Like other Athonite ascetics both then and now, many visi-
tors came to speak with him as his fame spread abroad. According to both
Niphon and Theophanes, these included the emperors John V Palaiologos
and John VI Kantakouzenos, who travelled together (presumably around

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 9I
1350) specially to visit him. Having given them the benefit of his advice, he
predicted (correctly) that Kantakouzenos would be tonsured as a monk, and
later sent him symbolic gifts of dry bread, garlic and onion as an indication
that this would in due course be his diet.
But Maximos's spiritual gifts went deeper than this. More than once his
biographers refer to him as being transfigured by supranatural light,
describing the light in Palamite terms as 'non-material' and 'divine'. They
do not discuss the nature of the light, but their descriptions are consistent
with the interpretation of St Gregory Palamas that this light, whether man-
ifested externally or experienced internally during prayer, is to be identified
with the uncreated energies of God, the divine glory that Christ reflected at
his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. 'Is it not evident', wrote Gregory
Palamas, 'that there is but one and the same divine light: that which the
apostles saw on Tabor, which purified souls behold even now, and which is
the reality of the eternal blessings to come?'28 Palamas always maintained
that the theories he propounded were not based on his own personal opin-
ions but on the living, shared experience of the hesychast monks of Athos,
a claim that is supported by the accounts of St Maximos.
Equally significant is Theophanes's account of Maximos's meeting
with St Gregory of Sinai which we have already mentioned. In the course
of their conversation St Gregory asked Maximos if he possessed 'inner
prayer', to which Maximos replied 'Yes, I have possessed it from my
youth.' He went on to tell him of a time before he became a hermit when
he was praying to the Mother of God that he might receive the grace of
inner prayer:
And when with longing I kissed her most pure icon, suddenly I felt within my
chest and in my heart a great warmth, not burning me up but filling me with
refreshment and sweetness and deep compunction. From that moment my heart
began to say the prayer inwardly; and at the same time my reason, together with
my intellect, holds fast to the memory of Jesus and of my Theotokos, and it has
never left me.

Here is a clear reference to the Jesus Prayer that St Gregory had already been
teaching for some years on the Mountain and that had always been central to
hesychast practice. While saying it, Maximos goes on, he often passed into a
state of ecstasy, and as a result of this grace he felt compelled to leave the
monastery and move into the desert in search of greater stillness (hesychia).
In acknowledging the sources of his inspiration for the defence of hesy-
chasm, Gregory Palamas cites not only previous generations of scholars but
also contemporary ascetics and holy men who were known to him personal-
ly and from whom he had received first-hand instruction. 29 For him the liv-
ing oral tradition was no less important than the ancient written record.
Bishop Kallistos concludes:

92 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 There is no evidence that Palamas had ever met Maximos or even knew of his exis-
tence, and yet with good reason he might have included the Kapsokalyvite among
the contemporary authorities to whom he appealed. Much more than an eccentric
or an extremist, Maximos of Kapsokalyvia is a true witness to tradition-to that
continuing tradition of living, experiential theology which today, as in the four-
teenth century, constitutes the inner reality of the Holy Mountain of Athos. 30

ARTISTS AND MusiciANS

Most of the Byzantine art that survives on Athos dates from the Palaiologan
period (1261-1453). Most of what was done in the earlier centuries, espe-
cially in the form of fresco, was either covered over by later artists or
destroyed. Isolated examples of earlier art survive. In mosaic there are the
eleventh-century representations of the Annunciation high up on the piers
of the katholikon at Vatopedi and a Deesis (a representation of Christ
between the Virgin and StJohn the Baptist), better preserved and easier to
see, over the entrance to the narthex; at Xenophontos there are two mosaic
icons dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and one of the Virgin
at Chilandar from the twelfth century. In fresco nearly everything has been
painted over, though superb examples of what lies underneath have recent-
ly been revealed in the katholikon at Vatopedi; otherwise there are
fragments from the decoration of the old refectory at Vatopedi and a few
examples of apostles in the kellion of Rabdouchou. There are more, but still
not many, icons that date from the early centuries; the best of them at the
Protaton, Megiste Lavra, and Vatopedi. Legend would have us believe that
there are many more, but most of them can be shown by other criteria to
date from later periods.
Byzantine artists did not usually sign their work and as a result very few
are known to us by name. The exception is Manuel Panselinos, an artist of
the front rank from Thessaloniki who worked on Athos in the late thir-
teenth and early fourteenth centuries. Dionysios of Phourna, a monk,
painter and writer whose Painter's Manual (written on Athos in about
173o-4) presents a paradigm of Byzantine iconography, acknowledges
Panselinos as the source of his inspiration in the prologue to his treatise:
I urged myself to increase the slight talent that the Lord had given me, that is to
say the little art that I possess, which I learnt from my youth, studying hard to
copy as far as I was able, the master of Thessalonica, Manuel Panselinos, who
was compared with the brilliance of the moon; this painter, having worked on the
Holy Mountain of Athos, painting holy icons and beautiful churches, shone in
his profession of painting so that his brilliance exceeded that of the moon, and
he obscured with his miraculous art all painters, both ancient and modern, as is
shown most clearly by the walls and panels that were painted with images by

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 93
 37 St Phokas, a fresco of 1312, recently uncovered beneath a layer of
eighteenth-century overpainting, in the katholikon of Vatopedi.

94 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
38 The paintings in the nave of the katholikon at Vatopedi, dating from 1312, are arranged
in three bands. In the top band are scenes from the life of Christ (here in the north choir the
lamentation at the tomb); in the second band are scenes from the life of the Virgin (here the
presentation in the Temple); in the lowest band full-length portraits of saints and further
scenes (here Christ explaining the meaning of the washing of the disciples' feet).

him; and anyone who participates to some extent in painting will understand this
very clearly when he looks at them and examines them carefully. 31

Panselinos's greatest monument is the decoration of the church of the

Protaton in Karyes, a building which, as we have already noted, dates from
the first half of the tenth century and is the only basilica on Athos. There
is evidence on the south wall to suggest that by the end of the thirteenth
century the building was in a ruinous condition. At this time it was rebuilt
on the more usual cross-in-square plan at ground level, though the upper
levels retain the form of a timber-roofed basilica. After this reconstruction
Panselinos was invited to paint the walls following the usual iconographic
programme. The paintings belong to what is known as the Macedonian

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 95
39 'In the beginning was the Word.' StJohn dictates the opening words of his Gospel to his disciple
Prochoros, a fresco in the church of the Protaton painted by Manuel Panselinos c. IJOO.

School of painting, other examples of which may be seen in the churches at

Ohrid, Prizren, Studenica and Staro Nagoricino. Nothing else on Athos,
except for a fragment from the Lavra, appears to be by the master's hand,
but there are works by other painters of the Macedonian School at Vatopedi
and Chilandar. The paintings in the Protaton are arranged in four horizon-
tal bands. The top and bottom bands are occupied by full-length depictions
of saints- warrior saints and martyrs, prophets and ascetics- while the
central bands contain scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin in a con-
tinuous frieze, together with depictions of the four evangelists which would
in a domed church fill the pendentives. The striking realism of the figures
portrayed- the serene expressions of the youthful martyrs, the intense spir-
ituality of the ancient ascetics- the brightness of colour and the elegance of
drapery are features that distinguish these paintings from the more linear
traditions of Byzantine art and have led many commentators to draw com-
parisons with the contemporary work of Giotto. All are agreed that they are
masterpieces in their own right and that together they represent the most
important example of Byzantine art of this period.

96 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
) The Virgin Hodegetria, an icon of c.I26o-7o from Chilandar. The Virgin's sad gaze is
ought to foreshadow the future events of Christ's Passion.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 97
41 The Presentation of the Virgin is the patronal feast of Chilandar. In this early
fourteenth-century icon the Virgin's parents Joachim and Anne present the diminutive
Mary to the priest Zacharias.

42 Right: Christ Pantokrator, an icon of c. 1360 from Vatopedi. It was originally one of a
group of icons that graced the iconostasis in the monastery's katholikon.

Three other examples of work of the Macedonian School survive on

Athos, though they are probably not by the hand of the master himself. The
first is the outer narthex of the katholikon at Vatopedi, where the original
painting dates from 1312, though some of it has been covered by later work.
The excellent state of preservation and recent cleaning of these frescos give
an idea of what may yet be achieved at the Protaton when the projected con-

98 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 99
43 A mosaic icon of the Crucifixion from Vatopedi, c. 1300. The crucified Christ is flanked by the
Mother of God and StJohn. The icon's silver frame, contemporary with the icon itself, illustrates the
twelve great feasts of the Church's year

I 00 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 Mary, for you ha,·e found
4+ The Annunci ation, an icon of c. 1400 from Vatopedi. 'Do not be afraid,
fa Your with God' (Luke 1: 30).

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS IOI

45 StJohn Koukouzeles, maestro of Athonite music in the late thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries. From the fly-leaf of lviron cod. rzso, c.r67o.

I 02 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
46-49 Minor Art of the Palaiologan period. Above is the so-called Pulcheria Paten from the
monastery of Xeropotamou, fourteenth century. The iconography, carved in green steatite,
represents the Divine Liturgy, but the association with the empress Pulcheria (fifth century)
is fanciful.

4 7 The cover of a gospel book from the

monastery of Dionysiou, c. qoo. The
enamel panel depicting the Crucifixion is a
western import from Limoges.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 103

48 The cross of the empress Helena, wife of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, from the
monastery of Dionysiou, fifteenth century. The silver decoration in high and low relief depicts
(on the front) the Crucifixion and (on the back) Christ standing beside the Jordan.

104 PALAJOLOGAN ATHOS

49 A wooden lectern from the monastery of Vatopedi, fifteenth century. The 24 carved
panels depict scenes from the Akathist H ymn sung to the Virgin during Lent. Vatopedi has
two such lecterns, rare survivals of Byzantine woodcarving.

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 105

servation programme is eventually put into effect. The second example is
the katholikon at Chilandar, where a complete programme was painted in
about 1320, though much of it was unfortunately overpainted in the nine-
teenth century. The third example is to be found in the tiny chapel of St
Basil on the Sea, a fortified cell which was once an independent monastery
but became a dependency of Chilandar in the fifteenth century. Here the
figures of Christ the Saviour and the Virgin Hodegetria either side of the
iconostasis are clearly reminiscent of other work of the Macedonian School;
since their recent cleaning they have been securely dated to the second quar-
ter of the fourteenth century. 32
Other frescos of the Palaiologan period are to be found in the katholikon
of the monastery of Pantokrator, dating from the time of the foundation
around 1360, and also in the chapel of the Agioi Anargyroi at Vatopedi and
the chapel of the Archangels at Chilandar, though these have been mostly
overpainted. Worthy of special mention, however, is the portrait of St
Gregory Palamas standing beside St John Chrysostom in the Vatopedi
chapel. Here the overpainting has been removed to reveal a figure that was
painted in 1371, just three years after Gregory's canonization and twelve
years after his death, which makes this the next best thing to a contempo-
rary portrait. The inscription is particularly revealing of the regard in
which he was held by the monastery: 'The most holy Archbishop of
Thessaloniki Gregorios and New Chrysostom the Wonder-Worker'.
The portable icons of the Palaiologan period form a particularly impor-
tant collection, though many of them are as yet unpublished. 33 Icons are
among the things most revered and most treasured by the monks: often
they are associated with stories of the monastery's foundation; some are
regarded as miracle-working, others are linked with imperial donations
made in Byzantine times. The fact that they are portable makes them par-
ticularly vulnerable, though it also makes them easier to conceal when the
monastery is under attack. It also means that they can be imported from
elsewhere and many are of a quality to lead one to suspect that they derive
from major studios in centres such as Constantinople and Thessaloniki.
Especially notable are the sequences of apostles at Chilandar and Vatopedi,
and the mosaic icons such as the St Nicholas at Stavronikita, the
Crucifixion at Vatopedi, and the StJohn the Evangelist at the Lavra, which
may be the work of Panselinos himself. But if one were to single out just
one icon for special mention it might be the Annunciation at Vatopedi,
which dates from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century and occu-
pies a prominent place in the katholikon of that monastery whose patronal
feast it is. It attracted the attention of iconographer Efthymios Tsigaridas,
who regards it as truly representative of the finest productions of the
Palaiologan period. He compares it, in terms of physiognomy and style,
with the Hospitality of Abraham (an icon of the Trinity also belonging to

106 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS

Vatopedi) and above all with the icon of the same subject (dated 1425-7) by
the Russian artist Rublev. He concludes:

To sum up, it is our opinion that the high artistic quality of the icon, with its
slender figures, the idealised faces, this aristocratic tone and the delicacy of the
painting put it among the masterpieces of the aesthetics, associated with the
court, of the Late Palaeologue period and, more specifically, at the turn of the
14th to the 15th century. On the other hand, the close artistic connection which
we have noted between the icon of the Annunciation and the icon of the Holy
Trinity by Rubliev indicates the models which influenced the artistic develop-
ment of this great Russian artist of the first quarter of the 15th century. 34

The visual arts are the aspects of the Palaiologan renaissance that are
most obvious to the Athonite pilgrim because they are all around him and
strike the eye with an awesome impact. But equally striking, for those who
stop to listen, is the impact on the ear during services in the katholikon. If
StJohn of Damascus is regarded as the father of Byzantine liturgical music,
then St John Koukouzeles is justifiably honoured as its 'second source'.
Tonsured a monk of the Great Lavra early in the fourteenth century,
Koukouzeles was enormously influential in his capacity as a maistor, com-
poser, hymnographer, scribe, editor, teacher, and theorist of music. He (and
others around him) cultivated a distinct personal style in his compositions
of multiple settings of psalms and hymns, writing in a new 'beautified' or
'kalophonic' style which called for virtuoso rendering of melismatic pas-
sages and vocalizations on nonsense syllables ('teretisms'). Although he did
not invent the style, which had existed for half a century or more before his
time, he brought it to maturity and was responsible for its subsequent wide
dissemination. His work established the stylistic parameters for Greek
Orthodox chant, echoes of which are still to be heard every day in the
churches and chapels of the monasteries of Mount Athos. As the musicol-
ogist Grigorios T. Stathis has written,

The chants of the Athonite fathers, from the simplest and unsophisticated of fal-
terings to the highly artistic and kalophonic compositions, take flight on wings of
fear and longing from the thirst for God. They aspire to make contact with
supracelestial spheres, those so distant but at the same time so near, under the
painted domes of the Byzantine churches, both great and small, on the Holy
Mountain. These chants, which are the most suitable medium for the beauty of
and for preparation for the worship of God, are treasures ... 35

No less treasured are the gold-embroidered ornaments, the exquisite

miniature works of art, enkolpia (pendants worn 'on the breast') in jewelled
frames, reliquaries and sacred vessels of silver and gold, painted enamels,
ivory book covers, and illuminated manuscripts, so many of which date
from the spectacular cultural flowering that coincided with the total disin-

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 107

so A chalice, known as the 'Jasper' , from the monastery of Vatopedi, second half of the
fourteenth century. The cup is carved from a single piece of jasper; the base and handles are
gilded silver relief work. The decoration combines elements of Gothic and late Byzantine
inspiration .

tegration of the Byzantine state. Every monastery has a treasury bursting

with such priceless items. The doors are kept locked lest the contents take
the fancy of the ungodly as they did so often in the past. It is impossible to
imagine the sumptuous splendour that the monasteries would have pre-
sented to a fourteenth-century pilgrim's eyes and ears, but thankfully
enough of it survives for us to appreciate what a debt is owed to this last
great Byzantine renaissance. Athos, no less than Constantinople, was at the
heart of it.

I o8 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 DECLINE AND FALL: THE IDIORRHYTHMIC MOVEMENT AND
THE UNION OF CHURCHES (AGAIN)

Today every ruling monastery on the Holy Mountain is a coenobium in

which monks lead a common life following the traditions of Stoudite
monasticism as brought to Athos in the tenth century by St Athanasios. But
as recently as the 196os no fewer than nine of the twenty monasteries were
still following the idiorrhythmic way of life according to which individual
monks were allowed to set their own pattern, were not bound by the vow of
poverty or the vow of obedience to an abbot, and lived in separate apart-
ments, often with their own servants and their own worldly goods, neither
eating together nor contributing to a common purse. This apparent denial
of all the monastic norms in a monastic context was essentially a phenome-
non of the Tourkokratia and it will feature more largely in the next chapter,
but it had its origins in the Byzantine period and must therefore be given
some space here.
Numerous factors played a part in bringing about this fundamental
change in the interpretation of the monastic way of life which by the end of
the seventeenth century had overtaken not only every monastery on Athos but
many others elsewhere in the Orthodox world. Humanism (i.e. scholarship
that was independent of the authority of the Church) was obviously one of
them. Dangerously liberal new ideas were being promoted by intellectuals in
Constantinople and even more so in the Byzantine satellite state of Mistra in
the Peloponnese. These were the intellectual descendants of those who had
supported Barlaam in the hesychast controversy of the first half of the four-
teenth century. Now they gathered at the feet of the philosopher Gemistos
Plethon (c. 136D-1452), who had taught in Constantinople until about 1410
when he was banished by the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos for corrupting
the young with his ideas. These ideas were based on a revived Platonism that
had no room for the Christian religion. He preached a form of ancient pagan-
ism and expounded his unorthodox views on religion in a book On the Laws
of which only fragments survive. After his death the text of this unpublished
work was sent to Constantinople, where it was examined by George
Scholarios, now the Patriarch Gennadios.
The Patriarch [writes Steven Runciman], as he read the pages in which God was
usually called Zeus and the Trinity consisted of a supra-essential Creator, the
Mind of the world and the Soul of the world, and maybe in which doctrines
more shocking still were aired, decided, rather reluctantly but not surprisingly,
that the manuscript must be burnt. 36

We have no evidence of intellectual exchange between Mistra and Athos,

though contact there certainly was. The famous jasper cup which is still one

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS 109

of the most prized treasures of Vatopedi was a gift to the monastery from
Manuel Kantakouzenos, despot of the Morea from 1349 to 1380. Plethon
himself ultimately had more lasting influence in Italy than in his native
land, but at all events the intellectual climate of the day encouraged a desire
among men for more personal freedom and this no doubt had some impact
on the minds of the better-educated monks. Other factors that had some
bearing no doubt included the political instability of the empire, the unbri-
dled increase in the wealth of the monasteries, and the emergence of an
'aristocracy' among the monks that gradually began to assume some of the
powers and privileges traditionally reserved to the abbot.
The patriarchate was not slow to condemn the first signs of idiorrhyth-
mic practices. In a letter of April 1396 Patriarch Anthony advised the abbot
of Pantokrator to set an example to his monks by living a godly and ascetic
life; he reminded the monks of their duty to obey their abbot and to follow
the cenobitic rule in every detail, adding: 'Any monk who owns any article
or property (movable or immovable) in accordance with idiorrhythmic prac-
tice, will at the Last Judgement be condemned as an unrighteous man who
has disgraced the Church.' His advice seems to have been ignored. In June
1406 the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos felt obliged to intervene with
another typikon, published in the form of a chrysobull. 37
This fourth typikon contains the usual reminders about beardless youths
and female animals ('no monk should ever be defiled by the sight of any
female creature'). Monks are reminded of their vows, to renounce every-
thing to God and to obey their superior. Monks are forbidden to move from
one monastery to another, to leave Athos, and to join societies with laymen.
Each monastery is to be governed by its abbot, assisted by a council of fif-
teen elders. Gifts of precious items must be placed in the sanctuary; gifts of
food must be handed to the refectory. The secretary is to keep accounts of
all expenditure. Farms and estates are to be managed by monks selected by
the abbot and his elders who, if they allow themselves to be influenced by
partiality or greed, will cause discontent, the ruin of the monastery and the
loss of souls. No monk who has any private property at the time of his being
professed is to be accorded any privilege on this account. Even if he objects
to this rule, or if he wishes to follow the idiorrhythmic way of life, a monk
can never demand the return of things that he has dedicated to God.
Nevertheless, a monk who enjoys an income from his private property may
do so for life but on his death he must leave it to his monastery. This is
already the custom at the Lavra and the emperor sanctions the practice, even
though he believes it to contravene the ideals of monasticism and of the
cenobitic way of life.
Thus did idiorrhythmic practices receive imperial sanction, albeit
grudgingly. The emperor could scarcely do anything else without incur-
ring the charge of hypocrisy, for the monks were acting largely in self-

I 10 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
defence. Since 1371, after the Ottoman defeat of the Serbs and conquest
of Macedonia, the empire had lost so much of its territory that the monas-
teries actually controlled more land than the emperor. In order to coun-
teract this intolerable situation and obtain some land with which to reward
the army, Manuel, who at the time was still despot of Thessaloniki, risked
the enmity of the monks and of the Church and shamelessly confiscated
half of the monasteries' estates. The monks now found themselves
stripped of their many immunities and liable to pay tax on their estates
and produce in order to provide funds for the defence of the empire. It is
scarcely surpising that fifteen years later they willingly submitted to the
sultan. They still had to pay tax on their remaining estates, but at least
their ownership of them was not threatened. And this was the same
Manuel who in 1404 dared to tell them to remember their vows of pover-
ty and obedience. Who can blame them for wanting to safeguard their
property by whatever means seemed appropriate to them? Ironically
Manuel himself died as a monk in 1425.
By now the reprieve granted to Byzantium by the Mongols had ended
and the Turks were once again threatening the survival of the empire. As we
have seen, the Athonites had already bowed to the inevitable and acknowl-
edged their allegiance to the sultan at Adrianople in 1424. The new emper-
or John VIII Palaiologos (1425-48) was prepared to clutch at any straw in
order to hold on to his throne. The historian George Sphrantzes
(1401-77/8), who had been in the service of the emperor Manuel and who
wrote a history of his own times down to the year 1477, records a conversa-
tion that he overheard between Manuel and his son, the future emperor
John, in which the older man offers his son some wise thoughts on the sub-
ject of the union of churches:
The infidels are very worried that we might unite and come to agreement with
the Christians of the west; for they sense that if this occurred it would be very
harmful to their own interests. Therefore my advice with regard to the holding
of a council is this: go on studying and investigating the project as long as you
can, especially when you have need of something to frighten the Turks. But do
not really try to put it into practice; for in my opinion our people are not in the
frame of mind to discover a way of uniting with the Latins or to put themselves
out to create an atmosphere of peace, concord and mutual understanding, unless
it were through the hope that the Latins would revert to the position in which
we all found ourselves originally. But this is a virtual impossibility; and I fear that
if we are not careful a worse schism may come about and then we shall be left
defenceless before the infidel. 38

Unfortunately John did not heed this advice. In 1438--9, in a last-ditch

attempt to save the empire from destruction, John himself participated in
the Council of Ferrara-Florence, together with a delegation of monks from

PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS III

the Holy Mountain. Though the basic issues were not properly resolved,
the act of union was eventually signed by the pope Eugenius IV and the
emperor John on 6 July 1439· Among the other signatories were priest-
monk Moses, the official representative of the Lavra, and priest-monk
Dorotheos, the official representative of Vatopedi. Needless to say, the
'peace' that had been signed in Florence provoked storms in the Orthodox
world. The Church in Constantinople officially repudiated the terms of
the union shortly after the fall of the empire in 1453. Meanwhile the major-
ity of the Athonites, who were already the sultan's subjects, declared them-
selves to be the 'Champions of the Faith of our Fathers' and knuckled
down to Ottoman rule.

I 12 PALAIOLOGAN ATHOS
 5
OTTOMAN ATHOS

U nlike the Byzantines, who had been ruling the eastern half of the
Roman empire for more than 1100 years, the Ottomans were new-
comers to empire. Originally a Turcoman tribe from Central Asia, they had
been pushed westwards into Anatolia by the advancing Mongols. Here they
took over from the disintegrating Seljuk state and by the early fourteenth
century had established themselves in the north-west corner of Anatolia.
Their progress was rapid: they took Brusa in I326 and made it their capital;
five years later they captured Nicaea, formerly capital of the Byzantine
empire in exile; in I354 they won their first toehold in Europe, at Gallipoli.
Having defeated the southern Serbs at Marica in I37I, they made further
advances into the Balkans and consolidated their gains with a crushing vic-
tory over the Serbs and Bosnians at Kosovo in I389. By now all that
remained of Byzantium, apart from the satellite states of Mistra and
Trebizond, was the area immediately surrounding the city of
Constantinople, to which the Ottomans laid siege in I396. A Mongol attack
on Ankara in I402 distracted the assailants, giving the Byzantines their last
half-century of freedom before the final capture of the city in I453·
But the Ottomans did not stop there. There was to be further dramatic
expansion in the first half of the sixteenth century: Syria and Palestine were
conquered in I5I6, Egypt in I5I7, rapidly followed by the rest of North
Africa. In I 534 they took Mesopotamia, in I 543 Hungary, and soon they
were also masters of the Arabian peninsula. In an amazingly short space of
time the Ottoman state had become one of the most powerful in the world.
The secret of their success was their military expertise, fired by religious
zeal. Bolstered by their devotion to Islam and their loyalty to the sultan they
were practically invincible. Having conquered this vast swathe of territory
they then had to find a means of governing it.
The secret of the Byzantines' survival had been diplomacy. They were
pastmasters at creating alliances and setting their enemies against one
another, and these strategies accounted for the empire's survival during its
last two centuries. As subjects of the sultan they would now need all their
diplomatic skills to retain their cultural identity.
 THE SULTAN AND THE PATRIARCH

The Ottomans had to come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of
their newly conquered subjects were adherents of another religion,
Orthodox Christianity. And the Orthodox Byzantines were as deeply devot-
ed to their faith as were the Muslim Ottomans to theirs. The highly organ-
ized Orthodox Church, with its hierarchy of parish priests serving area
bishops serving metropolitans serving patriarchs, might have presented a
serious obstacle to the smooth administration of the empire if the Church
had been antagonized.
However, it had long been the practice for Muslim rulers to treat
Christian minorities within their realm as milets, or nations, allowing them
to govern themselves and maintain their own customs and religious prac-
tices under the supervision of their own religious hierarchy, which in turn
ensured allegiance to the supreme power of the Caliph. When Mehmet II
took Constantinople he found the patriarchal throne vacant since the abdi-
cation of Gregory Mammas in 1451 when he fled to Italy. The sultan looked
for a suitable candidate and hit upon George Scholarios, now known as the
monk Gennadios, who had been the leader of the anti-unionist party and
was therefore deeply respected by the Orthodox for his piety as well as his
learning. Gennadios was enthroned in January 1454 and was presented with
the insignia of his office by the sultan who pronounced these words: 'Be
Patriarch, with good fortune, and be assured of our friendship, keeping all
the privileges that the Patriarchs before you enjoyed.' After his consecration
in the Church of the Holy Apostles (Hagia Sophia having already been con-
verted into a mosque) the new patriarch rode in procession around the city,
mounted on a fine horse which the sultan had given him together with a
generous gift of gold. 1
The terms of the partnership between the sultan and the patriarch
seem not to have been committed to writing. But according to the histori-
an Sphrantzes, the patriarch received guarantees of his own personal invi-
olability, immunity from taxation, freedom of movement, security from
deposition, and the right to confer these privileges on his successors. The
patriarch, together with the Holy Synod, was to have authority over the
entire ecclesiastical establishment, over all bishops, all churches, all monas-
teries and their possessions, and also over all matters of dogma. But in
addition to his control of the Church, a similar authority over the
Orthodox laity was also vested in the patriarch. He was responsible for the
maintenance of law and order, for the collection of taxes, and the adminis-
tration of justice. The patriarch himself continued to be elected officially
by the Holy Synod, and his election was then confirmed by the sultan, as
before it had been by the emperor. The officers of the Church retained the

I 14 OTTOMAN ATHOS
 titles that they had borne in Byzantine times, but their responsibilities were
enhanced. Metropolitans and bishops were similarly charged with the admin-
istration of justice in the provinces. 2 As Ottoman rule expanded during the
sixteenth century, the empire acquired dominion over the patriarchates of
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The traditional rights and privileges of
these patriarchs were confirmed, but in practice they were subservient to the
patriarchate of Constantinople. The same was true of the Slav Churches of
the Balkans which were incorporated into the Ottoman empire.
The powers granted to the patriarch by the sultan, which went far
beyond those he had enjoyed under the Byzantines, ensured the integrity of
the Orthodox milet. The patriarch had in effect regained control over all the
territory that had once been Byzantine, territory which was now once again
united and, within the limits imposed by the Ottoman state, was permitted
to govern its own affairs and flourish. The unionists, who would have sub-
jected the Orthodox Church to Roman supremacy in order to retain no
more than a fragment of imperial territory, were confounded. As Steven
Runciman has written, 'the integrity of the Church had been preserved, and
with it the integrity of the Greek people.' But he goes on to point out the
risks involved in this new dispensation:
sr T he monastery of Stavronikita from the south-east. 'I appointed an abbot there and made good arrange-
ment that there should be a cenobitic monastery', wrote the founder, Patriarch Jeremiah I, in his Will.

52 Overleaf: Stavronikita from the west. The aqueduct was built in the seventeenth century at the
expense of the Phanariot prince of Wallachia, Sherban Cantacuzino (r67g- 88).

OTTOMAN ATHOS II5

53 The Feeding of the Five Thousand, a fresco in the refectory of Stavronikita, painted in
1546 by a monk known as Theophanes the Cretan, one of the principal representatives of
the post-Byzantine Cretan School of painting.

The Byzantine Empire had been, in theory at least, oecumenical, the holy Empire
of all Christians, regardless of their race. Its decline had reduced it to an empire
of the Greeks; and the Orthodox milet organized by the new constitution was
essentially a Greek milet. Its task as the Greeks saw it was to preserve Hellenism.
But could Hellenism be combined with oecumenicity? Could the Patriarch be
Patriarch of the Orthodox Slavs and the Orthodox Arabs as well as of the Greeks?
Would there not inevitably be a narrowing of his vision? The events of the fol-
lowing centuries were to show how difficult these problems were to be. 3

THE SULTAN AND THE MONKS

The Athonites, like the Byzantines, were skilled diplomats. They had antic-
ipated the collapse of the empire and ensured their own survival by making
overtures to the Ottomans, first in 1383 before the fall of Thessaloniki and
again in 1424 before the fall of Constantinople. By so doing they saved not
only their lives but their property, their political autonomy and their reli-
gious freedom. They had to pay tribute, but then they had been taxed by the
Byzantines too, and we have seen that their estates were not immune from
confiscation by the tottering imperial regime. The very year the city fell to
the Ottomans, the Athonites sent a delegation to Sultan Mehmet II, who

I I8 OTTOMAN ATHOS
54 The Annunciation, painted in 1546 by Theophanes the Cretan on the doors to the
sanctuary in the katholikon of Stavronikita. The same artist, assisted by his son Symeon,
painted a complete cycle of icons to decorate the entire iconostasis of the church.

OTTOMAN ATHOS I 19
55 The Transfiguration, an icon from the monastery of Pantokrator attributed to
Theophanes the Cretan, 1535- 45 . Examples of his work are also to be found in the
monasteries of the Meteora.

agreed to protect their rights and safeguard their independence.' But how
did the new dispensation with the patriarchate affect the monks?
It had not escaped the notice of the Ottomans that the Athonite
monasteries were among the richest and most powerful institutions in the
ecclesiastical establishment of the empire they had now acquired. They were
conscious of the high regard in which the monks were held in Byzantine
society and of the extent to which the monasteries operated as centres of
intellectual and spiritual excellence. As in their dealings with the patriarchate,
the Ottomans saw fit to tread lightly. An early violation had occurred in 1433,
when Sultan Murad had laid hands on the monasteries' ships and other prop-
erty, but the monks had managed to buy them back. After that, at least until

120 OTTOMAN ATHOS

56 The Ladder of StJohn Klimakos, a
sixteenth-century icon from the monastery
of Pantokrator. The idea of the spiritual
ladder which monks must climb to reach
heaven was devised by StJohn of Sinai,
Abbot of St Catherine's monastery. Various
scenes connected with Mount Sinai are
depicted on the left side of the icon.

the second half of the sixteenth century, the monks enjoyed the active
support of successive sultans, who went out of their way to protect them from
exploitation by officials and tax collectors and to preserve their independence.
It has even been suggested that the Ottomans may have been in awe of the
monks' supernatural powers and the efficacy of their prayers. One document
states: 'Athos is a place where the name of God is invoked continuously. It is
a place of refuge for the poor and homeless.'; Athonite support was consid-
ered essential to the success of a candidate for elevation to the patriarchate.
An indication of the continuing prosperity of the Mountain is the foun-
dation of another monastery, Stavronikita, in 1541. The last of the twenty
ruling monasteries, it was established by the Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah
I. He endowed it with his own money and is portrayed as the founder on the
wall paintings of the katholikon, which were done in r 546 by the renowned
artist Theophanes the Cretan and his son Symeon. Despite this early pros-
perity, Stavronikita has since remained the smallest and poorest of all the
ruling monasteries.6
There was a more serious violation of the Mountain in 1568, when
Sultan Selim II attempted to confiscate all ecclesiastical and monastic
estates throughout the empire. With generous support from the rulers of
Moldavia and Wallachia together with loans at extortionate rates of interest
from the moneylenders of Thessaloniki, the Athonites were once again able
to buy back their property. From then on their estates were regarded as
waqf, which gave them a charitable status and made them theoretically
inalienable. But this did not mean an end to assaults on the property of the
monks, and as time went on, these grew more intense and more destructive.
A further encroachment on the autonomy of the Athonites was the

OTTOMAN ATHOS 121

introduction in 1575 of a Turkish aga or governor who resided in Karyes as
the sultan's representative. Condemned to temporary celibacy, he was
expected to keep order with the assistance of a small garrison; it was not a
sought-after posting and did not attract applicants of the highest calibre.

IDIORRHYTHMIC RULE AND THE TYPIKON OF 1573

We have already remarked on the change to the idiorrhythmic way of life that
had begun to affect the monasteries before the end of the Byzantine period.
The change was a gradual one, and it did not take place unopposed. The
reduction in the term of office of an abbot from life to just one year had weak-
ened the role of the abbot and the cenobitic system as a whole. It was a short
step to the election of a pair of elders who took office for a year and adminis-
tered the monastery by committee. Following the relaxation of other rules,
monks were now permitted to retain possession of their private property, to
receive remuneration for their labour, and to prepare their own meals. It was
still possible to lead a life of considerable austerity according to the idior-
rhythmic system, as many did, but the changes seem more often than not to
have led to a relaxation of moral and spiritual standards and so to have pro-
voked a response among adherents of the traditional cenobitic way of life.
These traditionalists included a monk called Pachomios, who in the six-
teenth century wrote a pamphlet attacking the idiorrhythmic practices of his
fellow monks. 7 Pachomios recognized three categories of monks: eremitic,
cenobitic and idiorrhythmic; the last he branded as 'half-monks' and likened
them to women who disobey their husbands and seek divorce. He rebuked
them for repudiating their vows of poverty and obedience and for indulging
in luxury and ostentatious forms of dress. Successive patriarchs also chastized
the monks for abandoning the laws and traditions of cenobitic monasticism
and encouraged them to return to the Stoudite rule as proclaimed by St
Athanasios and to adhere to the old typika. In 1498 Patriarch Joachim I threat-
ened the hegoumenoi and their monks with divine retribution if they did not
abandon their careless and idle ways and return to the cenobitic rule. 8 Such
was the state of degradation by the second half of the sixteenth century, when
the monasteries were seriously in debt, monks were indulging in commercial
activities outside the Mountain, beardless youths were to be found in the
monasteries, cows in the fields, nuns in the metochia and scandal was rife, that
there were even protests from among the Athonites.
As Patriarch Jeremiah II was passing through Thessaloniki at Christmas
1573, he was met by a delegation of hegoumenoi who asked him to inter-
vene to save the Mountain from the spread of wanton practices that threat-
ened to destroy it. Jeremiah invited Patriarch Sylvester of Alexandria to
institute an inquiry and draft a new typikon in consultation with the Protos,

122 OTTOMAN ATHOS

the bishop of Ierissos, and the hegoumenoi. The resulting document was
ratified by Jeremiah in September 1574.9 Among its requirements were that
monks were to live a communal life, in peace and harmony, according to
God's commandments; youths were banned from entering Athos; domestic
animals other than male animals needed by the monasteries were to be driv-
en off the peninsula; monks were forbidden to distil and drink raki ('the
source of every evil'); nuns were not allowed to live in cells and farms off the
Mountain, even as 'spiritual sisters' of the monks; monks were not to gos-
sip about their neighbours. Also prohibited were the forging of business
documents, the sowing of wheat and barley, the export of nuts for sale, and
dealing in monastic clothing for profit. The fact that these misdeeds were
specified means of course that they were all being practised.
The principal purpose of this typikon, the Mountain's fifth, was to check
the spread of the idiorrhythmic system and to raise standards of morality on
the Mountain. In that the Lavra and Vatopedi reverted temporarily to the
cenobitic rule the typikon may be said to have achieved some limited success.
But by the end of the sixteenth century every monastery was idiorrhythmic
and remained so until the late eighteenth century. It is conceivable that
monasticism might not otherwise have survived at all, since the idiorrhyth-
mic system allowed individual monks greater freedom of action and helped
the monasteries to cope with the changing economic climate. We may con-
clude that it was a necessary evil.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE SKETES

The earliest surviving sketes on Athos were founded in the second half of
the sixteenth century as a result of the monasteries' adoption of the idior-
rhythmic system. The word skete (deriving from asketerion, a settlement of
ascetics) was not new and had been used in Egyptian contexts (as the equiv-
alent of lavra) as early as the fourth century and in Athonite documents
from the fourteenth century. These idiorrhythmic sketes (which are to be
distinguished from the cenobitic sketes which developed later and were a
Slav phenomenon) take the form of a monastic village, a group of huts or
small houses gathered around a central church (or kyriakon). They are very
similar to the ancient Egyptian or Judaean lavras except that each of them
is dependent on a ruling monastery. Their founders sought to establish set-
tlements where it would be easier to practise a truly ascetic life than in the
monasteries, where standards of asceticism were often falling as a result of
the adoption of the idiorrhythmic way of life.
Each skete is ruled by a prior (dikaios) who is usually a priest, by two or
three counsellors, and by an assembly of elders. The prior is elected by the

OTTOMAN ATHOS 123

57 St Anne's skete from the south. The terrain is very steep in this part of the peninsula but there is
enough water to make terraced cultivation possible.

elders and holds office for one year. The counsellors are elected at the same
time, but half of them are appointed by the skete's ruling monastery. Each
house (or kaf:yva) in the skete is ruled by an elder who is responsible for the
rhythm of that house, which may contain between two and five other
monks. In most cases they live by a very strict rule of life.
The first such monastic village to be established was St Anne's, a depend-
ency of the Lavra founded in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. 10 The
present church was built in 168o, when the skete was enlarged by Patriarch
Dionysios III. Its chief treasures are a miracle-working icon of St Anne and
a relic of the saint's left foot . It has about fifty houses. St Anne's is near the
southern point of the peninsula where the terrain is at its steepest, near the
so-called desert of Athos. This has always been the area most favoured by
ascetics and anchorites searching for complete isolation from the world.
Not far from St Anne's is another skete, Kafsokalyvia, which occupies a
steep and narrow ravine cut out of the southern face of the mountain itself
Its name (which means 'burnt huts') derives from the activities of the her-
mit Maximos, who lived a nomadic existence in this area in the fourteenth
century when there were only a few huts there. 11 Towards the end of the sev-
enteenth century another ascetic, by the name of Akakios, took up residence

I 24 OTTOMAN ATHOS
58 The Romanian skete of Lakkou ('of the Ravine') lies on the east-facing slopes of the
Mountain, though it is a dependency of St Paul's monastery to the west.

in what had once been Maximos's cave. Akakios was famous for the auster-
ity of his life: he rarely slept and he lived on a diet of herbs mixed with
crushed stones, he breathed fire when he prayed, and he had prophetic pow-
ers. Gradually other ascetics came to live around him and so the skete was
established. In 1725, when the Russian pilgrim Vasily Barsky visited him in
his cave, Akakios was the best-known ascetic on the Mountain . Three of his
disciples died as martyrs. 12 Another dependency of the Lavra, this skete has
long been famous for its woodcarving.
There are two other surviving sketes in this southern part of the peninsu-
la, both of them founded in the eighteenth century as dependencies of St
Paul's monastery. The skete of the Theotokos, otherwise known as New Skete,
lies on the west coast to the north of St Anne's; here some thirty huts cluster
around an ancient tower. The other is the skete of St Demetrios of the Ravine,
or Lakkou for short. This skete was founded in r 760 by two monks from
N eamt monastery in Moldavia and has always been reserved for Romanians. It
lies high up on the east-facing slopes of the Mountain in a verdant valley which
leads steeply down to the lonely tower of the Amalfitan monastery.
Elsewhere on the Mountain there are four other surviving idiorrhythmic
sketes: that of St Demetrios, which is a dependency of Vatopedi; the skete

OTTOMAN ATHOS 125

59 The central church (kyriakon) of the Romanian skete of Lakkou has a grand marble
iconostasis reminiscent of that at St Paul's.

126 OTTOMAN ATHOS

of the Prodromos (or StJohn the Baptist), which belongs to lviron; that of
St Panteleimon, which belongs to Koutloumousiou; and the skete of the
Annunciation, which is a dependency of Xenophontos. 13 Apart from St
Demetrios, which has recently been deserted, all still operate as monastic
villages where monks have the opportunity to live in greater seclusion than
in the monasteries, in more intimate groups, often as disciples of a charis-
matic elder. Many of them are located in inhospitable parts of the Mountain
and often the monks resort to handicrafts in order to support themselves.

ExTERNAL SuPPORT FOR THE MouNTAIN

As early as the fourteenth century, as we have earlier remarked (p. 78-81),

the monastery of Koutloumousiou was supported by the rulers of the
Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. As the Tourkokratia
wore on, several other monasteries found themselves in difficulties for one
reason or another: in addition to general wear and tear, fire and earthquake
were recurrent hazards, and monastic buildings often fell into disrepair as a
result. Now that there was no longer a Christian emperor in Constantinople,
the monks had to look elsewhere for sources of support. The Danubian
principalities were nominally part of the Ottoman empire but they enjoyed
a large measure of self-government. Their rulers were Orthodox Christians
with substantial resources at their disposal who were proud of their
Byzantine culture and, as the only self-governing Orthodox rulers in south-
east Europe, were keen to support the faith throughout the Balkans. They
were especially sympathetic to the plight of the Athonites, but monasteries
in Bulgaria and Serbia were also recipients of their generosity.
Consider, for example, the history of Simonopetra in the second half of
the sixteenth century. 14 In about 1566 the Great Postelnik at the court of
Wallachia, Gheorma, and his wife Caplea gave Simonopetra the newly built
monastery of St Nicholas in the Palcov suburb of Bucharest. This was an
immensely well-endowed monastery, but it was on a poor site described as
'pestilent and wholly marshy'. This problem was overcome by a young
nobleman who on a neighbouring hill built
another metochi, greatly superior ... and another church, decorous and promi-
nent, in the name of the great Nicholas, and having ascribed this metochi to the
venerable monastery of Simonopetra, he built kellia around it in great number ...
and further dedicated both sacred vessels and silver and gold decoration of every
kind; moreover, he added to these things villages, together with their serfs ... 15

Meanwhile, on Athos, the port building (arsanas) of Simonopetra was com-

pleted in the year 1567 and, according to the surviving inscription, was paid

OTTOMAN ATHOS 127

6o The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, an embroidery in coloured silks from the
monastery of Grigoriou, c.rsoo. This is Moldavian work and is the gift of Stefan the Great
of Moldavia who is commemorated as one of the 'founders' (i.e. major benefactors) of the
monastery.

for by 'the most worshipful lord Oxiotis Agas', who was an official at the
court of the ruler of Wallachia. When in rs8o the monastery itself was
totally destroyed by fire, the surviving monks moved temporarily to
Xenophontos. They were back home by I 586, but vast sums were still need-

I 28 OTTOMAN ATHOS
61 St Nephon II, Patriarch of Contantinople (1486--<) and 1497-8), and Voivode Neagoe
Basarab, Prince of Wallachia (1512-21), a sixteenth-century icon from the monastery of
Dionysiou. St N ephon was the spiritual father of Neagoe as well as being a monk of the
monastery which Neagoe supported by building its tower and aqueduct.

ed to complete the rebuilding of the monastery, and for this purpose the
abbot Evgenios travelled to Wallachia and remained there from I587 to
I 592. By good fortune his visit coincided with that of the Patriarch Jeremiah
II, who was passing through Wallachia on his way back from Russia. The
patriarch was therefore able to give his seal of approval to the gift of the new
metochi of St Nicholas, which together with the property and land of the old
one had just been donated to Simonopetra. The donor was Michael, short-
ly to become prince of Wallachia (I 593-I 6o I), who is known to both Greeks
and Romanians as Michael the Brave.
The monastery of Xenophontos, which agreed to accommodate the
monks of Simonopetra after the fire of I 580, owes a similar debt to the
rulers of Wallachia, without whose support it might not have survived the
sixteenth century. 16 Two seventeenth-century documents, of the princes
Matthew Basarab (I635) and Mihnea III Radu (I658), give a tally of their
predecessors' benefactions to the monastery. Estates in Wallachia were first
given in the early decades of the sixteenth century, followed by an annual
cash subsidy. The wall paintings of the old katholikon (I544) and its narthex
(I563) were carried out at the expense of the princes of Wallachia. In I607
Prince Radu-Serban provided further generous subsidies, in return for
which he was to be commemorated in perpetuity as a 'new founder' of the
monastery. In the course of the seventeenth century a good deal of building

OTTOMAN ATHOS I 29
work and decoration of the monastery was carried out and its fortifications
were strengthened, all thanks to the generosity of the Danubian rulers.
Matthew Basarab, prince of Wallachia (I632-54), and his wife Eleni are
depicted in the wall paintings of the exonarthex of the katholikon as
'founders', holding a model of the church which had evidently been
restored at their expense.
Nearly every monastery acknowledges a similar debt to the rulers of
the Danubian principalities. 17 But they were not the only ones to help the
Athonites to survive the demise of the Byzantine empire. The monks of
lviron, for example, turned to the Orthodox princes of Georgia, with
whom that monastery had always maintained close links. 18 With their sup-
port the defences of the monastery were strengthened, the walls were
repaired, a tower was built complete with a cannon, the katholikon was
restored, a hospital was provided, and the miracle-working icon of the
Portai:tissa was given a new revetment. In the mid-seventeenth century a
copy of this same icon, which is the monastery's most valued treasure, was
taken to Moscow at the request of Tsar Alexios, whose daughter was
grievously ill. The girl recovered and her grateful father presented lviron
with the wealthy monastery of St Nicholas in the heart of Moscow. A cen-
tury earlier Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich ('the Terrible') had made generous
gifts to the monasteries of Chilandar and Vatopedi. Monks from these
monasteries were given permission to make regular visits to Russia and
raise funds from the faithful. Meanwhile, the Russian monastery of St
Panteleimon, which had begun to receive Russian novices again after the
withdrawal of the Mongols in I497, was in such a bad state by I 59 I that
Tsar Fyodor lvanovich issued a chrysobull to Abbot Gregory of Chilandar
charging him with the responsibility of restoring the Roussikon. 19 Serbian
bishops, priests and laymen supported Chilandar with gifts of money and
chattels. But the deterioration of the Roussikon was not arrested for long:
on his first visit to the monastery in I725 the Russian pilgrim Barsky
found just four monks, two Russians and two Bulgarians; on his second, in
I744, he recorded that the monastery was now in Greek hands, that it was
idiorrhythmic and that its buildings were in serious disrepair. 20 He found
Russian monks 'wandering hither and thither about the hills, living by
manual labour, eating scraps and being despised by all'. He felt sorry for
them, 'for foxes have holes and birds their nests, but the Russians have
nowhere to lay their heads', but he suggested that they had only their lazi-
ness to blame: 'for in Russia, where all labour is carried out by dedicated
Christians, the monks live in great ease and comfort. ' 21

62 Right: The port building (arsanas) of the monastery of Simonopetra. The tower was
completed in 1567 at the expense of yet another prince of Wallachia.

130 OTTOMAN ATHOS

63 The monastery of Simonopetra as depicted by the Russian pilgrim Vasily Barsky in
1744 on his second visit to the Mountain. Barsky's drawings are valued especially for the
accuracy of their architectural detail in an age before photography.

132 OTTOMAN ATHOS

 DESTITUTION AND DECAY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Thanks to the remarkable generosity of the other Orthodox nations, and

particularly the rulers of the Danubian principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia, and not forgetting the single donations of individual pilgrims,
most monasteries managed to preserve at least a fas:ade of prosperity for
most of the sixteenth century. By I 6oo, however, the Ottomans had begun
to tighten their grip and every monastery started to feel the pinch. The tax
burden had by now become intolerable, and while initially some of the rich-
er monasteries were able to help some of the poorer ones, in 1661 every
monastery was ordered to pay its own way. Few could afford to do so; most
succumbed to a spiral of debt which took the best part of two centuries to
pay off and several were reduced to such extremity that they were driven to
borrow from the Jews of Thessaloniki, who charged extortionate rates of
interest. Barsky reports that by the early eighteenth century the monks of
Xenophontos owed I5,ooo leva, mostly to the Jews, and that they had been
forced to pawn their sacred vessels as surety for their debt. As a result many
had left the monastery and no more than three or four Slav-speaking monks
remained to care for the place.
Meanwhile, troubles in the Danubian principalities prevented the monks
from drawing income from their properties there and made it harder for the
rulers to send money. Barsky found Simonopetra in an even worse position
than Xenophontos. On his first visit, in I725, he reported finding a fair
number of monks; but by I744 he writes:
the monastery was in a state of considerable confusion because of its great pover-
ty and its debts, which exceeded so,ooo leva. For this reason its creditors seized
many valuable items as pledges. Of the monks, being unable to pay the Turks the
intolerable taxes, some departed to other, richer monasteries, while others
roamed in the world in search of alms. There were only five of them left there. 22

By I 762, according to a document in the archives, a Serb spiritual father

arrived with a brotherhood of 35 monks, intending to take over the
monastery and care for it. But this he was unable to do: 'rather he left it and
departed to Moldavia; and on his departure the monastery was closed up
and the Great Mese had authority over it.' 23 In fact this 'Serb' was the
famous Russian elder St Paisy Velichkovsky, who in I757 had founded the
skete of the Prophet Elijah. After his departure the Holy Community sold
several of the monastery's metochia to pay off its debts, but in I765 it bought
them back and started to function again as a monastery.
Economic hardship came from a variety of quarters: the Ottomans raised
their taxes further in order to pay for the costly war in Crete (I645-69); the
Venetians were still masters of the seas and could impose an additional levy

OTTOMAN ATHOS 133

on the monasteries, and the monks suffered constantly from pirate raids that
went unchecked because of the war. Some of the bigger monasteries, such as
Vatopedi, Iviron and Chilandar, were strong enough to ride out the econom-
ic storm. But the Lavra was reduced to five or six monks by 1623, all of them
living in abject poverty, and the Protaton had its share of troubles too. The
position of the Protos had become increasingly weak until it was eventually
abolished around 1662. At the same time the lavra of the Protaton was forced
to close because of the bankruptcy of its cells. From now on, the administra-
tion of the Mountain was vested in the Holy Community, which consisted, as
now, of twenty elders, each of whom was elected to serve for a year as the
representative of his monastery. The representatives of the first four monas-
teries in the hierarchy-Lavra, Vatopedi, Iviron and Chilandar-formed a
permanent executive committee known as the Holy Epistasia which dealt
with most everyday business. Plenary sessions of all twenty members were
only convened when matters of great moment were scheduled for discussion.
Hard on the heels of economic decline followed intellectual decline and
even to some extent spiritual decline, though standards of asceticism were
maintained and vows were strictly observed despite the apparent laxity of
the idiorrhythmic system. Libraries were the most conspicuous casualties.
Few acquisitions were made and most collections were totally neglected.
Thousands of manuscripts were sold off to collectors from western coun-
tries, often for trifling sums; many were given away to Orthodox benefac-
tors and other dignitaries; others were simply left to rot. Librarians, if they
existed at all, were utterly ignorant of their responsibilities; others took
advantage of the situtation for their personal profit.
Senior monks were aware of the problem. The Society of Jesus, found-
ed in 1540, had established schools at various points in the Ottoman empire,
and those in Constantinople were particularly successful. On a visit to Rome
in 1628 Ignatios, abbot of Vatopedi, proposed that such a school be estab-
lished on Athos for the training of monks, and in 1635 a school was duly
opened in Karyes. But the Ottomans were alarmed by the introduction of
western ideas on the Mountain and forced the school to move to
Thessaloniki in 1641, where it soon closed. 24

THE SEEDS OF RENEWAL

For practical purposes, in the seventeenth century Athonite scholarship was

dead. But not quite. There were always a number of monks, particularly in
the larger monasteries such as Vatopedi and Iviron, who maintained a tradi-
tion of learning. The hermit Agapios Landos, who lived in a cave at the set-
tlement of Little St Anne, was notably prolific. He was the author of many

I 34 OTTOMAN ATHOS
works of hagiography and moral theology of which the most popular, enti-
tled The Salvation of Sinners, was first published in Venice in 1641 and is
still read today. Better known is the eighteenth-century writer Constantine
Dapontis (1714-84), who was tonsured as monk Kaisarios and joined the
monastery of Xeropotamou in 1757. He was immediately sent on a mission
to Moldavia, Wallachia and Constantinople with two other monks to raise
funds for the restoration of the buildings which were in serious disrepair. By
their return in 1765 they had enough money to rebuild the monastery.
Kaisarios devoted the remainder of his life to writing and produced a large
number of popular works in both prose and verse including the Garden of
the Graces (repr. Paris, 1891), which carries an idyllic description of life on
the Holy Mountain.
You are tired of your cell? Go out and take a walk through all the many beauties
of the wilderness. Go to the fountain; go to the shore; it is full of fairness, a great
joy to behold. Go to the caves; go to the cells of the hermits of old, divine palaces
... You see a mountain? A field? Marvel at the wisdom of the Creator and at His
almighty power. Through woods and groves you walk; ravines and valleys; think
upon the holy men of old and make yourself like them. 25

Other works of Kaisarios include a chronicle of the Balkan wars of his time
(Dacian Ephemerides) and a geographical history of the world (unpublished).
His style is light and humorous, not quite what one would expect of a monk,
though there is no doubt of his serious devotion to Athos, this 'paradise of
delight' as he calls it. Not dissimilar is the work of another monk, Cyril of
the Great Lavra (d. 1809), who wrote a Description of Russia and an
Ecclesiastical and Political History; he also compiled a book of prayers for his
monastery and was the first to attempt to put its archives in order.
Such writers did not necessarily advance the cause of scholarship. Their
aims were more modest, though it could be said that their collective
achievement was infinitely more important, for they served to keep alive the
traditions of Hellenism in the dark age of the mid-Tourkokratia. As long as
men continued to write in Greek, to retell the stories on the ancient world,
to elucidate the mysteries of Orthodoxy for the benefit of their contempo-
raries, or just to describe the pattern of everyday events, then there was a
chance that the culture of the Greeks would survive and one day be revived.
Without such writers, and without the real efforts made by the monks of the
Holy Mountain, there is a strong likelihood that Hellenism would have per-
ished and the movement for independence never have been born.
As the eighteenth century progressed, Athos grew increasingly receptive
to intellectual and spiritual currents from the outside world. From the early
years of the century monks had gone out into the world to preach and teach
among their fellow countrymen. Some worked in schools, others in parish-
es and dioceses. Wherever they went, they assumed positions of leadership

OTTOMAN ATHOS 135

and helped to maintain the pride of the Greeks in their cultural and spiri-
tual heritage. At the same time they came into contact with intellectual
movements from the west and by the mid-eighteenth century they had
begun to bring back aspects of the new secular learning to Athos. The foun-
dation of the Athonite Academy in 1749 is a striking demonstration of what
must have been a more general trend.

THE ATHONITE AcADEMY AND EvGENIOS VouLGARIS

By 1748, when Cyril V came to the patriarchal throne, the school on Patmos,
which had been a great centre of Orthodox education, was in decline and
there was a need for a new school to provide religious and philosophical edu-
cation for the Orthodox subjects of the sultan. But it was the initiative of
Vatopedi, which under its prohegoumenos Meletios was then the leading
monastery on the Holy Mountain, that led to its foundation on Athos. The
patriarch and the Holy Synod gave their blessing to the enterprise and
imposing buildings were duly erected at the monastery's expense on high
ground overlooking the bay of Vatopedi. The school was intended to become
the principal centre for higher education for all Greek-speaking people and
its first director was the monk Neophytos of Kafsokalyvia. But in 1753 the
patriarch appointed the eminent scholar Evgenios Voulgaris (1716-1806) to
succeed him and provide instruction in Greek and Latin literature, rhetoric,
philosophy and mathematics as well as theology, logic and ethics. The school
was to operate as a fully fledged university, open not only to the monks of
Vatopedi but to all Athonites who had the blessing of their hegoumenos, and
to any Orthodox priest or layman who wished to study there; according to its
charter the school was to provide 'a complete course of classical learning'. It
was, in short, to be a vehicle for the revival of Hellenism. 26
To all appearances, Voulgaris was a brilliant appointment. Born in Corfu
and ordained a deacon, he had studied in Ioannina and at the university of
Padua, where he had acquired a knowledge of Latin, Italian and French. In the
1740s he had taught in Ioannina and Kozani and gained a great reputation as
both a theologian and a philosopher. But he was a controversial figure and his
lectures, which introduced the ideas of such western thinkers as Descartes,
Leibniz and Locke into the study of the ancient philosophers, aroused a good
deal of opposition in conservative circles in Ioannina. Notwithstanding his
reputation, this was the man chosen by the patriarch to head his academy for
the revival of Hellenism in the heart of ultra-conservative Athos.
Initially the confidence of the patriarch in his appointee was shown to be
well placed. Numbers attending the school leapt from twenty to zoo during
the six years of Voulgaris's tenure (1753--9). Students came not only from

136 OTTOMAN ATHOS

64 The ruins of the Athonite Academy overlooking the monastery of Vatopedi. Though its
success was short-lived, it represents a serious attempt by the monks to restore their
spiritual and intellectual well-being in difficult times.

neighbouring parts of the Ottoman empire but from Italy and Russia, drawn
by the reputation of the school's flamboyant director, by the thirst for
knowledge that marked the eighteenth century in general, and no doubt also
by the attractive location of this new academy. They included Athanasios
Parios, Iosipos Moisiodax and Kosmas the Aetolian, all of whom would earn
high reputations as scholars. In a letter to a colleague in Constantinople in
1756 Voulgaris writes enthusiastically about the progress of the academy
and its delightful situation. Of the subjects taught he mentions Homer,
Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle among the
ancients and 'the French, the Germans and the English' among the mod-
erns (presumably a reference to Descartes, Leibniz, Wolff and Locke) .
There is no mention of religious instruction. More basic teaching of sub-
jects such as grammar was provided by Neophytos, who stayed on for a
while after ceasing to be director, and Panayiotis PaJamas.
As had happened in loannina, Voulgaris's teaching soon attracted opposi-
tion. This was not because he was disrespectful of Athonite traditions: he was
an admirer of hesychastic theology and he himself received a miraculous cure
from a serious illness from the Virgin of the Akathist in 1758. Opposition
came in the first instance from the monks, most of whom regarded the teach-
ing at the academy as novel, dangerous and incompatible with their own

OTTOMAN ATHOS 137

monastic traditions. They saw the new syllabus as an attack on Orthodoxy, the
very system of belief they were pledged to defend. Opposition also came from
Voulgaris's students, the followers of Panayiotis Palamas, who took exception
to his philosophical teaching. The trouble had started as early as I756, when
Voulgaris appealed to his patron, Patriarch Cyril, for help 'for we are greatly
storm-tossed and all but lost'. The next year the patriarch himself was unseat-
ed and retired to Athos, where he proceeded to meddle in the affairs of the
academy. Having been the patron of Voulgaris, Cyril now became his most
vigorous opponent and succeeded in setting everyone on the Mountain
against him. Assailed on all fronts, by colleagues, students and even the for-
mer patriarch, Voulgaris had no alternative but to resign, which he did with
some bitterness in January I759· Leaving Athos shortly afterwards, he fled to
Constantinople and resumed teaching there.
For practical purposes this was the end of the academy. A successor was
appointed, Nikolaos Zerzoulis, a Newtonian philosopher from Metsovo, but
his teaching was no more acceptable than was his predecessor's and follow-
ing the deposition of his patron, Patriarch Seraphim II, in I76I, Zerzoulis
returned to Metsovo. The remaining students followed Voulgaris to
Constantinople and the Athonite Academy was closed. Visiting his alma
mater in 1765, Iosipos Moisiodax referred to it as a 'nest of crows'. 27
Various abortive attempts were made to revive the school. An effort by
the former patriarch Seraphim II in I 769 was rejected by the monks of
Vatopedi. In 1782 the school was re-endowed by Patriarch Gabriel IV;
Kaisarios Dapontes reports that it was operating in the I78os and there are
references in the archives of the Protaton to the 'school at Vatopedi' in the
I790s. A major initiative in I8oo from Patriarch Kallinikos V received
support from communities throughout the Greek-speaking world includ-
ing those of the diaspora and even from Adamantios Korais in Paris, the
greatest scholar of the Greek enlightenment. Though no particular friend
of the Holy Mountain, Korais proudly announced the foundation of 'a
university on Athos' as proof of the final triumph of civilization over bar-
barism in Greece. 28 But despite the best efforts of so many, nothing came
of this initiative; the school closed for the last time in I 8o9; its buildings
were soon engulfed in flames fanned, if not lit, by the hands of vengeful
monks determined that what they saw as a satanic den of free-thinking
secularism and atheistic doctrine should never again open its doors on
Athos. Its ruins, clearly visible from Vatopedi, still pose the question of
what might have happened if the regime had moderated its stance and the
monks had been able to tolerate the existence in their midst of an institu-
tion which promised to be the intellectual and spiritual centre of the entire
Greek world.

138 OTTOMAN ATHOS

 THE KOLLYVADES MOVEMENT AND THE PHILOKALIA

Despite their rejection of the opportunity to become the intellectual leaders

of the Greek world, the monks retained their obsessive devotion to all
aspects of their faith and what they regarded as its correct practice.
Throughout the Tourkokratia they remained ardent adherents of the hesy-
chastic tradition. But a new dispute arose on Athos in the second half of the
eighteenth century which threatened to divide the Orthodox world in much
the same way as hesychasm had in the fourteenth . This focused on whether
it was lawful to hold memorial services not only on Saturdays, as was tradi-
tional, but on other days too; it was later widened to include other questions
such as how often holy communion should be taken, and out of the dispute
there grew a widely influential movement for religious conservatism and the
preservation of Hellenic identity.29
Kollyva is a cake made of boiled wheat mixed with flour, herbs, nuts and
raisins and coated with sugar. During the Divine Liturgy it is blessed as an
offering with which to commemorate the dead or a saint and thus it acquires
a symbolic and sacred quality through which it represents the resurrection
of the body. In Athonite monasteries it is consumed by the monks either at
the end of the Liturgy or, more often, at the end of the meal in the refecto-
ry. Traditionally this rite had been observed only on Saturday, the day on

65 An eighteenth-century icon
depictin g all the principal Athonite
fathers, from the Protaton in Karyes.
The icon (and the feast associated
with it) was the brainchild of St
N ikodimos of the Holy Mountain,
one of the leaders of the Kollyvades
movement.

OTTOMAN ATHOS I 39
which special prayers are said for the deceased. But Saturday was incon-
venient for a variety of reasons: many monks needed to attend the weekly
market in Karyes and in the world laymen were only free to attend church
on Sunday. There was therefore a move to allow memorial services to take
place on Sunday. This change was vigorously opposed by traditionalists,
who were given the name Kollyvades to indicate their association with the
consumption of kollyva and the commemoration of the dead on Saturday,
keeping Sunday as a day of rejoicing. The dispute lasted for seventy years
and was only resolved by a council held at Constantinople in 1819.
Meanwhile the ecumenical patriarch was forced to intervene on several
occasions to urge the monks to live in peace.
After one such intervention, in 1776, the leaders of the movement at
the time, Athanasios Parios, Makarios Notaras and Nikodimos of the Holy
Mountain, left Mount Athos and began to spread their ideas in other parts
of Greece. Their chief concern was to bring about a return to the authen-
tic fonts of Orthodox tradition and their motives were twofold: first, to
counteract the spiritual decline that was evident not only in the Athonite
monasteries but elsewhere in Greece too, and secondly to prevent their
compatriots from falling under the influence of the western
Enlightenment sweeping through Europe. They believed that the only
way to regenerate the Greek people was not by adopting the secular ideas
about nationalism currently fashionable in the west but by returning to the
roots of the Orthodox faith and rediscovering their liturgical traditions
and patristic theology.
Among the leaders of the movement it was Athanasios Parios, former
pupil of Evgenios Voulgaris, who became the most bitter opponent of the
Enlightenment. He wrote numerous attacks on the French Revolution and
the ideas it spawned and urged his fellow Orthodox to keep as far away as
possible from western Europe if they wished for salvation. His supporters
also tried to prevent the teaching of western ideas in Greek schools.
But without doubt the greatest achievement and most influential product
of the Kollyvades movement was the publication by Makarios Notaras and
Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain of the Philokalia (Venice, 1782), a vast
anthology of ascetic and mystical texts ranging in date from the fourth to the
fifteenth century and running to over 1200 folio pages. The work focuses in
particular on the theory and practice of prayer from the heart and was aimed
at the Orthodox laity in the world as well as monks. Nikodimos issues a gen-
eral invitation to the reader in his preface with these enticing words:
Draw near, all of you who share the Orthodox calling, laity and monks alike,
who are eager to discover the kingdom of God that is within you, the treasure
hidden in the field of the heart, which is the sweet Lord Jesus. Released from
enslavement to things below and from the wanderings of your intellect, your
heart cleansed from the passions through the awesome and unceasing invocation

140 OTTOMAN ATHOS

 of our Lord Jesus and through all the other interconnected virtues that are
taught in this present book, you can in this way be united within yourselves and
also with God, as the Lord said in His prayer to the Father: 'May they be one
as we are one. ' 30

The initial impact of the Philokalia was limited and it was not reissued in
Greek for more than a century. But a Slavonic translation, published in
Moscow in 1793, made a significant contribution to the nineteenth-century
revival of spirituality in Russia and more recently it has attracted wide
attention not only among the Greeks but among western readers too. To
quote its most recent translator into English, 'the Philokalia has acted as a
spiritual "time bomb", for the true "age of the Philokalia" has not been the
late eighteenth but the late twentieth century. ' 31
The Kollyvades would no doubt today be labelled 'fundamentalists' and
clear links may be traced from them to the modern movement for Orthodox
fundamentalism. But they were none the worse for that. They had identi-
fied a serious flaw in the spiritual life of their contemporary Athonites and
they were genuinely concerned to preserve the purity of their common
Hellenic culture uncontaminated by ideas emanating from the west. They
were not unsuccessful in their attempts to counter what they saw as the
unacceptable tendencies of their time. They produced (among other edi-
tions of patristic texts) a monument of mystical wisdom in the Philokalia.
Not for nothing was Nikodimos dubbed 'an encyclopedia of the Athonite
learning of his time'. 32 Their ideas were ultimately sanctioned by the coun-
cil held at Constantinople in 1819, and all three of the most prominent fig-
ures were subsequently canonized.

ST KosMAS THE AETOLIAN AND THE NEw MARTYRS

Another Athonite defender of the faith in the eighteenth century was St

Kosmas the Aetolian, though most of his work was conducted off the
Mountain. Born near Arta in 1714, he became a student at the Athonite
Academy and then served for twelve years as a priest-monk at the monastery
of Philotheou. But he could never forget the sufferings of his fellow coun-
trymen under the Turkish yoke and, realizing that his vocation was to min-
ister directly to them, he applied for permission to leave the monastery and
become an itinerant preacher. In this capacity he travelled throughout
Greece, preaching in demotic Greek and drawing vast crowds. He placed
equal importance on the Orthodox faith and the Greek language as the bas-
tions of Hellenic identity, and he established schools to teach both wherever
he went. 'My beloved children in Christ,' he said, 'bravely and fearlessly pre-

OTTOMAN ATHOS 141

serve our holy faith and the language of our Fathers, because both of these
characterize our most beloved homeland, and without them our nation is
destroyed. m In addition to preaching the usual Christian virtues of repen-
tance and forgiveness, prayer and fasting, humility and love, the saint trans-
mitted the Athonite practice of the Jesus Prayer to the common people. He
also predicted the liberation of Greece within three generations of his own,
and although he gained admirers across religious divides, he inevitably
aroused the suspicion of the Turkish authorities. While travelling in south-
ern Albania he was seized by agents of the local governor and hanged on 24
August 1779. 'Thus', his disciple and biographer Sapphiros Christodoulidis
wrote, 'the thrice-blessed Cosmas, that great benefactor of men, became
worthy of receiving, at the age of sixty-five, a double crown from the Lord,
one as a Peer of the Apostles and the other as a holy Martyr. ' 34
St Kosmas inspired a whole school of itinerant preachers who brought
about a spiritual revival among the Greek people that sustained them in their
coming fight for national independence. Though not formally canonized
until 1961, he has long been revered as one of the so-called 'New Martyrs of
the Turkish Yoke'. The term Neomartyr had been in use since the eighth
century, when it referred to those who were persecuted for their Orthodox
beliefs regarding the veneration of icons; more recently it has been used in
Russia of those who suffered under communist rule for their Orthodox faith.
During the Tourkokratia such martyrdoms more often than not occurred as
a direct result of forced conversion to Islam and many apostates went to
Athos to recant. Athelstan Riley tells the story of St Agathangelos:
The other relics [in the katholikon at Esphigmenou] ... are the head of St
Agathangelos, who won the crown of martyrdom in Smyrna about the com-
mencement of the present century. Agathangelos had apostasized in his child-
hood, but at the age of nineteen, overcome by remorse, he fled to Mount Athos
and embraced the monastic life in Esphigmenou. Here he devoted himself to
penance for his fall and adopted the Great or Angelic Habit. But all his mortifi-
cations were powerless to assuage his deep remorse, and finally, being warned of
God in a dream that he should seal his contrition with his blood, he resolved to
return to Smyrna, where he had formerly denied his Master, and then openly
publish his return to Christianity. He went, accompanied by a priest, whom his
convent sent to comfort him in his last hour with the Holy Sacraments, for all
knew that he was going to certain death. Standing before the governor of Smyrna,
he announced his rejection of the Mohammedan religion and declared that he
would die in the faith of the Crucified One. For days the furious infidels
employed every means to turn him from his purpose, but in vain; and finally he
suffered death by decapitation. 35

In such circumstances penitents were strongly discouraged by their spir-

itual fathers from seeking martyrdom, but for the unfortunate few there
appeared to be no other way of regaining their lost identity. The Church did

142 OTTOMAN ATHOS

not keep an official register of Neornartyrs, but St Nikodirnos of the Holy
Mountain made a collection of Lives which was published in Venice in 1799
as the New Martyrologion. His main purpose in compiling it was to stern the
tide of apostasy by encouraging his readers, as he wrote in the Preface, 'to
burn from divine love, so that they also in turn may be ready to endure the
martyrdom for Christ'. 36

ATHONITE REFORM AND THE GREEK REVOLUTION

During the eighteenth century many of the monasteries had fallen into
debt, and some into considerable disrepair too. There was a clear disparity
between the five most senior monasteries (Lavra, Vatopedi, I viron,
Chilandar and Dionysiou), which prospered thanks largely to Romanian
support and had assumed control of the whole Mountain, and the rest,
which grew steadily poorer, weaker, and more depleted in numbers.
Patriarch Gabriel IV (178o-s) saw the need for reform and in 1783 he pub-
lished a new typikon, the sixth, which made the government of Athos more
democratic and reorganized the central administration into the form that
still exists todayY
The centrepiece of his legislation was the reform of the Holy Epistasia,
a permanent committee of four, elected annually on 1 June from the Holy
Community and responsible for executing the decisions taken by that body.
In order to select them, the twenty monasteries were divided into five
groups of four; the groups rotated and each monastery would be represent-
ed on the Epistasia every fifth year. The dominance of the five senior
monasteries survived to the extent that one of them was included in each
group of four and its representative normally chaired the meetings of the
committee. The members of the Epistasia were housed in a single dwelling
in Karyes. They were provided with a secretary who took minutes of their
meetings and kept accounts. They held office for a year, at the end of which
period they must submit accounts to the Holy Community for the approval
of the patriarch. A new seal was made for the Holy Community and the
Holy Epistasia, divided into four parts. Each member of the Epistasia held
one part of the seal; and every edict of the Holy Community or the Epistasia
was to be stamped by the whole seal to indicate the agreement of all four
members. If they failed to agree, they had to refer the matter to the Holy
Community, and if there was still no agreement the matter was then
referred to the Great Church in Constantinople.
The Holy Community was to be the central governing body of the
Mountain. It consisted of the twenty representatives of the twenty ruling
monasteries, each of them elected to serve for one year. In special cases a

OTTOMAN ATHOS 143

matter of supreme importance affecting the whole of Athos would be
referred to a double synaxis of the twenty representatives and the twenty
hegoumenoi.
In order to relieve the burden of debt, the new typikon required all the
monasteries to come to the assistance of any house that found itself in seri-
ous and unexpected difficulties. And any individual monks who had assets
available for investment (a state of affairs that could only obtain in an idior-
rhythmic community) were directed to lend them to the monasteries at an
agreed low rate of interest. This ruling suggests that not only was there
great finanacial disparity between the monasteries but also between individ-
ual monks and that this was cause for resentment. Finally, the number of
shops in Karyes had become unacceptable, giving the place a worldly and
commercial air, and their number was to be restricted to four.
As a result of Gabriel's reforms several monasteries reverted to the ceno-
bitic rule: Xenophontos in 1784, Esphigmenou in 1797, Konstamonitou in
1799, Simonopetra in r8or, St Panteleimonos in 1803, Dionysiou in r8os,
Karakalou in 1813. Subsequently St Paul's ceased to be idiorrhythmic in
1839, Grigoriou in 1840, Zographou in 1849, and Koutloumousiou in 1856.
After that there were no further changes until the latter half of the twenti-
eth century, when all remaining idiorrhythmic houses became coenobia.
Other signs of revival in the first two decades of the nineteenth century
included the paying off of debts, the restoration of the monasteries' build-

144 OTTOMAN ATHOS

66 Left: Edward Lear, The
Monastery of Karakalou.
Lear spent three weeks on
Athos in 1856 and made
drawings of all the
monasteries. He was inspired
by the scenery and the
buildings but did not
appreciate the monastic
atmosphere.

67 A nineteenth-century
silver and gilt incense casket
in the shape of a church from
the monastery of Dionysiou.
The exuberance of the
decoration is symptomatic of
the spirit of euphoria and
optimism that prevailed in
the mid-nineteenth century.

ings, the repopulation of the sketes, and the revitalization of many cells. All
the monasteries prospered and all enjoyed an income from their extensive
estates in other parts of Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, the Aegean
islands, the Danubian provinces, Georgia and Russia.
This revival in the fortunes of Athos was temporarily interrupted by the
Greek War of Independence, which broke out in 182r. The monks were
divided as to how they should respond to the call to arms. Many of the
younger ones, perhaps influenced by agents of the revolutionary Friendly
Society (Philiki Hetairia), were in favour of supporting it: they saw it as
their Christian duty to enlist; both the peninsula and the monasteries were
easy to defend, the Greeks had command of the sea and the Turkish aga in
Karyes was unpopular. Many of the older monks urged caution: the monas-
teries had mostly been well treated by the Turks and their privileges had
been respected; the security of the Mountain would be put at risk if they
joined the rebellion, whereas nothing would be lost if they remained neu-
tral.·18 Their wise counsels were overruled.
In the event the hegoumenoi of the most belligerent monasteries, Lavra,
Vatopedi, I viron and Chilandar, agreed to support the revolt and a large
number of monks joined the rebels in Macedonia. They were defeated and
withdrew to defend the isthmus, but they disgreed among themselves and
abandoned their position. A few monasteries prepared for armed resistance,
but most did not, and the Mountain voluntarily submitted to the Turks. A
Turkish garrison of 3000 troops entered the peninsula unopposed and pro-
ceeded to occupy all the monasteries. The Holy Community confirmed the

OTTOMAN ATHOS 145

unconditional surrender of the whole Mountain to the sultan, but it was too
late to escape punishment. The occupying force remained until the war
ended in I83o; severe fines were imposed on the monasteries, and much
looting took place. As a result large numbers of monks left the Mountain,
including most of the younger ones, and between I82I and I826 the popu-
lation fell from 2980 to 590. Many of those who left took away manuscripts
and other treasures. This at least saved them from depredation by the Turks
and many were recovered after the end of hostilities. 39
The events of the I82os dealt a serious blow to the monasteries and rep-
resent one of the darkest periods in their history. They were to remain sub-
ject to the Ottoman empire for a further eighty years or more. But they
received some support from the newly independent Greek state, and after
I830 their fortunes began to recover with remarkable speed.

THE RETURN OF THE RussiANs

There were exceptions to this trend. When St Panteleimonos, the Russian

monastery, became a coenobium in I 803 it had been entirely Greek for eighty
years. This remained the case even after the Greek War of Independence, and
by I835 the monastery was bankrupt. The Greek monks, under their abbot
Gerasimos, decided that the only course of action open to them was to invite
the Russians, described by the itinerant Russian Athonite monk Parfeny
Aggeev as 'the ancient inhabitants of this house', to return. 40
There had been Russians on the Holy Mountain probably since the
eleventh century, though before the nineteenth century their numbers had
never exceeded a few hundred. Their first monastery, Bogoroditsa
Xylourgou (now the skete of Bogoroditsa), lay south-east of Vatopedi and
was founded about I030. In I I69 they were permitted to occupy the
monastery of St Panteleimonos, then located at a considerable distance
inland from its present site. Little is known of its early history and it seems
that the monastery's links with Russia were broken during the Mongol
period. Before the end of the fifteenth century they were restored and in
I56I there were said to be an abbot, fifteen priests, seven deacons and a
total of I70 brethren in residence. 41 But for most of the next two centuries

68 Right: The kyriakon (central church) of the Prophet Elijah skete, a massive and
sumptuous structure typical of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian work
on Athos. The iconostasis alone cost 17,000 roubles to build.

69 Overleaf: The katholikon of the monastery of St Panteleimonos, built between 1812 and
1821 when it was a Greek house. Russian monks arrived from 1839 onwards and the interior
of the church was later frescoed in the Russian style.

146 OTTOMAN ATHOS

the story is one of poverty and decline and of Russians frequently being in
the minority. We have already noted that when Barsky visited in I744 he
found that the monastery was now in Greek hands and its buildings in a
state of disrepair. In I765 these already dilapidated buildings were
destroyed by fire and the monks moved to a new site by the sea. Even
though it contained no Russians at the time, the monastery continued to be
known as the 'Roussikon'.
By the start of the nineteenth century the financial position of St
Panteleimonos was giving cause for concern and it came close to being closed
down by the Holy Community. This was the moment when Iviron ceased to
be a Georgian monastery. In I8oi, after Georgia signed its unification treaty
with Russia, the Georgian monarchy was no longer able to provide the
monastery with the necessary spiritual and financial protection to maintain
its Georgian status and it became a Greek house. 42 The Roussikon came close
to suffering the same fate but it was rescued by a member of the wealthy
Kallimachis family, which had supported the monastery since the sixteenth
century and now provided funds to keep it afloat and for a new katholikon to
be built. In I821 most of the brotherhood left the Mountain (apparently for
the Peloponnese) and their benefactor was beheaded by the Turks. Those
who returned after I83o were faced with a serious financial crisis.
The only sizeable community of Russians that existed on Athos in the
early nineteenth century was the brotherhood at the Prophet Elijah skete.
As noted above, this community was founded in I757 by St Paisy
Velichkovsky, a learned Russian monk who did much to revive the tradi-
tions of hesychasm on the Mountain. Though originally a hermit, St Paisy
acquired numerous disciples and was held in equally high regard by both
Greek and Slav monks as an elder. The house became the first cenobitic
skete on Athos and within five years it contained sixty monks. In I798 it
was given 540 acres of woodland by its parent monastery, Pantokrator, an
unusally large area of land to be owned by a skete and indicative of the good
relations that then obtained between the two, and its numbers grew rapid-
ly. After I 821 they dispersed and in I 830 a handful returned to find the
place in considerable disarray. A decade of instability followed and in I 839
the skete was deprived of its lands, but its existence was confirmed by a
declaration of the Holy Community and its fortunes swiftly revived after
the installation of Prior Paisy II (I84I-7I).
A first attempt to attract a Russian brotherhood to the monastery of St
Panteleimonos failed. But in I 839, when an internal dispute in the Prophet
Elijah skete resulted in the expulsion of a group of Great Russians led by
the deposed prior Fr Pavel, the Greeks of the Roussikon were quick to invite
them to join their monastery. This they did and the Greeks welcomed them
as saviours, for Russians had a reputation for great wealth at the time. By
chance, only two years earlier a wealthy Russian abbot had arrived on Athos

150 OTTOMAN ATHOS

70 St Panteleimonos from the west. Its buildings, many of which are now ruinous, cover a vast area and
at the start of the twentieth century accommodated nearly r sao monks.

and announced his intention to purchase an impoverished Greek monastery

and Russify it. He failed, but his tactless remark not only gave the Great
Russians a bad name but sowed the seeds of future discord between Greeks
and Russians on Athos. Meanwhile Abbot Gerasimos of St Panteleimonos
ordered the Greeks and the Russians to follow the cenobitic rule and per-
form their monastic duties together; he assigned the latter their own living
quarters and their own places of worship. 'The monastery was thus physi-
cally divided', writes Nicholas Fennell.
Gerasimos was also undermining his own authority by appointing Pavel as
father-confessor and de fa cto leader of the Russians. Above all, the Russians were
vastly more wealthy than their impoverished brethren . . . In the short term, the
Russians' wealth saved the monastery from debt and decay. But riches and the
monastic life do not go together; and when the well-off live in close proximity
with the poor, envy, greed and pride are bound to flourish.H

From now on the Russians at St Panteleimonos went from strength to

strength . As a result of missions to Russia the monastery became rich and
famous, and large numbers of Russian pilgrims visited the Holy Mountain.
In 1845 Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a son of Tsar Nicholas I, vis-

OTTOMAN ATHOS I 5I
71 The skete of St Andrew from the air, looking south-east. Its church, consecrated in 1900, was the
largest in the Balkans after the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia.

ited the monastery, to be followed in I 867 by Grand Duke Aleksey

Aleksandrovich, son of Tsar Alexander II. Meanwhile in 186o there had
been an outrageous attempt to Russify the monastery of Koutloumousiou.
Senior members of the Holy Community were bribed, the doors of the
monastery broken down and the abbot was expelled by force. The anarchy
was only brought to an end and order restored by the intervention of an
Ottoman official. The fact that the declaration of Romanian independence
in 1859 and the confiscation of Athonite properties on the Danube had
deprived the monasteries of one of their most important sources of funding
served to increase the influence of the Russians and of the monasteries and
sketes that they supported.
The changes at St Andrew's in Karyes should also be recorded in this
context. In 1841 it was a small cell inhabited by a handful of monks and
dependent on Vatopedi when two Russian monks arrived. Soon they were
joined by others; and in 1845 Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich came to
lay the foundation stone of a new church. At the same time he tried to have
the cell recognized as a cenobitic skete, but this move was blocked by the
Greeks in the Holy Community. A similar attempt in 1849, supported by
generous donations to the Holy Community, the Holy Epistasia and the

152 OTTOMAN ATHOS

monastery of Vatopedi, was successful and Patriarch Anthimos VI not only
proclaimed it a cenobitic skete but gave it stavropegic status (i.e. directly
dependent on the patriarchate, even though it remained a dependency of
Vatopedi) and conferred on its prior Theodorit the title of hegoumenos
(hitherto reserved for abbots of the ruling monasteries). The new skete
now had a higher status not only than the Prophet Elijah skete but than all
the Greek sketes on the Mountain, another cause of grievance among the
Greek monks. In I867 Grand Duke Aleksey Aleksandrovich laid the foun-
dation stone of the central church at St Andrew's. The Greeks were
appalled to see the size and ornate grandeur of this church, which had no
equal on Athos, but they passed no comment out of respect for the visitor's
high rank. 44 This 'respect' did not prevent the skete becoming known as the
Serai, or palace, for the imperial splendour of its buildings, a soubriquet it
bears to this day.
By the I 87os the Russians on Athos possessed three very substantial
houses: the monastery of St Panteleimonos and the sketes of St Andrew and
the Prophet Elijah. All three were flourishing: their numbers were increas-
ing rapidly; their buildings were eloquent (if not aggressive) reminders of
their wealth; and they were greedy for power, land, and recognition.
Inevitably the Greeks became not only jealous but worried. Tensions grew;
relations deteriorated; wild stories began to circulate: that the tsar had
designs on the throne of Constantinople; that he was using the Holy
Mountain as a stepping stone towards the realization of his political ambi-
tions; that the cellars of the Russian houses were stocked with arms; that
most of the Russian monks were crypto-officers of the imperial army.
Nineteenth-century histories of Athos by Greek writers proclaim the truth
of the rumours and some are still in circulation today. 45

RussiAN ExPANSION AND THE LIBERATION OF ATHOS

In I874 the Russians at St Panteleimonos began to assert themselves. They

now numbered over 400 monks while the Greeks were fewer than zoo, and the
two communities were at each other's throats. The abbot was Greek and the
Greeks believed that the monastery was still Greek property, but in I 87 5 the
abbot died. Both sides appealed to Constantinople. The verdict of the the
patriarch was that 'the Russians cannot be denied a monastery on Athos. ' 46
Furthermore, by patriarchal decree, the Russian candidate was appointed
abbot, thereby ensuring the ascendancy of the Russians within the monastery.
His enthronement was attended by representatives of all the monasteries
except Grigoriou, Konstamonitou and Esphigmenou. St Panteleimonos was
finally re-established as a Russian house with the endorsement of a large

OTTOMAN ATHOS 153

majority of the other monasteries. But the Greeks had suffered a humiliating
defeat at the hands of an aggressive people who now seemed destined to dom-
inate the Mountain. The calm of Athos had been disturbed and its interna-
tional status had been put to the test in a very public manner.
Calm was restored, at least for a while. By means of its publications St
Panteleimonos became a centre of enlightenment and as a focus of spiritual
revival it attracted generous financial support from all sectors of Russian
society. Most of the money was used to strengthen the Russian houses,
though other monasteries benefited too: Simonopetra was rebuilt after its
disastrous fire in 1891 largely thanks to Russian donations. 47 Large numbers
of Russian pilgrims were also attracted to the Mountain and by the start of
the twentieth century there were as many as zs,ooo visitors each year. They
could stay as long as they wished, but the recommended minimum period
was two months and as a result guest houses were fully stretched.
During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8 the Ottomans accused the
monks of pan-Slav agitation in Macedonia and sent a delegation to search
the monastery. But as one of the most anti-Russian of Greek newspapers
reported, 'no weapons were found in the monastery other than ecclesiasti-
cal books . . . no ammunition other than beans, cabbage, courgettes, and
olives. ' 48 The position of the Russians on Athos was strengthened by
Russia's victory in this conflict.
The Englishman Athelstan Riley, visiting the Mountain in 1883,
described the Russian monastery as 'a go-ahead colony' and recounts the
observations of a 'well-known professor of the University of Athens':
... now the original inhabitants of the Holy Mountain, being fully roused, have
entered into a solemn compact never again to sell a foot of ground to the intrud-
ers ... Thus they [the Russians] are obliged to make the most of what they have
already, and consequently at their two great stations, Russico and St. Andrew's,
they are hard at work with stones and mortar. Many are the tales told of lights
seen at night on the mountain moving between these two communities, the evi-
dence of secret communications carried on under the cover of darkness. The bit-
terness of feeling between the two parties may be imagined from the fact that the
Greeks attribute the frequent fires which have taken place in their monasteries
during the last fifty years to Russian incendiaries ...
Riley continues:
I give these stories chiefly for the sake of showing the bitterness of the struggle
now undoubtedly going on at Athos, though there is great reason for believing
that these tales are only exaggerations of the truth. It is quite possible, and even
probable, that the Greeks are jealous of the greater number of Russian than
Greek pilgrims to the Holy Mountain (caused by the deeper religious feeling that
exists amongst the lower orders of Russians than amongst the Greeks)-pilgrims
who make the journey, I believe, entirely from religious motives. Yet that the
Russian authorities both at home and at Athos are scheming for important polit-

I 54 OTTOMAN ATHOS
72 The Ottoman governor
of Athos with the insignia of
his office in Karyes. As the
Ottoman occupation neared
its end, relations with the
monks were often poor and
for obvious reasons the
governorship was not a
popular posting.

ical ends I see no reason to doubt; but that munitions of war are being stored up
at Russico, as has been asserted, is very improbable, and I saw nothing to confirm
this statement. 49

Nicholas Fennell, who has made a study of the (now lost) archives of the
Prophet Elijah skete, takes a different line: 'It was only later in the twenti-
eth century ... that official Russian intervention on Athos, so long dreaded
by the Greeks, became a reality. Until then all the Russians could be accused
of was unbridled zeal and tactlessness.' 50 Yet he is hard put to it to account
for the sudden and dramatic expansion that occurred:
There is no single explanation for the meteoric rise of the Russian population ...
Nothing that happened in the seventy years of growth was due to the isolated
actions of a single government or of individuals ... What is clear about the
Russians on Athos is that they never intended to seize power and territory in a
political sense: even the worldliest, most uncouth kelliot built his great stone edi-
fices with pious if misguided intentions. ; 1

Whatever the motives for it may have been-and it seems not unreason-
able to assume a combination of religious zeal and patriotic fervour- there
was indeed phenomenal growth in the Russian population. In 1902
Gerasimos Smyrnakis, later to become abbot of Esphigmenou, reported
that there were 3496 Russians on the Mountain and 3276 Greeks. ;z The
largest Russian concentrations were I 858 at the monastery of St
Panteleimonos and its dependencies, roughly soo at the Serai and 400 at the
Prophet Elijah skete. The rest lived out in the cells, some of which housed
as many as roo monks. The Russians repeatedly attempted to convert the
cenobitic sketes into monasteries as a means to gain a louder voice in the
Holy Community, but every such request was turned down. The cells grew

OTTOMAN ATHOS ISS

to the size of monasteries, though the behaviour of some of their inhabi-
tants left much to be desired. The Greeks felt threatened by this alien peo-
ple that had suddenly gained a majority on their Holy Mountain. The
Russians were frustrated because despite their numerical superiority they
never had more than a single vote in the Holy Community. 53 Meanwhile the
political situation in the Balkans became increasingly unstable.
Greece had acquired Thessaly in 1881 but Macedonia still remained in
Ottoman hands. While the Ottomans were distracted by an Italian attack on
Libya, an alliance of Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria attacked the Ottoman forces
in Europe on 18 October 1912 and was quickly successful. On 8 November, the
feast of St Demetrios by the old calendar, Greek forces entered Thessaloniki,
a matter of hours ahead of the Bulgarians, who also laid claim to Macedonia,
and the Greek navy swiftly assumed control of the Aegean. On 15 November
Athos was liberated without a struggle and the Turkish aga vacated his office
in Karyes, bringing to an end 488 years of Ottoman rule over the Holy
Mountain. Bells were rung in every belfry; the flags of the Balkan nations were
flown; guns were fired all night long; there was wild rejoicing and shouting of
the Easter greeting 'Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!'

I S6 OTTOMAN ATHOS
 6
TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

I n 1912 Athos for the first time in its history became Greek territory.
Until then, whether ruled by Byzantines or Ottomans, it had belonged to
the worldwide ('ecumenical') dominion of Orthodoxy. It had been a
theocratic republic, a monastic enclave, where monks acknowledged no
sovereign except the Mother of God, and where even the jurisdiction of the
ecumenical patriarch was carefully circumscribed. This was the basis of its
much-vaunted supranational status. Suddenly it seemed to be in danger of
losing this special position, of becoming simply a monkish extension of the
secular Greek state-ironically at a time when Greeks on the Mountain
were themselves in a minority. Athos had been liberated by Greek forces in
the name of King George I of the Hellenes. When the initial jubilation sub-
sided, the Athonites had to do some hard thinking about how to regain their
autonomy and their raison d'etre. And it was not long before the patriarchate
had to answer similar questions about its own future.

THE RussiAN BuBBLE BuRsTs

The Slavs posed the most serious and immediate threat to the stability of
the Mountain. Eleven days after the liberation, seventy Bulgarian troops
landed on Athos and took up positions in Zographou and Chilandar, osten-
sibly to protect Bulgarian property and Bulgarian interests. Seven months
later, on the eve of the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, when Greece
and Serbia took arms against Bulgaria, they were still there. Greek troops,
assisted by large numbers of armed monks, laid siege to the two monaster-
ies concerned and the Bulgarians surrendered. The crisis was averted, but
tensions between Greeks and Bulgarians persisted.
Nor was there any lessening of the tension between Greeks and Russians,
even though (or perhaps because) the former were now in a position of author-
ity. Greek customs officials treated Russian monks and pilgrims alike in an
unmannerly and insolent fashion. Despite their political superiority, the
Greeks still felt inferior to the Russians and remained intensely jealous of their
wealth. Relations deteriorated further and the problem seemed intractable.
In 1913, when the attention of the Greeks was distracted by hostilities in
73 The Holy Epistasia (or Executive Committee) of the Hol y Community ' in the year of
the liberation of our holy place I9I 2 - IJ '. The presence of Greek police in ceremonial
costume attests to the reality of Greek rule.

the Balkans, an extraordinary episode took place on Athos that fortunately

affected only the Russians. Early in the year groups of monks in two of the
Russian houses were incited by rabble-rousers to become involved in a theo-
logical controversy concerning the name of God. This controversy had been
sparked off a few years earlier by monks in Russia who contended that the
name of God was the Lord Himself and that God could not be separated
from His all-holy name. They became known as the Glorifiers of the Name
and at the time they were regarded as heretics by most other Orthodox,
including the patriarch. The question of whether the teaching was indeed
heretical exercised Russian theologians for some time; one pointed out that
at least the debate proved that the Russian monks on Athos were genuinely
interested in spiritual matters. 1 But in fact the majority of those monks were
simple peasants, incapable of understanding the intricacies of theological
argument, and they were being incited by demagogues.
On Athos the rebels seized control of the Serai and expelled the prior and
fifty monks amid ugly scenes. They also established themselves at St
Panteleimonos, though they failed by a narrow margin to win a vote of con-
fidence at a meeting of the brotherhood. The Russian authorities in St
Petersburg were informed of the situation and decided to act quickly. When
the rebels ignored an appeal from the Russian Synod to step down, three

158 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

Russian warships were sent to Athos in June 1913 together with a detachment
of troops who besieged the Serai. The operation was conducted with dispatch
and 833 monks were swiftly arrested and deported to Russia. But the Russian
Synod admitted that many bystanders had been wounded in the action, and
the patriarch was understandably outraged that the Russian navy had used
violence against Athonite monks. 2 The episode was a considerable embarrass-
ment to the Russians and could have had serious international repercussions.
In 1914 the Russian Athonites, assisted by A.A. Pavlovsky, who was now
installed as the permanent Russian diplomatic representative on the Holy
Mountain, made a concerted effort to unite and make a case for recogni-
tion . In a memorandum put out in the name of all three houses and 34
leading cells they asked that the sketes be made into monasteries and the
larger cells into sketes; in view of their numbers they asked to be given an
equal voice in the Holy Community or permission to divorce themselves
from it. 3 After the conclusion of the Balkan Wars in 1913 the reallocation
of Turkey's European territories was administered by the great powers.
The position of Mount Athos, however, was not defined beyond an agree-
ment that it should have an independent, neutral autonomy. This raised a
question over Greece's sovereignty and the presence of Greek troops on
the Mountain . The Russians began to press their case harder than ever, but

74 All that remains of the Russian monks at the Serai is their skulls, displayed in neat rows
in the charnel house. A much smaller Greek brotherhood has recently occupied the skete.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 59
 negotiations were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, and
after the 1917 revolution there was no likelihood of their being resumed.
Greece's sovereignty over the Mountain was eventually given internation-
al recognition.
As the war progressed, the situation of the Russian Athonites deterio-
rated. Greece was divided by the so-called national schism: Prime Minister
Venizelos was eager for Greece to enter the war to support Serbia, while
King Constantine insisted that Greece remain neutral. In 1916 Venizelos
set up a separatist government in Thessaloniki for which the Holy
Community declared its support, but the political situation of Athos
remained uncertain, and it was only after the Russian Revolution of 1917
that the Greeks were sufficiently confident to assert their authority. At this
point the Russians on Athos were suddenly cut off from all contact with
their fatherland. They lost access to their substantial bank deposits and
they received no more visitors and no more novices from Russia. At the
same time the Greeks imposed heavy taxes on the Russian monks who
remained and on any goods that they imported into Athos. Almost
overnight the position of the Russians was reversed, from near domination
of the Mountain to almost total subjection. They have never recovered. As

75 The Serai's buildings were left to rot after the last of the Russians died in the 1970s. Restoration of the
tower is now in hand and the bells have been taken out for safety reasons.

160 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

76 The First World War made little impact on the life of the monks, but in order to counter
the rumour that some monasteries were assisting the Germans a small detachment of French
troops was sent to Karyes in 1917.

the monks grew older and fewer, they lost more and more of their proper-
ties. The cells were abandoned, the sketes were Hellenized, and the Russian
monastery itself, once home to close on I soo monks, became so depopulat-
ed that it was nearly forced to close. But in fact it never has, and the revival
of monasticism in Russia itself has brought a gleam of hope, though the
Greek authorities have ensured that the influx of novices is nothing more
than a trickle.
Fennell concludes his study on an optimistic note:
The situation on Athos on the eve of the First World War was precarious. The
Holy Mountain was the scene of ethnic quarrels fuelled by greed, jealousy and
even violence; it was becoming overcrowded; monastic humility and other-
worldliness were being forgotten: all this was a far cry from the hesychastic
revival of the eighteenth century. The will of the individual on Athos was proved
to be powerless. God's will prevailed: the Russians were humbled, made destitute
and brought back to their senses. Let us pray that the Holy Mountain will con-
tinue to be the centre of Pan-Orthodoxy as it was in St Paisy's day and as St
Nikodemos saw it.'

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 6I
 THE POLITICAL SETTLEMENT

After the First World War the Russian state took no further interest in
Mount Athos. It was therefore left to the western allies to establish a settle-
ment with Turkey in which the legal status of the Holy Mountain was
agreed. The Treaty of Sevres (1920), ratified by the Treaty of Lausanne
(1923), recognized Greece's sovereignty over Athos. But it included an
important clause that protected the rights and liberties of the non-Greek
monastic communities on the Mountain according to the provisions of
Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878). At the same time Greece under-
took to prepare a new charter that would take account of recent
developments while safeguarding the traditions of the centuries-old regime
by constitutional means. The outcome of this inquiry was the Mount Athos
Charter, which was approved by the Holy Community in 1924 and ratified
by the Greek state in 1926. This charter includes clauses to protect the priv-
ileged status of Athos which remain in force today. Since they are
fundamental to the legal situation of the Mountain, it is worth recording its
main provisions. 5

( 1) The Athos peninsula, extending beyond Megali Vigla and constituting

the region of Mount Athos in accordance with its ancient privileged sta-
tus, is a self-governing part of the Greek state, whose sovereignty over
it remains intact. Spiritually Mount Athos is under the jurisdiction of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate. All persons leading a monastic life there
acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities upon admission
as novices or monks.
(2) Mount Athos is governed in accordance with its regime by its twenty
holy monasteries among which the entire Athos peninsula is divided;
the territory of the peninsula is exempt from expropriation.
Administration of the Mount Athos region is exercised by representa-
tives of the holy monasteries constituting the Holy Community. No
change whatsoever is permitted in the administrative system or in
the number of monasteries of Mount Athos, or in their order of pre-
eminence or in their position to their subordinate dependencies.
Heterodox or schismatic persons are prohibited from dwelling there.
(3) The determination in detail of the regimes of Mount Athos and the
manner of operation thereof is effected by the Charter of Mount Athos
which, with the co-operation of the state representative, is drawn up
and voted by the twenty holy monasteries and ratified by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Parliament of the Hellenes.
(4) Faithful observance of the regimes of Mount Athos in the spiritual field
is under the supreme supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and,

I 62 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
 in the administrative, under the supervision of the state, which also is
exclusively responsible for safeguarding public order and security.
(5) The afore-mentioned powers of the state are exercised through a gov-
ernor whose rights and duties are determined by law. The law likewise
determines the judicial power exercised by the monastic authorities and
the Holy Community, as well as the customs and taxation privileges of
Mount Athos.

In addition to these main provisions the charter defines in legal terms

and makes allowance for every form of monastic life that obtains on the
Mountain, and it provides for the peaceful coexistence of cenobitic and idi-
orrhythmic communities. It also specifies a number of restrictions relating
to rights of establishment. Any male, regardless of nationality, may settle on
Athos as a monk or novice so long as he is a member of the Orthodox
Church (with the corollary that if he leaves the Orthodox faith he ceases to
be Athonite and must leave the Mountain). Monks may not leave the
Mountain without written permission from their monastery. Monks who do
not belong to a monastery and are found wandering on the Mountain are to
be expelled by the Holy Epistasia, as are laymen who create a disturbance.
Every visitor to the Mountain (whether layman, clergyman, or non-
Athonite monk) must first obtain a permit (diamonitirion) from the author-
ities in Karyes giving him the right to travel on the peninsula and to seek
hospitality from the monasteries. Anyone wishing to consult the libraries
and archives of the monasteries must first obtain a letter of introduction
from the Ecumenical Patriarchate or the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Females, whether women or animals, are forbidden from entering Athos. In
Greek law any woman who sets foot on the Holy Mountain will receive an
automatic prison sentence of between two and twelve months. 6
This was the first time that the prohibition of women had been explic-
itly stated. Before 1924 it was simply taken for granted since it had always
been in force and was never questioned. In 1975, International Women's
Year, a member of the Greek Parliament proposed the lifting of the ban.
Parliament rejected the proposal for two reasons: first, because the ban had
always been in place and so constituted one of the traditional and interna-
tionally protected rights of the Mountain; and secondly, because it was
specifically mentioned in the charter which could only be amended by the
Athonites themselves. It has been questioned again more recently with sim-
ilar results. 7
The charter of 1924 was a summing up of all the traditions and customs
that had accumulated in the course of a millennium of monasticism on the
Holy Mountain. It incorporated all the rules and regulations that had been
laid down over the past ten centuries in Byzantine typika and imperial
chrysobulls, in patriarchal edicts and Ottoman firmans. The charter defined

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 63
the relationship of the Mountain with both the state and the Church. It pro-
vided for the administration of justice and the appointment of a civil gov-
ernor who reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens and who,
together with his deputy, resides in Karyes. It spelt out once and for all the
role of the Holy Community and the Holy Epistasia. It protected the rights
of the non-Greek minorities. In short, it provided the administrative, polit-
ical and judicial apparatus that enabled the Mountain to operate as a self-
governing entity within the modern Greek state. The fact that its provisions
have simply been adopted more or less unchanged in all subsequent Greek
constitutions is a testament to the trouble that was taken to get it right. Its
promulgation was a major achievement, perhaps the most important event
in the history of Orthodox monasticism in the twentieth century.

THE ISSUE OF THE CALENDAR

When the western Church adopted the Gregorian calendar in I582, the
Orthodox Church refused to comply, regarding the change as a unilateral
break with tradition and with the paschal calendar of the First Council of
Nicaea. In I923 Patriarch Meletios convened a pan-Orthodox council which
recommended a number of liberal reforms including the adoption of the
Gregorian calendar. The next year, on 10/23 March I924, Archbishop
Christodoulos, backed by the patriarchate and the Greek government of
Nicholas Plastiras, imposed the change on the Church of Greece. It was
accepted by the vast majority of the clergy and by most of the laity, though
pockets of (mostly lay) resistance held out against it and continue to do so.
It is estimated that the so-called Old Calendarists in Greece today number
as many as I so,ooo.
The monks of Athos have never accepted the change and to this day
continue to use the Julian calendar, which places them thirteen days behind
the rest of the world. Some were so affronted by the patriarchate's imposi-
tion of the new calendar in I924 that they broke communion with the
reformers, ceased to commemorate the name of the patriarch in their
church services, and declared themselves 'Zealots'. Traditionally these
monks lived out in the cells and sketes, but more recently they have taken
control of the monastery of Esphigmenou.
In the I 96os, in defiance of the charter of I 924, several monasteries
stopped commemorating the name of the patriarch because of
Athenagoras's involvement in the ecumenical movement and his gestures of
reconciliation towards Roman Catholics and Anglicans. By I970 as many as
eleven monasteries (including Lavra, Iviron, Stavronikita, St Paul's,
Simonopetra, Dionysiou, and Grigoriou) were not commemorating the

I 64 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
77 'Orthodoxy or Death'-a stark choice proclaimed by the Zealot monks of Esphigmenou
from an upper balcony of the monastery.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 165

patriarch by name. When Patriarch Demetrios was elected in 1972, he took
steps to restore the monks' confidence and all but one of the monasteries
resumed the practice of commemorating the patriarch. The exception was
the Zealot monastery of Esphigmenou. The other nineteen monasteries of
the Holy Community voted to expel Esphigmenou's representative, and
since then the monks of Esphigmenou have been out of communion with
the rest of the Mountain in both church and refectory. Their stance is sym-
bolized by a banner suspended from a high balcony overlooking the sea
which reads 'Orthodoxy or Death'. 8

MID-CENTURY DECLINE

St Panteleimonos was not the only monastery to suffer decline after the
First World War, though its fall was perhaps the most dramatic because it
had started from such a peak of prosperity. All the non-Greek houses expe-
rienced similar problems for similar reasons: lack of men and lack of money.
Zographou's difficulties were exacerbated by the fact that the Church of
Bulgaria, re-established in 1871, was not formally recognized by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate until 1945. The Romanian sketes also suffered
from a serious shortage of recruits. Numbers at Chilandar held up longer,
no doubt because of Greece's improved relations with the newly created
state of Yugoslavia. But the Greek monasteries too were forced to tighten
their belts. All their overseas estates had now been confiscated, and in 1922,
after the Asia Minor disaster when an ill-judged Greek thrust into Anatolia
was repulsed by the Turks and the entire Christian population of Turkey
was forced to flee the country, their remaining estates in Macedonia, Thrace
and the islands were requisitioned by the Greek government to provide
homes for the influx of refugees. The government tried to make up for the
losses suffered by the monasteries by giving them an annuity of three mil-
lion drachmas, but this never matched the income they had received from
their estates and its value was quickly eroded by inflation and devaluation of
the drachma.
The Second World War made little impact on Athos. The German occu-
pation of Greece was savage and oppressive, but though most of the
Athonites supported the Allies they suffered few reprisals. 9 In fact the
Mountain operated as a link in one of the main escape routes for British,
Australian and New Zealand soldiers, and many monasteries sheltered and
fed the fugitives. Some soldiers stayed for months in isolated hermitages in
the forest until they could be got away by sea, often in monkish disguise. A
few were still there when the war ended, though none is known to have
taken monastic vows.

I 66 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
78 Fr Pavlos Pavlides of the Great Lavra, photographed in 1968 seated in front of his
voluminous diary.

W. B. Thomas, a young New Zealander wounded in Crete and captured

by the Germans, in a semi-autobiographical thriller entitled Dare to be Free
writes endearingly of his sojourn at the Great Lavra (which he calls St
Lawrence) in 1942 and of the monks who helped him to escape:

'I have thought over the whole thing,' said Pavlides, the quietly spoken and cul-
tured monk- doctor of St Lawrence, 'and I will have some suggestions to make
to you later. In the meantime, let us enjoy the meal that God has provided.'
We were seated at a small table in the good doctor's quarters, and in front of
us was arrayed a tasty meal of macaroni and white cheese. I had been in the
monastery for over ten days, and this was the first time I had been 'invited out'
for a meal, normall y being required to live and eat in the monastery hospital.
The monks of St Lawrence differed from St Denys [Dionysiou] in that they
lived monos or to a great degree singly [i.e. idiorrhythmically]. Thus, they did
not dine together as a community. On the other hand, they were permitted two
great privileges. First, they were permitted, in between fasts, to eat red meat,
and, secondly, they could bring into the monastery, and still retain, their world-
ly wealth. This enabled some of them to live in well-furnished quarters, with
paid lesser monks for servants.
'Well now, Pavlides,' I tackled him when we had finished our meal, 'what is the
news you have for me? What are the suggestions you mentioned which will help
me in my one great desire, to get to Egypt?'

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS r67

Dr Pavlides proceeded to outline his plan for the young soldier's escape
which involved making use of the substantial fortunes that only idiorrhyth-
mic monks could lay their hands on. The story continues:
We rose from the small table, for it was getting late. I started to make my farewells
and thanks. Pavlides, however, was in no hurry to retire. He drew me out on to a
small balcony.
'This is the most restful place in my apartment,' he smiled. 'Here I work on
my hobby of book-binding when it is not too cold. Don't you think it is a beau-
tiful view for an old man to look on for his last years?' 10

Old man or not, Dr Pavlides continued to enjoy the view from his balcony
for a good many more years. He was still there, writing a copious diary and
carefully binding its volumes, when Bishop Kallistos first visited the
monastery in the early 196os.
More serious for Athos was the devastating civil war that Greece endured
immediately after its liberation. The fighting was especially fierce in Chalkidiki
and the peasants were allowed to drive their flocks, mostly goats, on to the
Mountain to preserve them from the guerrillas. As many as 7o,ooo animals are
said to have been involved and they proved too great a temptation to a raiding
party in December 1948, which included twenty-five women who flouted the
law excluding them. The insurgents advanced as far as Karyes, where they
encamped for the night and exchanged fire with the local police. They with-
drew the next day, taking with them precious stocks of food and 200 animals.
When the war ended in 1949, the remaining animals were driven off the
Mountain, but not before they had done great damage to crops and trees. 11
By far the most serious problem, however, faced by all the monasteries
after the Second World War was the persistent decline in the numbers of
monks, and especially the numbers of novices. According to Smyrnakis, 12 in
1903 there was a total of 7432 monks on the Holy Mountain, of whom 3496
(47%) were Russians and 3260 (43.9%) lived in the monasteries (as opposed
to the sketes and cells). By 1956 the total figure had fallen to 1862, of whom
814 (43.7%) were resident in the monasteries. In 1965, when the total num-
ber was 1491, there were only 62 Russians (4.2%). By 1968 the total was
down to 1238 with only 518 (41.8%) in the monasteries. In 1971 the total
reached a low of 1145. The following table shows the numbers for each
monastery, including monks living in the dependencies: 13

I 68 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
Monastery 1903 1959 1968 1971

Lavra II87 459 406 378

Vatopedi 966 129 83 74
Iviron 456 101 68 57
Dionysiou 131 53 40 42
Chilandar 385 63 55 54
Koutloumousiou 214 107 68 57
Pantokrator 548 II8 84 76
Xeropotamou 106 43 36 30
Zographou 155 21 15 II
Dochiariou 6o 29 16 16
Karakalou 130 42 30 30
Philotheou 133 44 36 24
Simonopetra 108 27 18 27
St Paul's 250 II5 III 96
Stavronikita 219 35 26 31
Xenophontos 195 66 43 38
Grigoriou 105 53 34 30
Esphigmenou 91 46 25 33
St Panteleimonos 1928 61 27 24
Konstamonitou 65 29 17 17

Total 7432 1641 1238 II45

Bare statistics fail to demonstrate other relevant factors. As the monks

grew fewer, so they also grew older. They were less able to work, and as they
also grew poorer, they were unable to employ the same amount of labour as
in the past. The drop in numbers of monks meant that less accommodation
was required, and so large parts of monasteries were abandoned and build-
ings fell into disrepair. With fewer mouths to feed, the monks needed fewer
acres to cultivate, and so once-fertile fields, vineyards and orchards reverted
to waste land. Church services were less well attended, choirs were depleted
in numbers, and standards of liturgical practice, chanting, and spirituality
inevitably began to decline. Monasteries assumed a desolate and decadent
appearance. At best they were nostalgic reminders of departed splendour.
Visitors such as John Julius Norwich were driven to predict the worst:
The fundamental, unanswerable fact is that Mount Athos has become an
anachronism, and one which modern Greece is no longer able to indulge.
Ironically enough, it is in the communist countries of Eastern Europe that the
call of the Holy Mountain seems most clearly heard. In 1964 the Soviet
Government agreed to release a few Russian novices-the first since the
Revolution-to St Panteleimon, and Marshal Tito has done the same for

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 169

 Chilandar-following this gesture, according to a recent report, with the gift of
an electric generator. But such recruits, welcome as they may be, cannot hope to
buttress the whole community against the onslaught of a hostile age. Unless a
miracle happens-a great nation-wide religious revival, nothing less-the Holy
Mountain is doomed. 14

A few years later Emmanuel Amand de Mendieta was equally pessimistic:

The authorities of every monastery, and the Holy Community and the
Patriarchate at Constantinople, must be aware how near some houses are to com-
plete closure. St. Paul may have been helped, in recent years, by its reputation
for vigorous intellectual life, and for some years the monastery published a small
journal, which has now ceased. But it is distressing to see that two of the oldest
and once largest monasteries, Vatopedi and lviron, are so greatly reduced.
Vatopedi's reputation as the monastery which has always been most receptive to
up-to-date ideas, has not been able to attract recruits, nor has the reputation of
Dionysiou for a strict observance of the monastic code assisted it. 15

Philip Sherrard was one of the twentieth century's most astute and
devoted observers of Athonite affairs. He could not deny the ever dwin-
dling numbers and the paucity of new recruits which he attributed to two
factors: a spirit of intolerance to the monastic way of life in Greece as a
whole, and the determination of the Greek state to restrict the entry of
non-Greek nationals as part of its aim to destroy the pan-Orthodox tradi-
tions of the Mountain. But he knew that Athos had recovered from down-
turns in its fortunes in the past, and he did not exclude the possiblity of
recovery agam:
The answer, in part at least, depends on the monks themselves. At the end of a
thousand years they are in possession of a constitution which enshrines and
secures, in so far as a paper constitution can enshrine and secure anything, the
privileges and independence of the Holy Mountain. The geographical and polit-
ical boundaries of the Mountain are clearly defined. There is an administrative
organization fit for the preserving of internal order and stability. There are what
one might describe as adequate conditions for the pursuit of the monastic life.
With a consciousness of the principles of this life, and the resolution to pursue
it, the monks of Athos may yet frustrate the forces which aim at the destruction
of their community. 16

There were of course exceptions to the trend. Amid the gloomy predic-
tions and diminishing population statistics a number of luminaries contin-
ued to uphold the torch of Athonite spirituality. The Elder Silouan, who
lived on Athos from 1892 to 1938, is a shining example. His early years at the
monastery of St Panteleimonos were darkened by fits of depression until one
day he received a vision. His disciple, Fr Sophrony, takes up the story:

170 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

 That same day, during vespers in the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah (adjoin-
ing the mill), to the right of the Royal Doors, by the ikon of the Saviour, he
beheld the living Christ.
In a manner passing all understanding the Lord appeared to the young novice
whose whole being filled with the fire of the grace of the Holy Spirit-that fire
which the Lord brought down to earth with His coming ...
There is no describing how it was with Brother Simeon [later Fr Silouan] at
that moment. From his words and from his writings we know that a great Divine
light shone about him, that he was lifted out of this world and in spirit trans-
ported to heaven, where he heard ineffable words; that he received, as it were, a
new birth from on high. 17

Even in later life he was still persecuted by demons. Fr Sophrony recounts

another famous incident in his life:
It was fifteen years after the Lord had appeared to him, and Silouan was engaged in
one of these nocturnal struggles with devils which so tormented him. No matter
how he tried, he could not pray with a pure mind. At last he rose from his stool,
intending to bow down and worship, when he saw a gigantic devil standing in front
of the ikon, waiting to be worshipped. Meanwhile, the cell filled with other evil spir-
its. Father Silouan sat down again, and with bowed head and aching heart he prayed,
'Lord, Thou seest that I desire to pray to Thee with a pure mind but the
devils will not let me. Instruct me, what must I do to stop them hindering me?'
And in his soul he heard,
'The proud always suffer from devils.'
'Lord,' said Silouan, 'teach me what I must do that my soul may grow humble.'
Once more, his heart heard God's answer,
'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not. >~B
Fr Silouan was a simple, uneducated monk from a peasant background, but
his meditations and writings, based on his personal experience of
Christianity and his tireless inner striving, have been edited and translated
into many languages and have inspired countless readers. He was canonized
in 1988.
In the same context we should celebrate the life and work of Fr Gabriel,
former abbot of Dionysiou, who died, aged ninety-eight, on 25 October
1983 after more than 69 years on Athos and half a century as abbot. By sheer
strength of character he rose to be the unelected representative of the Holy
Mountain in all its dealings with both the external world and with the
Athonites themselves. He was known as 'the abbot of the abbots', the
'father' of all the Athonites, and the 'grandfather' of all the young monks
whom he attracted to the Mountain. Of the many stories told of his quali-
ties as a spiritual father and guide to the young, one must suffice here:
In 1982 a young monk came to pay him a visit at the infirmary of Dionysiou
where he was lying in the bed next to Father Arsenius. After having given his
blessing, the patriarch of the Athonites said to the young monk:

1WENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 171

 'Come, dear Father, this is the last time that we shall see each other. I am
departing.'
'No, Elder, I'll come to see you again.'
'You won't have time for it. I'm dying.'
'If you depart this life, the All-Holy Mother of God will surely receive you with
open arms. For, look, you've served her "garden" faithfully for seventy years.'
The old man looked at him with tears in his eyes:
'My child, we judge altogether too easily, we men. But God, He has His own
judgement of us.>~ 9

THE MILLENNIUM IN 1963

Amid all the gloomy prognostications for their future the monks of Athos
had somehow to find the energy and the enthusiasm to celebrate their mil-
lennium in 1963. Megiste Lavra, founded in 963, the oldest of all the sur-
viving ruling monasteries, was a thousand years old. A major celebration
was called for. 20
Representatives of Church and state congregated in Karyes in large
numbers. The Ecumenical Patriarch, Athenagoras I, was there with a large
entourage, as were patriarchs and divines from many other Christian
churches, both Eastern and Western. King Paul of the Hellenes and his son,
Crown Prince Constantine, also came, as did several Greek government
ministers. The hospitality was lavish-too lavish for some monks, who
absented themselves from what they considered to be inappropriate displays
of extravagance. One banquet had to be postponed because the king was ill;
it was rearranged for a fast day, a fact that had escaped the notice of the
organizers, and as a result there was no suitable food; when some was found
it was no longer fresh because of the high temperatures, and the conse-
quences were most unfortunate.
It was of course an occasion for speech-making. The patriarch took the
opportunity to emphasize the need for new recruits regardless of their
nationality. He also supported an extension of the ecclesiastical school that
had been founded in Karyes ten years earlier with full state recognition and
government funding. And he called for the setting up of an academy of
Byzantine Christian studies as well as retreat houses and conference centres
on Athos. The king responded by saying that his government was prepared
to do everything that was necessary to ensure that Athos remained a spiri-
tual beacon for those outside the limits of Greek Orthodoxy. Despite these
fine words, the seriousness of which was not to be doubted, many observers
commented that the celebrations marked not so much the triumph of
Athonite monasticism as its funeral or even its requiem. It was widely
believed that the Mountain, whose past stretched back for a thousand years
and more, had no future at all. 21

I 72 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
79 Patriarchs and hierarchs from all over the Orthodox world assembled in Karyes for the
celebrations to mark the millennium of Athos in 1963.

One superficially insignificant prelude to the events of I963 was the

construction of a road, the first in modern times, from the port of Daphne
up to the town of Karyes. This no doubt facilitated the journey for the
many dignitaries who were to visit the Mountain in the course of the cel-
ebrations. With it of course came the first motorized vehicles ever seen on
Athos. 22 Such concessions to modernization were deeply shocking to many
of the monks. And they were right to suspect that the trend would not
stop there.

SEEDS OF RENEWAL

Numbers of monks continued to fall throughout the Ig6os and it was only
in the early I970s that the trend was finally arrested. In I972 the population
rose from I I45 to I I46-not a spectacular increase, but nevertheless the
first to be recorded since the turn of the century. Since then the upturn has
been maintained in most years and the official total in zooo stood at just over
I6oo. The following table shows the numbers for each monastery including
novices and those living in the dependencies:

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 173

Monastery 1972 1976 1978 1980 1982 1986 1988 1990 1992 2000

Lavra 380 355 348 325 326 329 309 317 345 362
Vatopedi 71 6s 6o 54 so 48 55 so 75 142
lviron 54 63 52 52 51 53 53 61 61 78
Chilandar 57 64 69 43 48 52 45 46 6o 75
Dionysiou 42 37 35 54 s6 59 59 59 so s8
Koutloumousiou 61 61 66 57 8o 75 73 73 77 95
Pantokrator 8o 71 63 63 62 69 57 66 so 70
Xeropotamou 30 26 22 47 46 37 38 40 34 40
Zographou 12 9 13 II 16 12 II 15 II 20
Dochiariou 14 13 II 32 29 31 31 32 32 27
Karakalou 28 16 13 18 20 16 16 19 26 37
Philotheou 28 8o 81 63 66 79 82 79 74 70
Simonopetra 23 59 61 6o 72 79 78 8o 78 73
St Paul's 95 91 87 81 87 II6 8s 91 8s 104
Stavronikita 37 35 43 40 41 40 40 28 33 45
Xenophontos 37 26 39 41 46 47 so 57 46 48
Grigoriou 22 40 57 63 71 62 72 70 77 86
Esphigmenou 38 49 41 35 48 38 40 42 s6 101
Panteleimonos 22 29 30 30 31 23 32 35 40 53
Konstamonitou 16 17 16 22 29 20 26 30 27 26

Total II46 1206 1217 II91 1275 1285 1255 1290 1337 1610

These figures tell us a great deal about the current revival and we shall
examine them in some detail shortly. But what they do not tell us is that the
revival did not in fact start in the monasteries themselves but in the cells
and hermitages, down at the southern tip of the peninsula, in the most
inhospitable environment of all, the so-called desert of Athos. There in the
middle decades of the twentieth century a number of gifted teachers and
holy men took up residence, where many had been before for centuries, and
they began gathering around them groups of disciples. While the monas-
teries were in some cases near to closing for lack of novices, places like New
Skete were bursting with new life and new vocations. But one should be
careful when using the word 'new' because really there was nothing new
about it. It was the way the Mountain had always regenerated itself. Near
St Paul's, for example, overlooking the sea and overhung by a sheer cliff, is
the cell where the great Russian starets Fr Sophrony, whom we have already
met as the disciple of St Silouan, lived during the Second World War. He
is perhaps best remembered for having founded the monastery of StJohn
the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights in Essex which is the most dynamic cen-
tre of Orthodox spirituality in Britain today. Fr Sophrony's cell is ruinous

174 1WENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

8o The cell of Fr Sophrony near St Paul's monastery. The great Russian elder lived here for only a few
years during the Second World War but his memory is kept alive by means of some photographs and icons.

at the time or writing; but there are plans for its restoration and it may not
be empty for much longer.
During the 1950s a particularly dynamic brotherhood gathered around
the renowned desert father Elder Joseph the Hesychast (also known as the
Cave Dweller) . After many years living in conditions of extreme privation
at St Basil's, Elder Joseph had eventually settled at New Skete, where he
earned fame as a teacher and spiritual father. His teaching was based on St
Paul's injunction, 'Pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. s: 17), and on the culti-
vation of inner stillness (he~vchia) and prayer of the heart; this has been the
direction followed by all the leaders of the current Athonite revival. He died
in 1959, but no fewer than six Athonite monasteries have been revived by his
spiritual children, who include Fr Ephraim, subsequently to become abbot
of Philotheou, Fr Charalambos, subsequently abbot of Dionysiou, and
Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, who was one of the leading lights in the revival of
that house and remains its principal spiritual father. 21
Another figure worthy of special mention is Fr Vasileios Gontikakis. He
had studied in Western Europe and had become aware of the more liberal
approach to monasticism that had sprung up recently in the Roman tradi-
tion. By the 196os he was living as a hermit in a cell attached to Vatopedi at
the time when the monastery of Stavronikita was so short of monks that it

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATI-IOS I 75
Sr The settlement of Katounakia near the southernmost point of the peninsula. Here the
renowned Elder Daniel (r846-1929) lived for 50 years surrounded by disciples who learned
the lessons of pure Orthodoxy in the ' uni,·ersity' of the desert.

was threatened with closure. When John Julius Norwich visited

Stavronikita in 1964, he had found only eight monks, living a miserable
existence according to the idiorrhythmic system. In 1968, when the site had
actually been abandoned, the civil governor of the Mountain invited Fr
Vasileios to take charge of the monastery. He accepted the invitation on
condition that the monastery reverted to the cenobitic rule and that he was
appointed abbot by the Holy Community. This was agreed, and with the
approval of the ecumenical patriarch Fr Vasileios became abbot of
Stavronikita later in 1968. He brought with him a group of disciples and
together they revived the monastery. Fr Vasileios is author of many books,
perhaps the best known being a study of liturgy and life in the Orthodox
Church entitled Hymn of Entry. In his Foreword to the English edition
Bishop Kallistos has written that it 'offers nothing less than a fresh vision
of theology, the church and the world-a vision that is both original and
yet genuinely traditional'. 24 'Both original and genuinely traditional' are
words that might be applied to the monastic revival that began at
Stavronikita in 1968. Although Fr Vasileios has since moved on to lviron,
the brotherhood at Stavronikita, as a result of his influence, is more intel-
lectual than most and places a greater emphasis on academic study.
Two other monasteries were revived in 1973, as is indicated by the

I 76 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
8z Elder Joseph the Hesychast shortly before his death in 1959. As a young man he had
attached himself as a disciple to the Elder Daniel.

increase in numbers in the table above. Philotheou, like Stavronikita, had

become very depleted in numbers and was still following the idiorrhythmic
way of life when Fr Ephraim from New Skete, a former disciple of Elder
Joseph the Hesychast, was invited to become abbot and bring his group of
disciples to repopulate the monastery. Archimandrite Ephraim has since
moved to North America, where he has founded a great many monasteries
in recent years. But his influence remains strong at Philotheou, where the
brotherhood is regarded as strict and sees itself as upholding the purest
form of Orthodoxy. For this reason they require non-Orthodox pilgrims to
progress no further than the narthex during services in the katholikon and
to wait until the monks have finished before eating in the refectory.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 77
83 The chapel of StJohn the Baptist at LittleSt Anne where Elder Joseph the Hesychast and his
companion Fr Arsenios lived in caves from 1938 to 1951. They were short of space but from 1947 they
were joined by a growi ng gro up of disciples.

Regulations of this sort wo uld never have been imposed in the 196os and
are among the less attractive features of the current revival.
The other monastery to enjoy revival in 1973 was Simonopetra, but its
'new blood' came not from within Athos but from Meteora in Thessaly.
Cenobitic monasteries had flourished there since the fourteenth century, but
as in other parts of mainland Greece they were unprotected from the
scourge of tourism. In 1973 the monks of the monastery of the Transfigu-
ration could bear it no longer. To a man , they packed their bags and

178 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

84 New Skete from the west, to which Elder Joseph the Hesychast and his brotherhood
moved in 1951 after they were forced by ill health to leave the caves of LittleSt Anne. The
elder's spiritual children went on to become leading lights in the subsequent renewal.

decamped to Athos, together with their spiritual father, the charismatic Fr

Aimilianos, to whom they were entirely devoted . The beetling heights of
Simonopetra's location- quite the most spectacular of any Athonite
house-have often been compared with the remarkable physical setting of
the monks' previous abode. The monastery is now full and, despite the
recent addition of a new wing to accommodate more monks, there is a wait-
ing list for novices. Spiritually and intellectually, this is the most dynamic
community on the Mountain today. Several of the monks are theologians of
international renown whose works may be read in many languages. The
Simonopetra choir has played a major role in the revival of Byzantine chant
and their disciplined voices have been recorded on CD and cassette.
The trend gathered pace. In July 1974 it was the turn of Grigoriou to
receive an influx of monks from Euboea (Evia) led by Fr George Kapsanis, an
academic theologian who had been a professor at the University of Athens.
The next year another band of monks left New Skete, this time settling at
Koutloumousiou with their elder, Fr Christodoulos. And in 1976 a second
group migrated from Meteora, moving to Xenophontos under the leadership
of Fr Alexios. In 1979 Dochiariou abandoned the idiorrhythmic system and
received an influx of young monks from off the Mountain. The next year,
1980, saw no fewer than four monasteries being revived . Both Xeropotamou
and Konstamonitou received their new blood from Philotheou, whose num-

TWENTIETH-CENT URY ATHOS 179

85 Elder Joseph of Vatopedi. Formerly a member of the brotherhood of Elder Joseph the
Hesychast at New Skete, this Elder Joseph has been the principal spiritual father at Vatopedi since
its revival as a coenobium in 1990.

r8o TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

hers can be seen to drop from 81 to 63 in that year. Dionysiou also took in a
group of new monks from within the Mountain, led by Fr Charalambos,
another disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Most significant of all, the
Lavra abandoned the idiorrhythmic system on its own initiative. 25

DECLINE OF IDIORRHYTHMIC LIFE

By the start of the 198os it had become evident that a revival was taking
place. 26 But it was not simply a fact that numbers were rising again for the
first time for many years. Far more important than sheer numbers were the
changes taking place in the Athonite way of life. Most of the new recruits
were young men; quite suddenly the majority of beards were black rather
than white and the average age of monks was soon brought down to a much
healthier level. Most of them also were well educated, and many were uni-
versity graduates. This represented a marked change from the traditional
community where the majority of monks had been drawn from a peasant
background and had received little or no formal education. The newcomers
were attracted by the presence on the Mountain of so many gifted and
charismatic teachers and holy men, men such as Elder Joseph, Fr Ephraim
and Fr Vasileios. They came to sit at their feet and learn, but they also came
to devote themselves to a life of service to God in strict obedience to their
abbots. What appealed to them was the fully fledged monastic ideal of the
cenobitic way of life in its purest, most hesychastic form. Not for them the
laissez-faire lifestyle of the idiorrhythmic houses.
During the 198os several of the grander monasteries still clung to their
idiorrhythmic ways, and as long as this comfortable way of life remained a
realistic option, the monks were resistant to change. But the fact was that,
unlike their cenobitic neighbours, they were not receiving any novices at all
and the differences soon became apparent. Their earlier grandeur now gave
way to a rather squalid decadence, and one by one they were forced to accept
the inevitable demands of the newcomers and abandon the idiorrhythmic life.
As we have seen, the Lavra made the change, in name at least, as early as 1980
but it has to be said that the change has never been fully implemented there.
Many of the monks, while paying lip-service to the cenobitic ideal, have con-
tinued much as before. As a result the community has not seen very much
growth and the monastery still presents a somewhat sad and vacant appear-
ance. By contrast, Vatopedi and Iviron, both of which made the change in
1990, have gone from strength to strength and are homes to exemplary ceno-
bitic brotherhoods. Last, and most reluctant, to change was Pantokrator. In
1992 a new cenobitic brotherhood was introduced on the orders of the patri-
archate and it too now bears all the hallmarks of a truly revived monastery.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS r8r

86 Prior to its revival in 1992 the idiorrhythmic fathers of Pantokrator kept pigs. Such
practices would be strictly forbidden today.

Thus ended a system that had been in place intermittently on the

Mountain for 700 years. Grudgingly given imperial sanction when the
Byzantine empire was fighting for its life, the idiorrhythmic system
undoubtedly contributed to the survival of Athonite monasticism at crucial
moments during the Tourkokratia. By the second half of the twentieth cen-
tury, however, it had lost its appeaJ2 7 and become unworkable. Scorned and
rejected by a new generation of monks, the idiorrhythmic system has
retreated to the sketes and cells to which it is best suited and where it flour-
ishes alongside many of the humbler traditions of the ascetic way of life.

CoNSEQUENCEs OF GREEK MEMBERSHIP

OF THE EuROPEAN UNION

Greece joined the European Community (as it then was) in January 1981. The
next two decades saw a transformation of Greece's economy, its domestic
political system and its standing in the world. The change is most
evident in the countryside, where living standards have improved visibly,
stemming the depopulation of rural areas. The position of the democratic
government that has been in place since 1974 has been stabilized and Greece

I 82 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
has also acquired greater credibility in global affairs in general and among its
Balkan neighbours in particular. How, if at all, have these developments
affected Athos?
Superficially, EU membership has had little impact on the Mountain,
certainly in respect of the three areas in which Greece as a whole has most
benefited. If increased tourism has improved the country's economy it has
had the opposite effect on Athos, where the tradition of free hospitality
makes it a drain on the monasteries' resources. Whereas Greece as a whole
has had a stable democratic government only since 1974, the monks lay claim
to an unbroken democracy that is more than a thousand years old.
Meanwhile the international standing of the Mountain is indeed enjoying a
higher profile but one that is restricted to spiritual affairs and is in no way
connected with worldly politics. It cannot be denied, however, that member-
ship of the EU has had a considerable impact on Athos in more subtle ways.
First of all, the economy of the monasteries has indeed improved. The
monastic revival has brought demands for increased accommodation and
improved facilities and these have had to be funded. At first the monks tried
to boost their income by exploiting their forests and exporting timber. But
this could never supply enough for their needs, and it also upset the conser-
vationists. Designation of the Mountain as a World Heritage Site has made
the monasteries eligible to apply for substantial grants and these have been
forthcoming, largely, if indirectly, from EU sources. Monks tend to be wary
of accepting largesse direct from the EU since they believe that it rarely
comes unencumbered and they have no wish to see their abode turned into
a theme park. Once grants are filtered through the Athens government,
however, they have no such qualms. They point to the number of occasions
over the centuries on which their estates have been confiscated by their
political masters with little or no compensation and thus they feel entirely
justified in accepting money from the Greek government with no strings
attached.
Secondly, the legal status of the Holy Mountain has been given greater
protection as a result of Greece's membership of the EU. The Final Act of
Agreement relating to Greece's accession includes a joint declaration about
Mount Athos which reads:

Recognising that the special status granted to Mount Athos, as guaranteed by

Article 105 of the Hellenic Constitution, is justified exclusively on grounds of a
spiritual and religious nature, the Community will ensure that this status is taken
into account in the application and subsequent preparation of provisions of
Community law, in particular in relation to customs franchise privileges, tax
exemptions, and the right of establishment. 28

In theory at least, monks may draw comfort from this declaration that their
special status and privileges are now guaranteed not only by the Constitution

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 183

of Greece but also in European law. In reality of course monks are not so
complacent. History has taught them never to relax their vigilance.
Thirdly, there is no doubting the fact that the profile of the Mountain has
been raised just as much in the secular as in the spiritual sphere. In Byzantine
times the two were arguably indistinguishable but today that is clearly not the
case. Nowadays the visit of a European Commissioner or government min-
ister or foreign prince is given at least as much attention as that of a bishop
or metropolitan or patriarch. The fact that the former do come and come
quite often is due at least as much to Greece's acquisiton of a global voice in
recent years as it is to the Mountain's regaining a spiritual one.
These are generalizations, and they apply, in as much as they are accu-
rate, to the monasteries. Many of the monasteries in recent years have
developed a more worldly outlook. With their adoption of new technolo-
gy has come access to the worldwide web and greater knowledge of the
outside world. With the improvement of facilities has come an apprecia-
tion of certain creature comforts. With their enhanced income there has
had to come a greater understanding of financial affairs and an extension
of networking in the commercial sector. There is nothing wrong with
any of these things and, given controlled exposure, they perform a vital
function in underpinning the monastic revival. But life outside the monas-
teries is much less susceptible to influence from the outside world. Monks
in the sketes and cells are, not surprisingly, often scornful of what they see
happening inside the grander revived houses. To them many of the devel-
opments of recent years seem contrary to the monastic ideal. They are less
convinced of the need to modernize and some have even gone so far as to
equate the European Union with the Antichrist.

CHANGING FoRTUNES OF THE NoN-GREEK HousEs

Initially the revival was confined to the Greek monasteries. Numbers of

monks were rising; funds were flowing in quite freely; everywhere there
were signs of restoration and renewal. This was not the case in the non-
Greek monasteries. St Panteleimonos had never recovered from the events
of the second decade of the twentieth century. Monasteries in the Soviet
Union were in dire straits and no monks were allowed to leave their home-
land. Even if they had been, the Greek civil authorities would not have let
them in. It was therefore a major concession when in May 1966 all the
authorities concerned agreed to the admission of five Russians to St
Panteleimonos. Four priest-monks duly arrived, but this was scarcely
enough to stem the tide and the monastery came dangerously close to hav-
ing to close. But from the 1970s small numbers began to trickle in, the pop-

184 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

87 Fr Stefan (centre right), prior of the Romanian skete of Lakkou, with some of the
members of his brotherhood.

ulation steadily rose, and the threat of closure receded. The Greek author-
ities, however, persisted in their policy of issuing very few permits, and
repeated requests by St Panteleimonos for the admission of just a few
monks fell on deaf ears. 29 But in 1988 there seemed to be a slight softening
of attitudes on both sides and as many as thirty new monks, many of them
priests, were admitted to the monastery from Russia. 30 Since the downfall of
the Soviet regime there has been a remarkable flowering of monasticism
within Russia itself and many formerly deserted monasteries have been
repopulated. It is likely that the Greek authorities will continue to limit the
intake of Russian monks to the Holy Mountain, but numbers continued to
rise steadily throughout the 1990s and a good deal of repair work has been
carried out on some of the buildings; whether there is a concomitant spiri-
tual revival among the monks is open to question.
The situation of Zographou over the same period was no better. Despite
a concession in 1966 which resulted in the arrival of three Bulgarian monks,
there were few new recruits and numbers in the monastery were often
reduced to single figures. Bishop Kallistos was once informed by a lay work-
er in the guest house that there was not a single monk in the monastery at
the time. Nor has Bulgaria seen any monastic revival comparable to that tak-
ing place in Russia. A hopeful sign was the election in 1997 of a new young
abbot who succeeded in attracting a group of energetic novices. At last the

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS r85

88 The iconostasis inside St George's kel!ion at the Romanian settlement of Kolitsou. The
church dates from r6r3.

I 86 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
89 Elder Dionysios of Kolitsou. Now blind and frail, this Romanian elder has been on the
Holy Mountain since 1924.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 87
monastery began to look less desolate and there was even a buzz of youth-
ful activity about the courtyard.
Numbers of monks at Chilandar remained at a consistently higher level
throughout this recent period, though a good many of them did not reside in
the monastery. Unlike the other non-Greek houses, it remained idiorrhythmic
until the 198os, though the buildings continued to look well maintained, serv-
ices were well attended, and fields and orchards immaculately cultivated. But
inevitably the brotherhood was affected by the political problems in Serbia
itself and it is to be hoped that the recent changes there will result in a greater
stability that will be reflected in increased prosperity for the monastery.
As for the Romanians, they never succeeded in acquiring a monastery and
for many years their position seemed to be the most depressed of all.
Monasteries flourished in Romania itself and there was no shortage of young
men wishing to join the communities on Athos. The Greek monasteries and
the Holy Community made it clear that they would be welcome, but for some
unaccountable reason the civil authorities in Athens would not give them
entry permits. A few years ago the patriarch of Romania applied for permis-
sion to send twelve monks to each of the two Romanian sketes on Athos, but
permission was refused by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the grounds that
there were 'already enough Romanians on the Holy Mountain'.lt is not only
the Greek government but also the Patriarchate that would like to Hellenize
Athos. 31 'Why should the Romanians be treated in this fashion?', asked
Bishop Kallistos in a recent article.

What possible threat do they present to the Greek government? The Romanian
monks have never created any disturbances on the Holy Mountain; and
Prodromou enjoys excellent relations with the Great Lavra, the ruling monastery
on whose territory it stands. It is clear that the opposition to the recruitment of
non-Greek monks, whether Romanian or otherwise, does not come from the
Greek monasteries or from the holy community at Karyes ...
One thing is beyond dispute. The exclusion of non-Greeks is directly con-
trary to the international treaties governing the Holy Mountain. It is contrary to
the constitutional charter of Athos, and to the principles of the European com-
munity, of which Greece is a member. It is contrary above all to the idea which
has inspired the monastic republic of Athos ever since its foundation more than
a thousand years ago. The Mountain has always been supra-national, never an
ethnic enclave, never the exclusive preserve of one national group. It has always
been a centre of ecumenical Orthodoxy, and may it always remain so. 32

Gradually the position of the Romanian skete of Prodromou improved

under the inspired leadership of the much-admired prior Fr Petronios,
though persistent requests for it to be upgraded to a monastery were
ignored. But despite its extensive buildings, now restored to good order, and
excellent relations with its parent monastery, Megiste Lavra, numbers never

I 88 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
rose much above twenty or so. Meanwhile at Lakkou, the other skete
reserved for Romanians, numbers dwindled to four in 1975 and just one in
1977. Then in 1985 a dynamic new prior arrived, Fr Stefan Nutescu, and
with him a group of a dozen young monks eager to bring life back to this
eighteenth-century settlement that was on the verge of collapse.
Subsequently others came to join them and they have succeeded in reviving
the skete, despite great poverty and very difficult circumstances. There is a
third settlement of Romanians at Kolitsou, a group of cells dependent on
Vatopedi, where the famous (and blind) Elder Dionysios has lived for many
years and gathered around himself a number of devoted disciples. Vatopedi
is one of the most cosmopolitan houses on Athos today and within the
monastery at the time of writing there were a further thirteen Romanian
monks, including three novices. From having been the smallest and the most
persecuted of all the minorities, the Romanians have become the most
numerous, with over 100 monks now on the Mountain.

THREATS TO THE PAN-ORTHODOXY

AND AuTONOMY oF ATHOS

Apart from the ups and downs (mostly downs) experienced by the non-
Greek houses, there have been other, more insidious threats to the ancient
pan-Orthodox traditions of the Mountain and to its autonomy. In May 1992
the entire brotherhood of the Prophet Elijah skete was brutally expelled by
a delegation of bishops from the Patriarchate in Constantinople. Since its
foundation in the mid-eighteenth century this had been a Russian house,
and since 1957 its monks had refused to commemorate the ecumenical
patriarch. They were therefore technically in an irregular canonical posi-
tion, but that is no excuse for the violent manner of their expulsion and the
absence of any due process of law. The Patriarchate claimed that this
episode was not motivated by anti-Russian sentiments, a claim that is not
borne out by the facts. 33 The house has since been repopulated with Greek
monks from the skete of Xenophontos.
In February 1994 a similar delegation of bishops arrived unannounced
on Athos and expressed its intention of presiding at the meeting of the Holy
Community planned for the next day. This was opposed by a majority of the
representatives, though a minority of six were willing to accept the inter-
vention. The immediate response of the delegation was to depose for no
good reason the abbot of Xeropotamou and the representatives of
Dionysiou, Philotheou and Simonopetra. As it happens, the deposed fathers
were among the most outspoken on the subject of minority rights. The monks
saw this as an unacceptable interference on the part of Constantinople in their

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS I 89
traditional autonomy. Protests were published in the British and Greek press,
and at Easter the depositions were finally retracted by patriarchal fax. But
relations between the Mountain and the Patriarchate were badly damaged,
and the split in the Holy Community between the majority and 'the six' was
to fester for some time.
In 1995 there was yet another incident involving the most senior
monastery, Megiste Lavra. Lavra had been one of 'the six', the group of
monasteries willing to support the Patriarchate's interventions, but there
were signs that it was wavering and might join the other side. This would
have given the necessary two-thirds majority to the group that contested
the attempts by Constantinople to undermine the autonomy and the pan-
Orthodox traditions of the Mountain. In March another delegation was
sent from Constantinople and this time due notice had been given to the
Holy Community. But after a token reception in Karyes the bishops went
straight to Lavra where they instituted a 'trial' behind locked doors. The
outcome was that the abbot should remain in place but that three of his
staunchest supporters (senior members of a group who had formed the
cenobitic nucleus of the brotherhood at Lavra and who were believed to
be traditionalists) should leave the monastery and return to their previ-
ous home at the skete of St Anne. This in effect ensured the loyalty of
Lavra to the Patriarchate and the bishops regarded the crisis as solved.
The Holy Community in Karyes, however, was understandably enraged
at this interference in its domestic affairs and reserved its right not to
accept the results.
Nevertheless the interference continued. The Patriarchate already
reserved the right to grant (or withhold) blessings not only to non-Orthodox
clergy who wished to make a pilgrimage to Athos but also to non-Greek
Orthodox priests. Now it proposed to 'approve' the elections of abbots and of
representatives to the Holy Community. It expressed a wish to vet the appli-
cations of non-Greek novices to the monasteries and to have the final say in
the tonsuring of non-Greek monks. Shocked by these developments, the
Holy Community asked, 'Why should only the non-Greeks be vetted by
Constantinople before a monastery can accept them as novices? The Greeks
too should be scrutinized; otherwise how could one reasonably deny the
charge of racism?'
In addition to numerous incidents of novices being expelled from the
non-Greek monasteries, it was by no means uncommon for parties of Slav
or Romanian pilgrims either to be turned back at the border or to have their
passports stamped with a visa that specifically excluded their entry to
Athos. One such episode had occurred in the spring of 1994, when a boat
bringing a group of Bosnian Serb students to visit Chilandar for a few hours
was turned back by Greek officials. It elicited the following statement from
the Holy Community:

190 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

 These episodes, which have taken place repeatedly, not only at the expense of
Orthodox foreigners, but also of Greeks from abroad and distinguished non-
Orthodox foreigners, friends of the holy monasteries, are a flouting of the
inalienable right of hospitality of the twenty ruling monasteries, which alone are
the hosts on the Holy Mountain. In this way, the ancient self-governing status of
the Holy Mountain is circumvented, its religious and spiritual mission is hin-
dered, its universality and international repute are undermined, and Greece is
discredited as an Orthodox and democratic country abroad. 34
Embarrased by their powerlessness to repudiate these challenges to their
autonomy, the fathers resorted to appealing for support from other
Orthodox Churches, other Christian Churches, the European Union, and
the Friends of Mount Athos. The latter responded by publishing an article
in The Times on Easter Monday 1995, signed by their President, Sir Steven
Runciman, which stated:

For their part, the Foreign Ministry and the Patriarchate declare unswerving
loyalty to the constitutional guarantees, and to the self-governing status of Athos
in particular, 'so long as these are interpreted correctly', though what is meant
by 'correctly' has never been clearly stated. Yet it is manifestly clear that the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, steered by the Foreign Ministry that cannot itself
afford to be accused of ethnic cleansing or constitutional violation, has exceeded
its mandate of spiritual supervision of the mountain.

Sir Steven went on to emphasize the importance of the traditionalist position:

The [Holy] Community realises that the very heart and strength of Athonite
monasticism is its ecumenical profile. As a federation of monastic houses, its
belief in supranational parity is not a separatist movement but simply a tradi-
tional reality. The fathers' common Orthodox faith transcends and conquers
ethnic differences. Mount Athos should not be the bugbear but the boast of
modern Greece. As a member of the multinational EU, Greece alone can point
to this unique republic under God-a paradigm of harmonious collaboration
among different peoples striving for a common cause. The Ecumenical
Patriarchate in Turkey, itself a persecuted entity, should rejoice in this most
valuable adornment in its spiritual jurisdiction. 35

The extent to which such protests carry weight in the corridors of the
Phanar can never be known. We should perhaps content ourselves by
remarking that the civil governor and his deputy, whom the Holy
Community had identified as 'agents' of the Patriarchate and who had per-
sistently interfered in their decision-making processes, were replaced; that an
attempt was made, in January 1996, to bolster the cenobitic life of the Lavra
by introducing the seventeen-member brotherhood of the cell of Bourazeri
in Karyes (sadly this well-intentioned experiment failed and the Bourazeri

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 191

brotherhood withdrew from the monastery); and that the Patriarchate has
desisted from its aggressive policy of the early 1990s and no further inci-
dents of patriarchal interference in the internal affairs of the Mountain have
been reported. The unofficial schism between 'the six' and the other monas-
teries has ceased to have any real significance and is more or less forgotten,
and at the same time relations with the Patriarchate have greatly improved.
Groups of senior monks have been invited to visit the Phanar on a number
of occasions in recent years and Patriarch Bartholomew, as part of his cele-
bration of the millennium, planned to spend several days on Athos in July
zooo, though this visit unfortunately did not take place.

EXHIBITING THE TREASURES OF MOUNT ATHOS

In 1997 the city of Thessaloniki, once joint capital of the Byzantine empire,
was proclaimed that year's Cultural Capital of Europe. The centrepiece and
single most successful event of the celebration was an exhibition entitled
'Treasures of Mount Athos', which filled the six halls of the recently built
Museum of Byzantine Culture. Comprising some 6so items, most of them
never seen before outside the Holy Mountain, it was the largest exhibition
ever to have been mounted in Greece.
That the exhibition took place at all was a triumph of diplomacy. Several
years of inconclusive discussion had preceded the agreement of the Holy
Community in 1995 to loan the treasures of the monastic communities for
this purpose. Even so, not all the monasteries participated: four of them
(Megiste Lavra, Philotheou, Esphigmenou, and Konstamonitou) refused to
contribute on the grounds that their 'treasures' were liturgical and devo-
tional objects and that it was inappropriate to take them out of their reli-
gious context and treat them as secular exhibits in a museum. This did not
prevent some overexcited visitors from trying to venerate certain exhibits,
and it was no doubt a wise decision not to include in the exhibition any of
the miracle-working icons and relics. Nevertheless the sheer assembly of
items-manuscripts, paintings, sculpture and minor arts-was astonishing.
No visitor, however privileged, to any monastery, however wealthy, ever saw
such an array of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art. Everything was well dis-
played, beautifully lit, and accurately captioned; the catalogue, an invaluable
695-page work of reference, constituted a treasure in itsel( Furthermore,
the exhibits could at least be seen and lingered over, which is by no means
always the case when they are in their usual location.
The agreement of the monks to loan their treasures was motivated by two
principal concerns-the first was that they should be seen by that half of the
world's population that is normally denied access to them (and they were keen

192 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS

that a majority of the tour guides and museum attendants should be women),
the second the promotion of Orthodoxy in general. That the exhibition
attracted half a million visitors in its first six months and was extended to
Easter 1998, that it was greeted with great warmth by the world's press, and
that most of its reviewers were women is some measure of its success. There
was also a direct benefit for the monks: all the items exhibited were given the
most thorough treatment by an expert team of conservators and a substantial
sum of money was also received for the general benefit of the Holy Mountain.
But undoubtedly the greatest benefit to accrue to the fathers from the
risk they took in exhibiting their treasures was the raising of the profile of
the Holy Mountain. Athos was brought to the attention of millions of peo-
ple throughout the world, many of whom were previously unaware of its
existence, let alone its importance. Following major exhibitions of
Byzantine art in Geneva, New York and Moscow, the Thessaloniki event
attracted wide coverage in the media, both in Greece and abroad; and even
if some of the reportage was ill informed or misguided, it served to bring
the message home that Athos is a uniquely valued treasure-house and a
dynamic and vigorous witness to the traditions of pan-Orthodox monasti-
cism. The representatives and principals of the twenty monasteries wrote in
the Foreword to the Exhibition Catalogue:
Mount Athos, it has been said before, is not merely a transient episode in the life
of the Orthodox Church. Created by the Byzantine Hellenic spirit at a time of
spiritual maturity, artistic vigour, and worldwide influence, it is an age-old insti-
tution, the most important centre of monastic life, pan-Orthodox in character
and global in its influence. Down the ages, many currents of religious art have
intersected here and the cultures of the neighbouring Orthodox peoples meet
here peacefully and fruitfully.
As it moves through the second millennium of its uninterrupted life, vital and
flourishing, despite the earth-shattering upheavals taking place in the world
around it, Athos remains true, sheltered by its guardian Our Lady the Mother of
God, to its raison d'etre, as a place of silence proper to monastic renunciation and
ascesis, but also as a centre of culture, learning, and artistic achievement. 36

ATHOS REGAINS ITS RAISON D 'ETRE

After the long centuries of Ottoman rule the Athonites had been faced with
a twofold dilemma-how to reassert their independence and how to redis-
cover their reason for being. Their autonomy was established once and for
all by the charter of 1924. Since then, despite occasional disputes, the
monks have had the security of knowing exactly what their rights were and
how far their independence stretched. But defining their raison d'etre was
another matter. During the Tourkokratia they had assumed a vital and

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS 193

unchallenged role as the guardians of Hellenism. Of course they continued
to pursue their spiritual obedience in the time-honoured way, but their most
tangible contribution was the preservation of Greek cultural identity by
means of care for the language, literature (both secular and liturgical) and
religion of their forebears. They did this supremely well; not for nothing
was Athos known as the 'ark' of Hellenism.
Once they were liberated from the Turkish yoke, once Athos became part
of the young and vigorous Greek state, the monks were stripped of this role.
Suddenly they lost a large part of their raison d'etre. Ironically it seemed that
the Turks, like Cavafy's barbarians, were 'a kind of solution'. Even though the
Great Idea (of a Greek state that would embrace all the Greeks of the
Ottoman empire, including most importantly the city of Constantinople) was
in ruins and Greece was overrun by impoverished, starving, unemployed
refugees, the Greeks were a free people with their own land, their own lan-
guage, their own culture, and their own religion. Finally released from its
political/ cultural responsibility, the Mountain needed to find a new role. It
faltered-for half a century-and by the 196os, when Athos was celebrating
a past of thousand years, it seemed to many observers to have no future at all.
But the spiritual traditions of Athos are extremely resilient. They had not
died at all and, as we have seen, they swiftly began to revive. The monks suc-
ceeded in fending off the attacks of ill-informed politicians who saw the
Mountain as a cheap way of boosting the country's tourist industry. They
resisted suggestions that they needed reform-that they should become more
ecumenically minded, that they should adopt European time, that they should
do something about their economy, sell off their treasures, invest more heav-
ily in their timber industry, build proper roads, even admit women. Athos
needed none of these things. And, more to the point, Athos was once again
responding to a need that clearly existed, a need for a radical alternative to the
fast-growing, fast-moving secularization of modern society in the outside
world. Moreover the monks succeeded in parrying the demands of an inse-
cure Patriarchate, obedient to the whims of a nationalist government in
Athens, that they should abandon their ancient rights of autonomy and tradi-
tions of pan-Orthodoxy and allow the whole peninsula to be Hellenized. In so
doing, the monks found that they were being listened to, that they still had
access to powerful friends when they needed them, and that they command-
ed an authoritative voice in the world. In short, they had regained their orig-
inal role as the spiritual heart of Orthodoxy.

I 94 TWENTIETH-CENTURY ATHOS
 7
ATHos ToDAY: FoR THE MoNK

U ntil very recently anyone wishing to write positively about Athos had
to talk about the past. Thirty or forty years ago, looking at the sad state
of affairs into which most of the monasteries had fallen, who could pretend
that the Mountain's future was likely to be as glorious as its Byzantine or
even its post-Byzantine past? Who indeed could confidently predict that it
had a future at all?
The Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos (1864-1936) was aware of
the problem as early as the 1930s when he said, 'The Greek state and the
Greek people as a whole look to the Holy Mountain as to the ark of our reli-
gious and national traditions ... The changed mentality of the world does
not regard monastic life as it was regarded in earlier centuries; but the Holy
Mountain has exceptional reasons [for continued existence], and we are
internationally bound, and it is to our national interest, to preserve monas-
tic life there.' 1 As the crisis deepened, others echoed his words. In 1944 the
celebrated iconographer Photis Kontoglou (1895-1965) wrote of Athos as 'a
priceless treasure, something unique in the world, ... where everything is
calm and sanctified, where men find spiritual consolation, become holy and
pray day and night for mankind'. 2 In 1963, on the occasion of the Athonite
millennium, Basil Laourdas (1912-1971), Director of the Institute for
Balkan Affairs in Thessaloniki, said: 'We must preserve intact the presence
of the Holy Mountain as a spiritual power, as the Greek people have pre-
served it intact for one thousand years. And we must hand it over intact to
the generations that will come. >J
Writing a few years earlier, Philip Sherrard reflected on the capacity of the
Mountain to survive 'a gigantic and turbulent past', but the picture that he drew
of the few survivors, however evocative it may be, is scarcely encouraging:
Yet through all this history the life of the monastic community has persisted. On
the sheer naked rocks at the base of the great peak still cluster the hermits, like
watchful eagles in their eyries; the wooden gong still summons from their cells
to the central church-the katholikon-monks of each of the twenty surviving
monasteries. 'Forsake the world and join us', some of the monks told a traveller
of the last century; 'with us you will find your happiness. Do but look at the
Retreat there with its fair walls, at the hermitage on the mountain, how the wes-
tering sun flashes on its window panes! How charmingly the chapel peeps out
from the bright green of the leafy chestnut forest, in the midst of vine branches,
laurel hedges, valerian, and myrtle! How the water bubbles forth, bright as silver,
 from beneath the stones, how it murmurs along the oleander bushes! Here you
will find soft breezes, and the greatest of all blessings-freedom and inward
peace. For he alone is free, who has overcome the world, and has his dwelling in
the laboratory of all virtues on Mount Athos. >4

How charming! How romantic! How utterly antipathetic to the siren voices
of secularism and materialism that beckoned the vast majority of young
men born into a society that prided itself in being modern, postmodern, and
even post-christian. How could Athos ever be the same again?

OUTWARD AND VISIBLE SIGNS OF RENEWAL

We have already seen that, despite appearances, the spiritual tradition of

the Mountain was alive and well, though its centre of operations had
moved temporarily from the monasteries to the cells. The influx of new
recruits never dried up completely, though the few that did come shunned
the crumbling towers and faltering spirituality of the ruling monasteries,
choosing instead the harsher conditions of a life in the desert, joining the
circle of some charismatic elder. Statistics of new monks arriving on the
Mountain give an indication of how long it took before the downward
trend was truly reversed. In the five years from 1972 to 1976 143 new
monks arrived, an average of just 29 a year. In the decade from 1977 to
1986 284 new monks came, at the same average rate of 29 a year. But the
decade from 1987 to 1996 saw the arrival of no fewer than 609 new monks,
an average of 61 a year. 5 From these figures it is clear that the influx has
been more than sustained and that it more than doubled in the 1990s. By
this time the monasteries were functioning again; but they had had to
change their ways: they were very different places from what they had
been in the 1960s and 1970s.
At one level, a rather superficial level, monasteries may be said not to be
in the forefront of change; some would no doubt describe them as bastions
of tradition. But even monasteries have had to admit that life in the world
changed rapidly in the course of the twentieth century; they were eventual-
ly persuaded to accept some of the changes and they must acknowledge that
some of the changes have been beneficial. There was, for example, no par-
ticular virtue in serving food that was positively unappetizing, or in refusing
the services of a qualified doctor when someone fell ill, or in turning a blind
eye to the obvious advantages of modern technology as a means of commu-
nication. The fact that these changes were accepted undoubtedly contributed
to the ease with which the monasteries were able to regain their vitality.
Novices arrived with a whole new range of skills, many of them portable.

196 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

The Mountain was attracting young men with inquiring minds who in
many cases already had a university degree. Q!Ialified doctors and dentists
were warmly welcomed, as were theologians, philosophers, linguists and
men of letters. Even a doctorate in bioethics offered valuable applications
in the context of an intellectual brotherhood while a degree in business
administration helped to ensure that the restoration of the fabric was in
safe hands.
Such men came from all over the world. Many of course were Greeks;
others came from the traditional Orthodox heartlands of Russia, Serbia,
Bulgaria, and Romania, and there are currently four Georgian monks on the
Mountain, though none of them at Iviron. But many came from other parts
of the world-from Western Europe, North America, Australia, the Middle
East and South Africa. This is partly a reflection of the worldwide
Orthodox diaspora, but it also reflects the increasing popularity that the
Orthodox Church is enjoying in the west as a whole. 6
Nor were they all necessarily intellectuals. Men with artistic talents
facilitated the revival of many of the Mountain's traditional arts. Music,
for example, had followed an interesting progression during the twentieth
century. During the first two decades, when Russians dominated so much
of Athonite life, Athos yielded to the current vogue for Italianate harmo-
ny that was being propagated by musicians trained in the west. In the
1920s and 1930s, as the Russian population declined and there was at the
same time an influx of refugees from Asia Minor, Anatolian sounds were
introduced into the repertoire and some of these may be detected even to
this day. In the post-war decades there was a new fashion for virtuoso solo
performance, most famously represented by the voice of Deacon
Dimitrios Firfiris (d. 1991), who was in constant demand for his improv-
isations not only on the Mountain but also in the outside world. Since the
mid-1970s there has been a shift back from solo to choral singing and a
revival of traditional Byzantine chant. New settings have been composed
to complement the renewed emphasis on the Book of Psalms and at sev-
eral monasteries full double choirs are now a feature of every service. 7
One aspect of the current intellectual renaissance is the ability of the
monks to examine the ancient manuscripts and treasures that they possess
in order to rediscover the traditional practices of their predecessors. This
applies to painting as much as to music. As a result, there has been a revival
of traditional icon painting, not only in the sketes (where the art had always
flourished in the past) but also in the monasteries, where some very fine
work is now being done according to strict Byzantine principles. Perhaps
even more important is the attention that many monasteries are now giving
to restoring, studying, and publishing full and scholarly catalogues of the
icons and other works of art in their possession.
Libraries too have benefited from the current revival. The facilities in

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 197

90 A revival in the arts. Icons are once again being painted in the monasteries according to
strict Byzantine principles.

198 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

91 A revival in learning. Manuscript libraries are being put in good order and made accessible to
scholars.

many monasteries have been modernized or even rebuilt. Funds have

been made available for the acquisition of new printed books. And after
many decades of neglect manuscripts are being properly cared for, often
in controlled environments. Librarians tend to know more about the col-
lections of which they have charge and are more willing than they used to
be to admit visitors and show off some of their more prized possessions.
Scholars are given much easier access to documents they need to study;
many new catalogues are in preparation, and the ongoing programme
of editing and publishing the archives of the monasteries has received a
new impetus.
The recent publication of a large number of important books bears wit-
ness to the revival of theological scholarship on the Holy Mountain. We
have already mentioned Hymn of Ent1y, a translation of Eisodikon, first pub-
lished in 1974 by Archimandrite Vasileios of lviron (formerly of
Stavronikita). In his Foreword to the English edition Bishop Kallistos places
it firmly in the tradition of the early fathers:
The quality that characterizes this remarkable book is above all a sense of organ-
ic wholeness, such as may be found in St Maximus the Confessor. The unity of

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 199

 the divine and the human in the incarnate Christ, the unity of heaven and earth
in the Divine Liturgy, the unity between theology and spirituality, between the-
ology and life-such are the author's master-themes. 8

An earlier work, Between Heaven and Earth by Fr Theoklitos of

Dionysiou, first published in 1956, was a trail-blazer. Emmanuel Amand de
Mendieta, writing in 1972, described the author as 'perhaps the best the-
ologian now living on Mount Athos'. 9 Written in the form of a Platonic dia-
logue, the book presents an imaginary but highly plausible conversation
between a visiting monk (the narrator), two lay pilgrims (a lawyer and a
theologian), two Athonite monks, and a hermit. The lawyer is initially very
sceptical about the religious life, but as the discussion proceeds he slowly
begins to understand its value. Though a member of a cenobitic monastery,
the author believes that the only way for a monk to achieve perfection is by
living a life of complete isolation and ceaseless prayer. In a striking passage
the hermit explains that in order to experience divination (theosis), the ulti-
mate goal of every spiritual person, the monk must devote himself to a self-
crucifying programme of asceticism:

'To reach this stage, to become passionless in the patristic and not in the Stoic
meaning of the word, requires struggle, time, hardship, fasting, vigils, prayer,
sweat "like drops of blood", acceptance of contumely, humiliation, crucifixion,
the body nailed to the Cross, wounds in the side, the vinegar, the desertion by all,
the mockery of some silly brother crucified at one's side, the blasphemy of those
that pass by ... Then follow Resurrection in the Lord, and Easter in the incor-
ruptibility of the holiness ... Or else ... '
The hermit's voice dropped; he fixed his eyes on a large painting of Christ on
the Cross, of the Cretan school, which was hanging on the east wall of the room.
Christ's head was pale, intensified by the twilight, death-like; all the beauty of
his features was gone ... 10

More recently, Fr Makarios of Simonopetra has produced a magnificent

collection of saints' lives of the Orthodox Church in six volumes entitled
The Synaxarion. First published in French (1987--96), it is now being trans-
lated into English (1998-). In his Preface to the English edition
Archimandrite Aimilianos explains that its appearance is due to the
demands of pilgrims,
[who] with a sense of something missing or lacking, have spoken from the depths
of their souls of the need, as of their daily bread, for an Orthodox Synaxarion in
their own language ... On account of these earnest entreaties, we have laid upon
the priest-monk Makarios, a brother of our Monastery, the task of editing a
Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church for the Orthodox friends of the Holy
Mountain in the Diaspora who have asked it of us and, at the same time, to
respond to the needs of the Orthodox Mission, as we have also been urged to do. 11

200 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

92 Improving the cuisine. A new kitchen rises beside the refectory at I vi ron.

Other books worthy of note include the writings of Fr Aimilianos him-

self, of which three volumes have appeared in Greek and one (so far) in
English. These discourses provide valuable information on the early days of
the monastic revival and its origin, in this instance, at Meteora. In his
enthronement address to the assembled elders, for example, the abbot
addressed the practical issue of the integration of the newcomers with the
survivors of the old brotherhood:
When we arrived and settled in this sacred, soaring and holy monastery, we were
accorded such a reception on the part of the older fathers living here that we were
amazed . We were left speechless and filled with emotion. How often have we seen
tears in the eyes of the elders of our monastery, how often have we seen them
expressing their love in a thousand ways, their confidence, their respect and their
esteem! We came as humble servants and we found more than we had anticipat-
ed. We came humbly to venerate them, but instead, they wanted to venerate us . 12

We have already mentioned the biography of Elder Joseph the

Hesychast by his disciple, Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, which vividly describes
the evolution of one of the most dynamic cells in the revival at New Skete. 13
A selection of the elder's letters has also been published and includes a fifty-
four-page 'Epistle to a Hesychast Hermit'. Most of the letters are addressed

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 201

to monks, but they have a universal application to any reader with a spiritu-
ally inquiring mind. More than one ends with these comforting words:
'Don't despair! We will go to paradise together. And if I don't place you
inside, then I do not want to sit in there either.' 14 Another of the elder's dis-
ciples is Elder Ephraim, who in 1973 became abbot of Philotheou. He
attracted so many recruits to that monastery that he was able to send them
out to revive as many as three other monasteries on Athos (Xeropotamou,
Konstamonitou and Karakalou). Since then he has extended his activities to
North America and in the 1990s he founded no fewer than sixteen monas-
teries in the USA and Canada. A selection of his writing has recently
appeared focusing on the theme of repentance. 15
No survey of literature resulting from the monastic revival on Mount
Athos should omit the ongoing translation of the Philokalia, the great
anthology of hesychastic texts by spiritual masters of the Orthodox
Christian tradition compiled in the eighteenth century by St Nikodimos of
the Holy Mountain and St Makarios of Corinth, edited by Gerald Palmer
(d. 1984), Philip Sherrard (d. 1995) and Kallistos Ware and currently being
translated into English. Four volumes have appeared to date; the fifth and
final volume is eagerly awaited. Its completion will mark a milestone in mak-
ing the spiritual resources of Orthodoxy available to western readers. The
work is dedicated 'to the memory of Father Nikon (1875-1963), Hermit of
St George's, Karoulia, on the Holy Mountain of Athos, without whose
inspiration this work would not have been undertaken'. Karoulia may not
have yielded a harvest of men comparable to that of some of the other
sketes, but its harvest of souls will be equal to none as a result of this mon-
umental achievement.
Perhaps the most visible sign of the revival is the restoration of the
monastic buildings themselves. Many of them were in a serious state of dis-
repair due to decreasing numbers of occupants and diminishing sources of
income. Idiorrhythmic monks paid scant attention to the fabric of the house
as a whole and rarely went further than applying a coat of paint to their own
apartment every ten years or so. When new cenobitic brotherhoods arrived,
they found themselves faced with an enormous problem of decay. Every
monastery soon instituted a programme of restoration, on the basis of
which it could apply for grants to fund the work. Some brotherhoods pre-
ferred to undertake the bulk of the work themselves, not always with very
happy results. Some have been more careful than others to preserve the best
of what they inherited. But on the whole the work has been carried out to a
high standard; experienced architects and craftsmen have been employed
wherever practicable; and as much care as possible has been taken to ensure
that any new construction conforms to traditional models and styles and
employs the same materials and methods as in the past.
The experience of one monastery will serve as an example of the scale

202 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

of operations being undertaken to a greater or lesser extent by all the ruling
monasteries. In 1996 Vatopedi published an illustrated volume which
included details of its programme of restoration, how much had so far been
achieved and how much remained to be done. Given that the new brother-
hood had been in place for a mere six years, the record is impressive:

Restoration has already finished in the old refectory, the kitchen, the gatehouse, the
old workers' quarters, the stable and part of the underground passage (to be used
for fire safety, power lines and water pipes, and for cables of all kinds). Work is also
nearing completion on the lodgings for the Ministry of Culture's restorers, and
also on the arsenal buildings to accommodate the necessary services. Restoration is
progressing in half of the west wing to provide guest quarters, and in the icon
repository where the study envisages an exhibition centre for the monastery's mov-
able, spiritual and cultural heritage ... Restoration work is also continuing on the
treasury, as well as on the roofs and facades of the Katholikon. 16

The monastery's 'architectural heritage programme' listed under 'opera-

tions of top priority' the following building works 'to answer the principal
immediate needs of the brotherhood':
1. Katholikon: The maintenance and restoration of the roofs and facades of the
Katholikon is a priority because of its special spiritual, historical, and artis-
tic value ...
2. Clocktower: A solution to certain structural problems, support of the top
floor, restoration of the walls, maintenance of the roof.
3· Refectory: Restoration, and where necessary replacement, of embrasures,
repair of the roof, and conservation of the ancient decoration.
4· Kitchen: The installation of a new kitchen in the north wing is necessary
because the existing one is inadequate ...
5· Operations on halfofthe east wing: The aim is the preservation of this impor-
tant building and the modernization of its facilities so that the fathers of the
Holy Monastery can live in it ...
6. Tower ofthe Virgin Mary: The Tower of the Virgin Mary accommodates the
old library which contains manuscripts, early printed materials, the archive,
and other treasures. The tower presents problems due to penetration of
damp and various structural faults ...
7· The 'Hatoularion' workers' house: The aim is to preserve this nineteenth-
century building and to modernize and improve the living conditions of the
workers ...
8. Olive-press: The survey has been completed and work is beginning.
9· South-west and west wings: Operations of limited extent are required so that
decay may be arrested and the fathers housed while restoration is carried
out on the east wing ...
10. North-west wing: Operations of limited extent are required to improve the liv-
ing conditions of the numerous pilgrims and visitors ... 17

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 203

 CosTs OF RENEWAL
Renewal on such a scale inevitably incurs costs. Apart from the sheer financial
burden, much of which has been borne by the European Union, the Greek
government, and other sympathetic organizations, there have been other costs
which have to be weighed against the numerous manifest benefits.
To help fund the programme of restoration, many monasteries were
tempted to exploit their forests for timber, one of the few natural resources
of the Mountain. There had been a small-scale timber industry in operation
since the early years of the twentieth century. The Aleppo pine, particularly
widespread in the northern parts of the peninsula, grows tall and straight
and has apparently provided the raw material for the great majority of
Greece's telegraph poles. Among the less well-advised business ventures of
recent years one monastery leased some soo hectares of Aleppo pine to the
papermakers Softex. The company promptly bulldozed the whole area and
tried to reforest it with faster-growing sorts of pine. These did not flourish
and the entire scheme was a failure, prompting monks to comment wryly on
the relative merits of telegraph poles and lavatory paper in the Garden of the
Mother of God. Many of the other monasteries protested loudly at this com-
mercial exploitation of Athonite territory, but the contract remains in place.
Until recently the only means of transporting timber overland on Athos
was by mule. Every monastery had its own jetty, where the mule trains would
deposit their burdens for export by sea. But once the first road had been built
in 1963, the monks began to see the advantages of using motorized vehicles
in place of mules, and in a very short space of time a large number of dirt
roads had been cut into the forests, initially for the sole purpose of extract-
ing timber. It was a short step from allowing roads for timber lorries to allow-
ing roads for other forms of communication, and there is now a network of
such roads across the whole peninsula connecting monasteries with each
other and with the capital, Karyes. The surfaces are still rough and unsuit-
able for ordinary motorcars; but every monastery now has at least one or two
four-wheel-drive vehicles, and even some hermits are motorized, though
happily there are still no roads (nor any planned) crossing the frontier into
the world or desecrating the desert at the southern tip of the peninsula.
The building of roads has resulted in a number of associated phenome-
na that are commonly deplored by visitors to the Mountain. The atmos-
phere is polluted by diesel fumes; the roadside is littered with empty cans,
used tyres, and other detritus; the paths and tracks, originally built for mule
traffic but also greatly enjoyed by pilgrims, have in many cases been
destroyed in order to make way for the roads; there is even at times a park-
ing problem at Karyes; and, worst of all, the silence of Athos is disturbed. 18
Since 1963 there has been a regular bus service, however rudimentary
and uncomfortable, connecting Daphne with Karyes, and sometimes Iviron.

204 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

It is a hair-raising journey and the bus is invariably packed to capacity, but
the service is at least regulated by the state which charges a modest sum for
tickets. The existence of other roads has bred a new spirit of commercial
enterprise among the monks, and there is now a monastic taxi service, offer-
ing rides (to those who can afford the fares) to all points on the peninsula.
Other forms of commercialization have crept into the Athonite way of
life. The number of shops selling books and religious paraphernalia at
Daphne and Karyes is greater than that which was prescribed by any ancient
typikon. Lay pedlars find their way on to the Mountain and are often to be
seen displaying their wares in the streets of the capital. Similarly, most
monasteries have seized the opportunity to market their products in the
form of COs or tape cassettes, mass-produced icons, prayer ropes, post-
cards, books, wine, and different flavours of incense. There is nothing
wrong with this and most pilgrims welcome the chance to buy souvenirs of
their visit to take home as well as the ability to contribute in however mod-
est a way to the monks' economy, but it is symptomatic of a general trend
towards greater commercialization of the Mountain.
The downside of the intellectual and artistic strengthening of Athos is the
loss of certain skills that were once de rigueur for monks. Just as Greece was
until recently a largely rural society, so monks were drawn largely from a peas-
ant background. Several monasteries had close associations with a particular
region or particular island, and as a result monks shared an interest in fishing
or farming or whatever occupation was carried on by the folk of that place.
Nowadays most monks come from an urban background and few come
equipped with these traditional skills, though there is a remarkable range of
talents in most monasteries. Faced with the need for self-sufficiency, many
now have to learn trades that were second nature to their predecessors.
Some specialized lore, such as knowledge of certain medicinal plants,
has probably been lost completely and a number of crafts that were once
commonly practised on the Mountain seem to have died out. There were,
for example, until recently many metalworkers-blacksmiths, locksmiths,
tinsmiths, coppersmiths, silversmiths, brass founders, bell founders, etc.
Eighteenth-century Athos was an important centre for the production not
only of clocks but also of guns. Records show that there were as many as ten
gunsmiths' workshops in Karyes, one of which was still active as late as
1920Y Their disappearance may not be any cause of regret to a more polit-
ically correct generation, though the fact that hunting is outlawed so vocif-
erously is a sure indication of its continued practice. But the replacement of
the Athonite artisan by the quartz chip is as much to be regretted as the loss
of the mule and what followed from that.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 205

 INWARD AND SPIRITUAL SIGNS OF RENEWAL

The maJonty of monks welcome the fact that renewal is taking place,
though such approval is far from being universal, and many deplore certain
facets of the new order. But for the monk qua monk none of these changes
is of any real consequence. Nor are the monks particularly concerned about
numbers or statistics. Their confidence in the Mother of God's ability to
ensure an adequate supply of novices is exemplified in the words of Fr
Theoklitos of Dionysiou, writing at the time of the millennium celebrations
in 1963: 'The Holy Mountain will always remain as it is, a place of repen-
tance, of purification and of incessant praising of the Lord, and a monastic
centre that continues the ancient monastic tradition of the Orthodox
Church. no
The reasons why men become monks have not changed. There may be
added incentive perhaps in the desire to escape from what appears to be the
ever-increasing secularism and materialism of the modern world; but this is
merely a negative reason for leaving it. Monks come to Athos for positive
reasons, as they have always done. Constantine Cavarnos reports the fol-
lowing conversation with a hermit at Karoulia:
'Why did I come here? you will ask me', said the hermit, whose name was John.
'For the sake ofeternity. Our life here on earth, whether we are plain folks, scien-
tists or professors, princes or kings, will inevitably come to an end. When we die,
these titles and capacities will mean nothing, absolutely nothing. The only thing
that will matter then will be the quality of our soul, whether it is good or bad,
whether we have saved it or lost it. Heaven and hell are everlasting, whereas our
earthly life is insignificantly brief. ' 21

The only aspect of the revival that has made any serious impact on the
monks' way of life has been the final abandonment of the idiorrhythmic sys-
tem. Within the space of a quarter of a century (1968-c)z) all nine remaining
idiorrhythmic monasteries reverted to the cenobitic rule. And whereas in
1956 the monasteries housed only a minority of the monks on the Mountain
(43·7%), now the position is reversed and in zooo the monasteries contained
a majority (56.4%). The Mountain continues, as always, to offer the full
range of monastic life-styles; and life in the cells and most of the sketes could
never be anything other than idiorrhythmic. But the majority of newcomers
made it clear that their overriding preference was for the cenobitic life, at
least as regards the monasteries, and that change cannot be reversed.
Certain changes flow automatically from the return to a common life.
Daily services in the katholikon are now regularly attended by the vast
majority of the monks: there was no such requirement in idiorrhythmic
monasteries. Refectories too are once again in regular use, and on most days

206 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

93 Inside the refectory at Vatopedi. The ancient marble tables are once again in daily use after centuries
of neglect in idiorrhythmic times.

monks eat together twice: idiorrhythmic monasteries opened the doors of

their refectories only on feast days. In many monasteries, simple tasks like
preparing vegetables are often performed by most of the brotherhood work-
ing together-in silence, but with one monk reciting the Jesus Prayer. 'Work
and pray!', cries the abbot, encouraging the pilgrims, willing but hesitant, to
join in too. The overall impression is of a brotherhood living, working and
praying together in harmony and love.
The Jesus Prayer is central to the spiritual revival. The injunction of St
Paul, echoed by Elder Joseph the Hesychast and other Athon ite teachers,
to 'pray without ceasing' is eagerly followed by monks today. Inner prayer,
or prayer of the heart as it is often called, was preached on the Mountain
in the fourteenth century by St Gregory of Sinai, in the eighteenth centu-
ry by the leaders of the Kollyvades movement, and in the twentieth centu-
ry by all the luminaries of the current revival. As Archimandrite
Aimilianos has written,
Inner prayer is the attribute of the angels. It is the unceasing activity of the
angelic hosts. It is the bread, the life, the language of these immaterial beings and
their way of expressing their love of God. And the monks, who precisely live the
angelic life in the flesh, affirm their love of God through the same unceasing
prayer as that of the angels . . . The prayer of the monks is the warming up of
their heart. It places them in touch with the Father and Creator of the world. It

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 207

 is their elevation to Heaven. Prayer is the encounter and sweet embrace of the
monk with the Bridegroom and Savior of our souls. 22

There is no vow of silence in Orthodox monasteries (except sometimes for

novices), but the urge to gossip is countered by recourse to the prayer, in almost
any situation. Prayer ropes are just as often to be seen in use when monks are
out walking or travelling as they are during pauses in church services. In fact
most monks never go anywhere without one; and they are the gift most fre-
quently given to and most gratefully received by visitors to a monastery.
Frequency of communion has long been a matter for debate in Orthodoxy
and until recently many monks would receive the sacrament on only a few
occasions in the year. Today abbots and spiritual fathers proclaim the impor-
tance of more frequent communion and in most monasteries the practice is
for the monks to receive at least three times a week. The doctrine of 'contin-
ual communion', propounded with such vigour by St Nikodimos of the Holy
Mountain and the leaders of the Kollyvades movement in the eighteenth cen-
tury, is once again in favour. Although confession is not a prerequisite on
every occasion, it is clear that monks are making their confession to their spir-
itual fathers on a more regular basis than was previously the practice.
Perhaps the most significant development of all is the importance now
attached to the role of the spiritual father (pnevmatikos) or elder (geron) in
guiding the new generation of novices and younger monks. There is nothing
new about the ministry of the spiritual father, and indeed this has always
been a valued feature of Athonite monasticism. We have already remarked on
the high regard in which numerous elders, such as St Paisy Velichkovsky, St
Silouan and Fr Gabriel of Dionysiou, were held by their spiritual children
both on and off the Mountain. Athos has produced a continuous stream of
such men who continue to operate in the tradition of the saints and who pre-
serve and transmit to their successors the wisdom that they have themselves
inherited and accumulated in the course of a life that they have shared with
God. 23 It is the presence of so many charismatic elders in the sketes and
monasteries, drawing so many devout young men to the Mountain, that is
remarkable. As Bishop Kallistos has written, 'What draws them is the abba
rather than the abbey. ' 24 The first task of any would-be monk is always to find
the right spiritual father who will offer him the benefit of his wisdom and
accept him as a disciple. The advice given to Elder Joseph the Hesychast and
his companion Fr Arsenios by Elder Daniel of Katounakia, when they decid-
ed to undertake their struggle together, is as valid now as ever it was:
'Do you have an elder? [Fr Daniel asked them.] Without the blessing of your
elder, nothing can prosper. Without this seal of a paternal blessing, no spiritual
work in our own monastic life bears fruit. This is why I insist that you pass
through this requirement, that the grace of God may be with you throughout
your lives. Go to an old man, however simple he may seem, and submit your-

208 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

 selves in obedience to him; and when he dies and you have laid him in his grave,
you will receive as your inheritance the blessing of God, accompanying you and
leading you to advancement of every kind.,z 5

Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra has himself set a shining exam-

ple as one of the leading architects of the monastic revival. Let him describe
the role of the spiritual father in his own words:
The monastery is a mystery, a sacrament, and the spiritual father is the visible
element of this mystery, behind whom hides the invisible: God, and everything
that escapes the senses, which can only be sensed by the spirit ... The spiritual
father is therefore, in fact, the same who takes his disciple, the monk, by the hand
in order to introduce him to the Lord. He is the same who brings Christ down,
who reunites that which was separated-the realities of heaven and of earth-in
order to transform them into the one, unique, and genuine dance. Such is the
role of the spiritual father and such is the manner in which the monks perceive
him. This is why this discipline exists, this obedience, this charity, this gift of self
and this confidence that addresses itself not so much to the superior-who is
only a man-but to Christ Whom he represents. 26

INITIATION PROCEDURES

The stages by which a candidate is initiated into the monastic life vary in
some respects from one monastery to the next according to the typikon it
follows and the preferences of the abbot. The description that follows is
therefore not universally applicable, but it is more or less accurate for most
houses, although most monasteries no longer tonsure to the little habit.
The candidate must fulfil certain preconditions. He must first of all be
a baptized member of the Orthodox Church. This means that he must have
been baptized in the Orthodox manner, namely by total immersion and
emersion three times in the font which symbolizes a mystical burial and
resurrection with Christ. For 'cradle' Orthodox this takes place usually in
infancy as a matter of course. For converts from other Christian denomi-
nations, however, who are normally received into Orthodoxy by chrisma-
tion, it does present a problem. Ever since the mid-eighteenth century,
when the Orthodox patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, and
Jerusalem declared Latin baptism to be invalid, there has been a debate
within Orthodoxy about the rebaptism of converts. The patriarchs decreed
that 'the baptisms of heretics are to be rejected and abhorred . . . [They
are] waters which cannot profit ... nor give any sanctification to such as
receive them, nor avail at all to the washing away of sins. m In the Greek
Church this ruling remained in force until the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury. On Athos it is still in force today. Those who have been received into

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 209

Orthodoxy by chrismation have to be rebaptized if they wish to become
Athonite monks. 28
In addition to being properly baptized, the candidate must be at least
eighteen years of age and either be unmarried or, if he has been married,
divorced or widowed. He must have come to the monastery of his own free
will and he must have settled any questions of inheritance beforehand, since
a monk's property is automatically inherited by the monastery on his death.
He will first have to decide which monastery he wishes to enter. This
decision is most often governed by the search for a sympathetic spiritual
father. It is not uncommon for a prospective novice to travel from one
monastery to another until he finds a spiritual father with whom he can
establish a satisfactory rapport. Having done so, he will apply to the abbot for
admission to the monastery as a novice (dokimos). Once accepted, he must
serve a probationary period during which time he is assigned to one of the
senior monks for instruction. For practical purposes he will live the life of a
monk, but he will not yet wear the habit. The length of this period varies: for
men under fifty it is not often less than three years (but readiness is more
important than age); and the abbot alone will decide when it should end.
Having served his probationary period, the novice is now eligible to be
tonsured a monk of the lowest rank, or rasophore (i.e. a wearer of the rason
or tunic which forms part of his habit). During this simple ceremony the
priest prays as follows over the candidate:
We thank you, 0 Lord, for by your great mercy you have rescued your servant N
from the vain life of the world, and have called him to this modest calling. Grant
therefore that he may live worthily in this angelic community; guard him from the
snares of the devil; retain his body and soul pure until death; and grant him that
he may become your holy temple ... Clothe him with the garment of sanctifica-
tion; gird his loins with chastity; make him an advocate of all continence; and
grant that to him and to us remain the perfect gift of your fatherly blessings.

The priest will then cut a lock of hair from the candidate's head while
invoking the Holy Trinity; he will give him a new name by which he is to be
known from now on; and he will cloak him with the rason and the head-dress
of cap and veil.
The rasophore is not yet a fully professed monk and is not eligible for
ordination, though he is expected to obey the rules of the brotherhood and
to practise the monastic life. He is not obliged to progress to a higher rank,
though assuming he remains in the monastery he is most likely to do so after
a certain lapse of time. In idiorrhythmic monasteries (and some others) it
was common practice after two or three years to confer the so-called little
habit (or small schema).The monk would then take formal vows in the con-
text of a much more elaborate ceremony, performed in the katholikon by the
abbot in the course of the Divine Liturgy. The service itself is symbolic of

210 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

94 A new monk is born. Elder Joseph pronounces his monastic name as Abbot Ephraim effects the
tonsure.

three central ideas: the first is that of marriage of the soul with Christ, the
divine bridegroom; the second is the idea of a second baptism-like a can-
didate for baptism the monk was undressed in a side chapel and his head was
shorn; and third is the idea of the prodigal son returning to his father's
house. The assembled monks led the candidate back into the church singing
on his behalf a troparion (hymn) of confession. The candidate prostrated
himself before the royal doors where the abbot stood as the father ready to
welcome his errant son. The abbot then questioned the candidate as follows:

Q Why have you come here, brother, falling down before the holy altar and
before this holy assembly'
A. I desire the ascetic life, venerable father.
Q Do you desire to become worthy of the angelic habit and to be ranked in the
company of those who are living as monks'
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.
Q Do you come to the Lord of your own free will?
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.
Q Not by any necessity or constraints'
A. No, venerable father.
Q Will you remain in the monastery and in the ascetic life until your last
breath?

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 2! I

 A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.
Q Will you remain chaste, sober, and pious?
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.
Q Will you until death be obedient to the superior and to all the brotherhood
in Christ?
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.
Q Will you endure all the strain and poverty proper to the monastic life, for
the kingdom of heaven's sake?
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.

Having received acceptable replies to his questions, the abbot proceeded to

instruct the candidate as follows:
Understand, my son, what terms you offer to the Lord Jesus Christ; for invisi-
ble angels are present recording your vow with which you shall be confronted at
the second coming of Christ our Lord. I shall now introduce you to the most
perfect life, which reflects the community of the Lord, pointing out to you the
things that you must follow and those you must avoid ... If you wish to become
a monk, first of all cleanse yourself of all bodily and spiritual contamination;
acquire modesty, through which you shall inherit eternal happiness, put away
the impudence of the habits of the worldly life; be obedient to all; do all the
work required of you without murmur; in your prayer be firm; in your vigils do
not be indolent; beware of temptation; do not break your fasting; for know that
through prayer and fasting you may propitiate God ... The Lord himself said,
'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and fol-
low me.' Which means that you must always be prepared, fulfilling his com-
mands until death. You shall be hungry, and thirsty, and naked; insulted,
ridiculed, and persecuted; and shall suffer many other misfortunes that life
according to God entails. But when you suffer all those things, rejoice, for your
reward in heaven shall be high ...

There then followed first the tonsure, in which the abbot cut a lock of
hair from the candidate's head; then the monk's habit was put on, followed
by the girdle and the head-dress; and finally the candidate was given a can-
dle, the gospel book, and a cross. After readings from St Paul's Epistle to the
Ephesians and chapter 6 of St Matthew's Gospel the candle was lit and the
abbot said: 'And the Lord said: Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' The
abbot then embraced the new monk who, as the ceremony came to an end,
joined the company of his brothers.
Nowadays most monasteries in accordance with Stoudite tradition leave
out the small schema stage and proceed straight to the great schema or great
habit, a higher rank to which the rasophore may be promoted after a
slighter longer span of time. Only great schema monks may wear the full
habit, which includes an elaborately embroidered apron or stole with
numerous crosses and Greek acronyms picked out in red-beginning with

212 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

M[ichael] and G[abriel] and ending with the skull and cross-bones of
Adam at the foot of the cross over the words 'T[opos] K[ raniou] [the place
of the skull, i.e. Golgotha] P[aradeisos] G[egonen] [has become Paradise]'.
This garment symbolizes the cross that the monk takes up when he vows
to follow Christ. Great schema monks undertake to accept for themselves
the cross and death of Christ and take stricter vows than other monks with
regard to prayer and fasting. Initiates go through a ceremony similar to that
for the small schema but of longer duration and more solemn tone. The
Divine Liturgy is interrupted at the same point and the choir sings three
antiphons which begin:
By my tears, 0 Lord, I would blot out the record of my sins, and for the rest of
my life I would endeavour to please thee by the practice of penitence. But the
enemy never ceases from tempting me and from waging war against my soul.
Save me before I am lost! ...
Having received, in the mystical fountain of regeneration, adoption and
redemption, and yet having wasted my life in negligence and in sins, I now cry
to thee, good Lord: grant me a fountain of tears of penitence and wash away the
stain of my sins, almighty and merciful Saviour ...
Where is the vain endeavour of the world? Where is the fleeting show of tran-
sitory things? Lo, do we not see that they are dust and ashes? Why then labour we
in vain? And why do we not renounce the world, and follow him who crieth, He
that will come after me, let him take up my cross, and he shall inherit eternal
life? ...
The abbot then asks the same series of questions as in the service for the
small schema, but the fifth question involves a more serious commitment to
total renunciation of the world:

fl: Do you renounce the world and the things of the world, in accordance with
the teaching of our Lord Christ?
A. Yes, with God's help, venerable father.

Then the abbot instructs the monk on the subject of penitence, and contin-
ues with a description of what renunciation involves:
According to the plain meaning of the words of Christ, the monastic renuncia-
tion is an absolute promise to accept for yourself his cross and his death. Be cer-
tain, therefore, that, from today, through this most perfect renunciation by which
you are now bound, you are crucified and dead to the world. You renounce your
parents, your brothers and sisters; you renounce wife and children; you renounce
your fellow citizens, your kindred, your clubs and societies, your friends and
your habitual associates; you renounce the tumult and the shouting of the world
and its cares; you renounce goods, property and riches; you renounce empty and
vain pleasures, and human glory. And, in addition to all the things which I have
just enumerated, you renounce yourself ...

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 213

 95 'From today .. . you are crucified and
dead to the world .' A wall painting in the
katholikon of Esphigmenou .

Now the abbot proceeds with a wonderfully lyrical description of the mys-
tical ideal of monasticism, reminding the candidate that through a second
baptism he is about to enter the angelic service of God:
Leap then with joy and thrill with gladness! For today Christ the Lord has cho-
sen you for himself, and has separated you from the life of the world; for he has
set you before his face, in the ranks of the army of his monks, among his troops
who live a life like that of the angels, in the heights of this existence which resem-
bles that of heaven. God has set you there to serve him as do the angels, to be alto-
gether in his service, to ponder on the things which are above, and to seek the
things which are above, for, as the apostle says: 'Our conversation is in heaven.'
0 new vocation! 0 gift of God's own mystery! Today, my brother, you are
baptised a second time, through the superabounding graces poured out by our
God who loves mankind. Today you are freed of your sins and become one of the
sons of light. Christ our Lord himself and his holy angels rejoice at your peni-
tence, and he kills for you the fatted calf ...

At last the moment of commitment is reached. The abbot places his hand
on the gospel and says:
Christ is here invisible. Understand, no one forces you to come to the schema
involuntarily; understand that you by your own free will desire the bond of the
great angelic schema.
A . Yes, venerable father, by my own free will.

A pair of scissors is then placed on the gospel. The monk picks them up and
gives them to the abbot, who lays them down again. This action is repeated

214 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

three times. Only on the third occasion does the abbot keep hold of the scis-
sors and say, 'Look, you have received this from the hands of Christ. See to
whom you are coming; whose ranks you are joining; and whom you are
renouncing.' Then he cuts a little of the monk's hair in the shape of a cross,
saying: 'Our brother N has his hair shorn in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'
Once monks assume the great habit, they are supposed never to take it
off, even in death. In many monasteries the apron is worn only on feast days
and days on which communion is received, but monks are otherwise expect-
ed to wear the habit night and day. Great schema monks are eligible to be
ordained to the diaconate or the priesthood, though in practice only a small
minority proceed to take orders. They are selected by the abbot, who invites
a visiting bishop to perform the ordination. Every monastery needs a sprin-
kling of priests to serve the Liturgy and hear confessions; the abbot is
always a priest and is given the title of archimandrite. Otherwise most
monks are content to remain laymen.
Once professed, how does an Athonite monk occupy himself? It is a com-
mon misconception that monks spend long periods of time thinking beauti-
ful thoughts in idyllic locations in between consuming large meals and
attending interminable church services. In practice, the life of a monk on the
Holy Mountain is very different from this. It is traditionally divided into
prayer, work and sleep, with eight hours theoretically being available daily for
each of these activities. We shall examine below how this schedule works in
practice; but first we shall attempt to dispel the myth of monastic idleness.

MONKS AT WORK

An Athonite monastery is a complex living organism that depends on the

co-operation of all its members to ensure that it runs smoothly and provides
the best possible environment for its inmates and visitors. According to the
cenobitic rule every monk must play a part and perform it to the best of his
ability. Only those who are pronounced medically unfit or infirm by virtue
of their years are excused from working.
The abbot (hegoumenos) is theoretically responsible for everything that
happens in the house. No one comes or goes, no decision is taken, no rule is
made or unmade without his blessing. Within the territory of the monastery
he is lord, though in practice he takes the advice of a governing body or
council of elders (synaxis). When important visitors come to the monastery,
he is there to receive them. He will personally represent his monastery when
called to attend gatherings elsewhere on the Mountain or in the outside
world. His routine is demanding and he is often away on business. He there-

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 2I5

 fore needs a reliable deputy who can stand in for him as necessary and share
the burden of office. If the abbot is renowned for his spirituality, it is often
the case that his deputy will have administrative skills to complement the
spiritual gifts of the abbot.
The abbot is not usually the sole or even the principal father-confessor
of the monastery. If the brotherhood is numerous, it is more than one man
can do to hear the confessions of all the fathers, in which case the more sen-
ior priest-monks will share the responsibility. Answering to the priests are
one or two sextons (ekklesiarches) who ensure the smooth running of the
services in the katholikon; their duties include the maintenance of icons,
vestments, and lamps, the supply of candles and incense, the striking of the
simantron (an iron bar) or talanto (a wooden plank used instead of a bell to
summon the fathers to prayer), and bell-ringing. Other officers (episti-
monarches) are charged with ensuring proper behaviour (among both monks
and pilgrims) in church and refectory.
Other senior posts requiring administrative skills include that of the
treasurer (tamias) who is responsible for the financial affairs of the
monastery; depending on the size of its endowment or the extent of its
estates, this can be an extremely onerous and responsible job; income from

96 Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi with some of the members of his brotherhood. Standing at the
monastery gate they await the arrival of a visiting bishop.

216 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

a variety of sources needs to be invested appropriately and expenditure han-
dled in a wise and judicious fashion. The secretary (grammatefs) of the
monastery handles much of the day-to-day correspondence on behalf of the
abbot. The librarian (bibliothikarios) is in charge of the manuscript and
printed-book collections of the monastery: he may operate a lending serv-
ice for the brotherhood; he may superintend visiting scholars consulting the
archives or manuscripts; and he may be responsible for a programme of
conservation or instruction. The monastery's representative (antiprosopos)
attends the meetings of the Holy Community in Karyes and normally occu-
pies the residence (konaki) belonging to the monastery in Karyes during the
working week, reporting back to the abbot and attending the Divine Liturgy
at weekends.
A sizeable number of monks are involved with provisioning the
monastery, headed by the steward (oikonomos) who is assisted by the store-
keeper (dochiaris). The cook (magiros) runs the kitchen and ensures that the
food he and his staff prepare is wholesome and that it accords with the cal-
endar of fasts and feasts. The baker bakes bread for use not only in the
refectory but also in the katholikon: liturgical loaves are kneaded with holy
water and blessed by a priest before they are put into service. The cellarer
(kellaritis) looks after the wine, which has a similar double function. By tra-
dition he needs to be of sober character and not susceptible to temptation.
The Russian houses had particular problems with alcohol, as Fennell relates
of the Prophet Elijah skete:
We read in the 1904 minutes of the same month that Monk Vladimir swore at
the prior, was violent and threw stones at people; this was hardly surprising, as
he was at the time the cellarer and had unlimited access to alcohol. Monk loasaf
was caught being drunk and disorderly, and was banned from drinking raki.
These incidents were in March alone; two months later there was a major drink
scandal. Three monks were caught, two were severely punished and the worst
offender, Monk Parfeny, was forbidden raki after his expulsion from the skete
had been revoked.
As a result of this incident the following measures were taken:

• no more written permission to be issued for raki;

• no raki was to be given to brethren washing laundry at the spring;
• only one glass of raki would be permitted in the cellar at certain times;
singers were to be forbidden raki during rehearsals; instead one glass of wine
per singer would be permitted on certain days, excluding fasts;
• no raki was to be issued to brethren celebrating namedays. 29

The guest house also has to be adequately staffed to cope with the
demands of the large numbers of visitors that enjoy the monastery's hospi-
tality every night of the year. Rooms have to be swept, sheets laundered,
fires lit in winter, washrooms kept clean; guests have to be received, provid-

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 217

ed with sustenance if they are late for refectory, informed about the
monastery, disciplined if they are inclined to be rowdy, woken in time for
services, and sent away happy. Providing hospitality without charge is one
of the principal raisons d'etre of the monastery. Not every monk has the
appropriate combination of talents to be able to dispense it.
The monastery's gate has to be manned during daylight hours. The
monk in charge will supervise all comings and goings and will check that
pilgrims have the necessary documentation and direct them to where they
should go. He may also operate the telephone switchboard and have radio
contact with vehicles or boats that have business with the monastery. The
post requires vigilance, but not much escapes the gatekeeper's eye. During
the hours of darkness, when the gate is closed, the monastery is patrolled by
a night watchman.
The monastery is likely to have workshops manned by members of the
brotherhood. The tailor ensures that all monks have an adequate supply of
clothing. Mechanics take care of the motor vehicles. Computer-literate
monks handle communications with the outside world and prepare docu-
ments for circulation within the monastery or for publication in printed
form . Craftsmen are needed on a regular basis to carry out repairs and
maintenance of the buildings. Such tasks may be performed by lay workers,

97 Below: Monks do much of the gardening for themselves nowadays.

98 Ri ght: At Simonopetra land is at a premium but the narrow terraces are highly
productive.

218 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

but they still have to be supervised by monks. Similarly the fields and gar-
dens require a great deal of labour: this is often 'farmed out' to foreign
workers, but just as often the work is done by monks themselves. In idior-
rhythmic monasteries such work was always performed by hired labour-
ers-as recently as 1934 the Great Lavra employed as many as eighty lay
servants-but cenobitic communities often make a point of sharing at least
some of the physical tasks with the lay workers.
The philosophy of work in a cenobitic monastery is that every monk,
regardless of his position in the hierarchy, performs a vital role. No matter
how skilled or unskilled, his contribution is equally essential to the smooth
running of the house as a whole. Work has a spiritual quality, which means
that every able-bodied monk must participate in it in order to fulfil his asce-
tic obligations. Every task, however lowly, must be carried out as if for Christ
himself It is no less important than prayer. As Fr Aimilianos has written:
Those who are allotted the tasks of the Monastery receive, at the beginning of each
year, from the hand of Christ and of the holy Founder, through the Abbot, their
keys and tools as sacred liturgical vessels. Each monk, in serving the needs of his
brethren, is performing the liturgy of the one body and giving an account of him-
self as a faithful steward. He who serves practises his obedience in the midst of the
brotherhood, hastening with zeal to anticipate the speediness of humility. But he
who is self-willed, self-ruling and independent remains alone; and he who per-
forms what appear to be the most 'humiliating' tasks is the most blessed. 30

MONKS AT PRAYER

Wherever possible, as we have already seen with the common task, work and
prayer are combined. Many monks will recite the Jesus Prayer as they go
about their daily routine. If their work keeps them from attending services
in church (e.g. because they are preparing a meal or laying the tables in the
refectory), they either recite the office themselves while working or they can
sometimes listen to it broadcast on the monastery's radio system.
Most Athonite monasteries follow Byzantine time, which means setting
clocks at 12 at sunset. The hours of darkness are regarded as a time of
silence, for prayer and sleep. For practical purposes prayer times govern the
monastic timetable.
At sunset the gates of the monastery are shut and by then everyone, pil-
grims and monks alike, must be safely inside. Depending on the time of
year, there may be a little time available for monks to enjoy some leisure or
to converse with pilgrims before retiring early to their cells for private
prayer and rest. Most monks spend at least two or three hours in prayer
every night. It is customary to begin by recalling the sins of the past day.

220 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

99 'To talanto, to talanto, to ta to ta to talanto.' The rhythmical striking of the wooden
talanto summons the monks to prayer.

This is followed by the performance of prostrations: their number, pre-

scribed by the spiritual father, increases as the monk matures and it is not
uncommon for a senior monk to make 300 or 400 prostrations every night.
(The term 'spiritual athlete' takes on real meaning on Athos.) After
prostrations the monk makes his confessional prayer (of thanksgiving, con-
fession of sins, and petitions for others). He then ends with a prescribed
number of recitations of the Jesus Prayer. All of this is subject to variation
from one house to another, but the general pattern is universally applied.
At about 3 am the first call to prayer is struck on the talanto and
monks congregate in the katholikon for the midnight office followed by
matins and the daily offices known as the first, third, and sixth hours.
This lasts for about three hours, or a little longer on Sundays and feast
days. Upon completion of the office, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated
every day (except during Great Lent), on Sundays and feast days in the
katholikon; on other days probably in one of the smaller chapels; and in
larger monasteries several liturgies are celebrated simultaneously in dif-
ferent chapels. At the end of the Liturgy there is usually a meal in the
refectory (frugal on fast days) . The refectory is normally located opposite
the entrance to the katholikon so that monks can process directly from
one to the other. Meals are thus demonstrably incorporated into the litur-

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 221

gical pattern and acquire a sacred quality that renders them an extension
of the church services.
Fasting is as much a part of this liturgical pattern as prayer, and the two
are often joined together (as in the New Testament) to define the essentials
of Orthodox practice, for laymen as well as for monks and clergy. There are
four extended fasts in the church year: Great Lent and Holy Week, the
Dormition (1-14 August), Advent (15 November-24 December), and the
Apostles' fast (from eight days after Pentecost to 29 June). Outside these
periods, every Wednesday and Friday is a fast; and in monasteries every
Monday also. There are different levels of fasting and not all are observed
on every fast day; but monasteries generally follow a strict pattern and
abstain from any consumption of meat (which monks never eat anyway),
dairy products, fish, wine, and oil. The notion is that through fasting the
body shares in the work of prayer; and fasting gives the faithful a sense of
freedom and lightness. 'Fasting and self-control are the first virtue', wrote
Kallistos and lgnatios Xanthopoulos, 'the mother, root, source, and founda-
tion of all good. ' 31 Great Lent is the strictest fast of the year and involves a
complete change of the daily schedule: then there is no daily celebration of
the Divine Liturgy; vespers happens at 12.30 pm and is followed (at about
2 pm) by the only meal of the day.
The monastic diet is much the same as the traditional Greek peasant diet
and consists largely of vegetables, bread, olives, salads, cheese, soya and
fruit. On non-fast days there is usually plenty of food on the monks' table
and an ample supply of wine; and on feast days there is often fish. But meals
are eaten at great speed, and whatever is not eaten by the time the abbot
rises for the final thanksgiving is left behind. There is a general rule of
silence except that one monk will read aloud from patristic or religious lit-
erature. Sometimes the abbot will interrupt the reading to give his own
commentary; and at the end of the meal he may read any notices about
forthcoming events of the day. As soon as the meal is over, the abbot will
lead the brotherhood, following in order of seniority, out into the courtyard
and he will stand at the door to give a final blessing to his flock and their
guests. Beside him stand the cook and his assistants, all of them bowing very
low to indicate their contrition for any shortcomings in the meal. Any food
that remains uneaten is carefully preserved for use on another occasion; or
if is not reusable, it is fed to the cats, of which every monastery has a large
flock, principally to act as mousers.
By now it is perhaps 8.30 am and every monk disappears to go about his
work for the morning. Suddenly the courtyard empties of men in black and
all that remains is a straggle of pilgrims planning their next move. Monks
probably work for about four or five hours from this time until the early
afternoon when they may take a few hours' rest, especially in the heat of
summer. At about 4.30 pm (earlier in winter) the talanto is struck again,

222 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

calling the brotherhood to the katholikon for vespers (preceded by the
ninth hour). This service, technically the first of the daily offices, coincides
with the close of the day and in most monasteries is celebrated with full
double choir and great dignity amid the gathering gloom of early evening.
It leads straight into another meal in the refectory, which does not differ
much in style or content from the first meal of the day (except that on fast
days it generally offers a little more). This is followed by compline, the last
service of the day, which lasts for about three-quarters of an hour.
After compline monks are free either to finish off any work that was not
completed earlier in the day or to enjoy a period of leisure until sunset when
the routine for the following day begins.

CELEBRATIONS FOR A FEAST

Orthodox church services are long, dignified affairs; but they are not static
or uneventful. Every few minutes something different happens: a new chant
begins; the deacon comes round again with the censer; more candles are lit
or extinguished; a coloured lamp is hoisted high into the dome; the priest
emerges from the sanctuary for a reading; one by one monks disappear into
a side chapel where the abbot is hearing confessions. So it is with the church
calendar: the routine is never tedious because it is so often punctuated by
red-letter days. Even periods of fasting make way for the celebration of a
major feast. There are twelve such feasts in the course of the year, and many
minor ones besides. On Athos special attention is paid to those relating to the
life of the Theotokos.
In addition to the feasts of the calendar, every Athonite monastery puts
on a special annual celebration (panegyrt) for the feast of its dedication (just
as every Orthodox Christian celebrates his or her name day). In anticipation
of the day, many of the monks are released from their usual duties in order
to make the necessary preparations. The church has to be cleaned from top
to bottom; special treats have to be prepared for the large numbers of pil-
grims (sometimes as many as 300) who are expected to attend; reception
rooms must be made ready for visiting dignitaries. The invitation to attend
a panegyri in a neighbouring monastery is the one occasion (other than sick-
ness) that will persuade monks (and especially, but not exclusively, abbots)
to leave home and visit each other.
There is no entirely regular pattern for the celebration of a feast. In fact
the order of service is fixed and only its length varies, from four to sixteen
hours, according to the significance placed on the occasion. Each time it
seems to be different in certain respects; but the central feature is invariably
a vigil, or all-night service (agrypnia), in the katholikon; this is always fol-

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 223

lowed by a celebratory meal in the refectory. I shall describe in the next
chapter my own experience as a pilgrim attending such a feast. In the pres-
ent context it is appropriate to cite an Athonite's response:
The most festal of all the liturgical offices is the all-night vigil. The mind is kept
alert by the all-night service, while the heart leaps with might and main, sharing in
the awesome vigour of the Powers on high and the delight of the saint whose day
it is, or of the feast day. Laxity is lighdy cast aside, vigilant eyes follow the round
of the oil-lamps being lit and of the chandeliers and the great candelabra being
swung in symbolic motion. Those present derive joy from heaven, absorb the dew
of contrition and sport with men and angels. Thus the mind climbs like a unicorn
to the sanctuary on high and the spirit is carried aloft in holiness and fear in order
to discover, mystically, the mercy-seat of the sacred ark and to share in those things
which 'no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived'. 32

LIFE IN THE SKETES AND CELLS

It is even harder to generalize about the sketes and cells than about the
monasteries because they all do things differently according to their own
rhythm. No doubt it is largely because of the great gulf that exists between
the sketes and the monasteries that some of the old antagonisms that have
characterized the Mountain since the days of St Athanasios survive to this
day. Of course a cenobitic skete such as Prodromos or St Andrew's or the
Prophet Elijah operates in much the same way as a monastery. To look at,
they are more or less indistinguishable from monasteries and apart from cer-
tain differences in nomenclature (e.g. the abbot is called a prior or dikaios,
and the katholikon is called the kyriakon, that is, the place to go on Sunday),
the only difference of substance is that they do not send a representative to
the Holy Community in Karyes. Nor are they so well endowed, and for their
prosperity they are largely dependent on the good will of their parent
monasteries. But the brotherhood (in each case numbering about 20) lives a
common life, work is shared as in the monasteries, and both the church and
the refectory are in daily use.
Idiorrhythmic sketes operate rather differently. Each forms a cluster of
cells, and life centres round the cell or house in which a group of monks live
together. Each cell has a chapel for weekday services, and a dining room
where residents of the cell eat together. They usually come together for
worship on Sunday in the kyriakon, but otherwise they may not see much
of the monks in other cells. All the monks follow a rule of obedience to the
prior, but there is a good deal of flexibility about how it is interpreted. Work
may incorporate a wider range of activities than in the monasteries and
there is often a greater emphasis on certain arts or crafts. New Skete, for
example, once renowned as the place where woollen socks were knitted for

224 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

use by monks all over the Mountain, is now more famous for its icon
painters. One of the skete fathers has an international reputation for pro-
ducing icons according to traditional Byzantine principles; students flock
from all over the world to learn the technique from him and stay as guests
in his well-equipped and hospitable cell.
Other sketes, particularly those in the region known as the desert down
near the southern tip of the peninsula, are better known as centres of
extreme asceticism. Karoulia is such a settlement and is located at a point
where the terrain is vertiginously steep. The name means the place of the
pulleys and recalls the system of communication by which hermits could
only reach their cells by hauling themselves up by ropes or chains that
passed over makeshift pulleys. Now there is a mule track; but still the cells
cling to the cliffs in a most alarming fashion and overhang the sea many
metres below. It remains no more than a collection of hermitages and has
never achieved the status of a proper skete. Sydney Loch knew it fifty years
ago and wrote about it during the lifetime of Fr Nikon (to whose memory
the translation of the Philokalia is dedicated):

Karoulia is still spectacular from a boat. A precipice of hermit eyries joined by

chain-and-rope banisters, with its roots everlastingly chid by waves. It is still
spectacular, but not as it was a few years before someone moved with the times
sufficiently to scratch a track from top to bottom to allow a loaded mule to slith-
er down, and his driver to follow, after crossing himself. This path has done
away with the lower chains by which the caller hauled himself out of the boat
up to those heights, and by so much has the power to astonish been lost to the
world.
Father Nikon, charming, educated, a Russian, and once a man of the world,
survives there in his chapel cell, lying down to sleep with a stone for a pillow
and the skulls of seventeen of his predecessors staring at him from a shelf.
There he shed his association with courts and kings, and gained an ease of soul
that shines from him. He is possibly the last of the educated solitaries left on the
Mountain, and to spend an hour or two in his company is something out of this
world. Only the stout-hearted can face the chains leading down to his eyrie. 33

Kafsokalyvia, four or five kilometres east of Karoulia, is an idiorrhyth-

mic skete that is a dependency of Megiste Lavra. Here a string of white-
washed cottages and chapels with domes and slate roofs winds up the side
of a steep but fertile gulley between bay trees. There are forty cells but not
all of them are occupied. Today the brotherhood numbers about thirty-five.
Its official name is the Skete of the Holy Trinity and it celebrates its annu-
al festival (panegyrz) at Pentecost.
Isolated cells and hermitages are scattered all over the Mountain, though
certain areas (such as the desert, and Kapsala to the north of Karyes) con-
tain a preponderance. Some are still inhabited, many are not, though it is

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 225

not always easy to tell. They vary in form from a cave or simple stone shel-
ter to a substantial farmhouse, and the activities within encompass a simi-
lar range. In most cases the monks who resort to them are in search of that
complete isolation and rigorous asceticism that St Antony first found in the
Egyptian desert. Instead of the sand, these men have chosen a world of
dense forest or vertical cliffs. They spend their lives in prayer and are rarely
seen. Some withdraw completely and never leave their cave, living in total
silence and complete solitude. At regular intervals a monk from the parent
monastery lowers a basket of simple provisions. Only if the basket remains
unemptied may he then lower himself to visit the hermit. If he has died,
his body is removed and buried; after exhumation his skull remains at the
hermitage to take its place beside his predecessors and the cave is made
available to a new occupant. Such men continue to come forward, often still
in their twenties. It is not uncommon for them to endure sixty or seventy
years of such solitude. Such is the desert of Athos.
Many stories are told of the great desert fathers of Athos. As an exam-
ple let us look at Elder Kallinikos the Hesychast (1853-1930), who as a
young man left Athens where he had received a good education. He came
to the Holy Mountain towards the end of the nineteenth century. Finding
the idiorrhythmic life at Iviron not to his taste, he was advised that if he
was seeking the hesychastic life he should move to the desert, where many
ascetics had their abode. He found his way to the cell of the renowned
hesychast and spiritual father, Elder Daniel of Katounakia. The elder
doubted that this refined young man from the city could endure the rigours
of life in the desert, but finally he agreed to test him. Archimandrite
Cherubim records the scene:
'Costas, my child [Kallinikos's baptismal name], here we have only one meal a
day, and that without oil. We have oil only on weekends and feast days. We pray
most of the night. We sleep little, and must do our handiwork in the daytime so
that we may earn our bread.'
'May it be blessed, Elder. This is the life I have longed for. If I had wanted a
different way of life, I would have chosen a cenobitic monastery or skete.'
'We have no spring here, Costas. The water collected in our cisterns must be
used with great care. Among these rocks it is impossible to have a garden and so
we taste neither fruits nor vegetables. We feed ourselves with a few wild greens,
olives, sometimes with beans, or with a fig, or whatever else can be bought from
the store in Daphne. And in place of fresh bread, we eat rusks.' (Bread which is
left over from trapeza in the monasteries of the Holy Mountain is dried and dis-
tributed to the hermits. Father Daniel was supplied with this dried bread, or
rusks, by Xeropotamou Monastery.)
'Costas, we have here neither milk, cheese, nor eggs. At Pascha, we have no

100 Left: Karoulia from the sea. Hermits' cells cling perilously to the cliffs and overhang
the waves below.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 227

ror Fr Nikon of Karoulia, the celebrated Russian hermit who died in 1963.

228 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

roz The kellion of St Demetrios near Bogoroditsa. With its wooden gallery on the first floor it is typical
of isolated cells in agricultural areas.

red eggs to eat. One that is preserved from year to year is brought out that we
may see it and remember the Feast.'
Costas listened with great interest and attention .. .-H

In due course Fr Daniel tonsured Costas as the monk Kallinikos, and

when Fr Daniel died, Fr Kallinikos took his place as the elder of the cell. He
acquired disciples of his own together with a reputation for humility and
loving-kindness. But still he longed for the solitary life. 'Four years after the
death of his Elder', writes Archimandrite Cherubim,
he made the brave decision to shut himself up completely, to confine himself as
if in a prison to his cell and to a small space around it. For however many years
God would grant him, he would remain enclosed in these limits.
In fact, he lived thus for his remaining forty-five years. On no account did he
break this principle. When he needed to notify somebody he used to raise a big
pole with a sail on the end like a flag. The neighbors would see it and come to see
what was the matter.
His sacrifice was great. For forty-five years he lived as a recluse in a cell in that
desert ravine of Katounakia, depriving himself of ventures out-of-doors, walks,
trips, and all human contact. Only with his death did he leave his enclosure, and

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 229

 even then, only his soul departed. His body remained faithful to the physical
bounds of his ascetic labors.
This heroic step was richly blessed by God. 'Observe how when a cask of wine
is kept still in one place, it becomes magnificent, reaching the peak of its bou-
quet' as the Philokalia says (Evagrios). 35

Despite this self-imposed rule of isolation, Elder Kallinikos found the time
to devote two hours a day to his spiritual sons. Monks and ascetics, priests
and laymen, Greeks and Russians flocked to his cell from all over Athos and
beyond to sit at his feet and hear his teaching. After his death, when his
bones were exhumed, it was noticed that they were tinged with the same
sweet yellowish shading that graces the relics of the saints.
Life in the desert of Athos is unchanged, untouched by the revival tak-
ing place elsewhere. The harsh environment ensures that only the most ded-
icated can survive there. It continues to elicit a lyrical response even from
contemporary Athonites:
Here the hum of the unceasing prayer and the constant secret sigh of fallen man
is detected. Here the world's fate is determined. Here God strains His ear, and
here He decides. For this is the place of His rest. In this desert you can hear the
echo of the angelic hymns, the doxological silence of the saints, and the melody
of the everlasting godly word.
In the desert of the Holy Mountain you can meet more easily an angel than a
man. The place is so savage that human beings cannot endure it; it is so imma-
terial that angels envy it. Here angels are in excess. The environment is more
hospitable for them. It resembles heaven more than earth. Angels are recognized
more easily than men. For hermits have eyes that can see angels, while angels are
unable even to imagine the existence of such human beings. The people who can
endure life here can see, but cannot be seen. They are more angelic than human;
they are more heavenly than earthen, more eternal than temporal. This is why,
along with God's rest, they cause the amazement of angels who take pleasure and
find rest in this desolate place.
The clarity of the desert is so great that it transforms you. Your soul becomes
transparent. Without any efforts your inner world emerges. You confess sponta-
neously and, if you have the blessing to meet a hermit, he reads your soul with-
out difficulty. Here people possess souls and eyes that can be seen. 36

THE MYSTERY OF ATHOS

Renewal has now spread to all of the seventeen Greek monasteries on the
Mountain. It is more evident in some monasteries than others and each pre-
serves its characteristic flavour or atmosphere: some emphasize intellectual
activity, others are more pragmatically inclined; some are very strict in their

230 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

observances, others adopt a more outward-looking approach. In practice
every monastery takes on the personality of its abbot, and no two abbots
share exactly the same attitude to the monastic life. It is important that this
variety should be retained, so that the Mountain will appeal to and cater for
a wide cross-section of recruits.
It is not easy to account for this renewal. At first it was no more than a
redistribution of the existing population as some of the hermits were per-
suaded to move into the monasteries with their groups of disciples. Then
there was the intake from monasteries elsewhere in Greece such as the
Meteora, from where monks came in search of the solitude that Athos alone
can still provide. But since then, there can be no doubting the increase in the
numbers of new monks, their relative youthfulness, their intellectual capac-
ity, their spiritual integrity, their devotion to all that Athos stands for. Why
should this be? The renewal is in no sense a reform, except in the abandon-
ment of the idiorrhythmic way of life; it is in every sense a revival of tradi-
tional cenobitic Athonite monasticism. Some see it as the Mother of God
ensuring that her garden remains well tended. Others see it as a reaction to
the secularizing tendencies of the modern world leading to a renewal of
man's search for his spiritual self. Cynics speak of escape; but who would
choose escape to such austerity without the promise and the delivery of
rewards not available in the world? No doubt all these factors have played a
part; but perhaps the greatest single reason for the renewal is the presence
on the Mountain today of so many outstanding spiritual fathers and abbots
of international renown whose reputations and publications and personali-
ties have attracted disciples in ever-increasing numbers.
There is a new icon of the Theotokos, similar to the nineteenth-century
Russian icon referred to in Chapter 2 which represented her as the abbess
of Athos, but the new one has her as the 'ephor', or overseer, of the Holy
Mountain (see frontispiece). Dressed as a nun, she floats above the peak of
the Mountain, casting a gentle and kindly eye over her flock below.
Clustering around the coastline and foothills are accurate but stylized rep-
resentations of all the monasteries and sketes. It is a modern interpretation
of an entirely traditional picture. For many monks it symbolizes what the
renewal is doing, and this is what Athos is all about for the monks. It is holy
ground, a station in sacred space, closely connected with the events of the
gospel story, a place where miracles have happened and continue to happen.
Athos is not of this world, nor are the monks of this world; they live in a
world set apart. When a monk is tonsured, he dies to this world and is born
agam.
Using language that consciously evokes the writings of St John
Klimakos/7 Fr George Kapsanis, abbot of the monastery of Grigoriou and
one of the architects of the current revival, has written about the spiritual
life of Mount Athos in these words:

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK 231

 Athonite life is fundamentally a Mystery, a Mystery which defies any description.
Our eyes must be opened if we are to behold the Mystery. We must be initiated into
the Mystery. Initiation does not spring from rational understanding alone; it is a
question of spiritual ascent. As Man ascends and God descends, it is at the point
where they meet that the Mystery is celebrated. It is this Mystery which makes
Athos not merely a mountain, but a Holy Mountain.
The Mystery is open to anyone, whether Athonite or not, who wishes to
approach it. The approach, however, means ascent; ascent requires abstraction;
and abstraction demands courage. The way life is organised on Athos, the archi-
tecture, painting, nature, cobblestones, bells, the wooden sounding boards striking
day and night, the hospitality, the prayers-all of these express something of this
Mystery. It is in them all and at the same time beyond them all. Whatever express-
es the Mystery may be described up to a certain point, yet at the same time its core
remains undescribed. Being undescribed it is offered in communion of life. 38

232 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE MONK

 8
ATHOS ToDAY: FoR THE PILGRIM

M en travel to Athos for a variety of reasons, reasons that have evolved

over time. In past centuries travellers from the west were often in
search of manuscripts, lured by the faint hope that in the monastic libraries
might lurk some yet undiscovered text of a lost work of classical antiquity. 1
Occasionally they were lucky; more often they had to content themselves with
rescuing a few scraps of parchment which would otherwise have been con-
signed to the incinerator or more likely left to moulder away for another cen-
tury or so on neglected library shelves. Others simply enjoyed travel for its
own sake, especially in more exotic parts where their experiences provided
material for tales of adventure that might subsequendy be published. At the
same time the Mountain continued to attract travellers from the east,
Orthodox Christians from various parts of the Ottoman empire and from
Russia, who often had more pious motives for making their journey, and, if
they published an account of it, concentrated rather on the holy places and
sacred treasures of Athos. 2 The passion for collecting manuscripts may have
waned; but mutatis mutandis similar motives are to be found in many of
today's visitors to the Holy Mountain. Much of what follows here is based on
my own experience, gained in the course of ten visits between 1988 and 2000.
Visitors are flocking to Athos in increasing numbers. In the early 1970s
no more than about 3000 came each year. By the mid-1g8os that number had
multiplied by a factor of 10. Ten years later, as many as 40,000 entry per-
mits were being issued each year. As the renewal took hold among the
monasteries, so they began to attract not only monks but also pilgrims. If
steps had not been taken to control the numbers of visitors, there was a real
risk that the monasteries would have been overrun and they would have
been forced to revise their cherished traditions of offering free hospitality to
pilgrims. But just as there was nothing new about the Mountain attracting
increased numbers of monks, so in the past there had often been large num-
bers of pilgrims too, especially at major feasts. When the Englishman John
Covel visited the Mountain in 1677, he recorded in his Athos Notes that the
Lavra received about soo visitors at major festivals, and that the previous
Easter there had been 2000 at Koudoumousiou. 3 Just as now, resources of
the poorer foundations were sometimes stretched when they had to accom-
modate and feed such an influx, but the facilities for doing so existed and
great efforts were always made to provide for visitors' needs.
 PILGRIMS OR TOURISTS?

Naturally the majority of the Mountain's visitors are Greeks: Athos lies
within Greece, its common language is Greek, and the Greeks like to think
of it as their Holy Mountain. As the renewal spread to the Greek monaster-
ies, it became fashionable for more and more Greeks to visit them: access
was easy; hospitality was free; it made a pleasant break from the daily rou-
tine. At the same time foreign tourism was increasing in Greece as a whole.
The invention of the package holiday suddenly made Greece more accessi-
ble to large numbers of visitors. The climate was tempting; the cost of liv-
ing was low; the local people were rumoured to be friendly. Hippie colonies
were established in certain parts of the country and word spread that free
hospitality was available on Mount Athos. It was a combination of these fac-
tors-the fashion-conscious Greeks and the hippie influx-that persuaded
the authorities that steps had to be taken to protect the monasteries.
A quota system was first introduced in the 1970s and remains in place
today. Each day a finite number of entry permits is issued: 100 for
Orthodox, 10 for non-Orthodox. Permits are issued usually for four nights,
which means that there should never be more than about 45o-soo visitors
on the Mountain at any one time, and if the quota is filled throughout the
year, the annual total should never exceed about 4o,ooo. Furthermore per-
mits are not simply handed out to anyone arriving at the border. The quota
is administered from Thessaloniki (formerly by the Ministry of Northern
Greece, now by the Athos Pilgrim's Bureau); a consular letter was required
(no longer the case) and pilgrims are expected to have a serious reason for
wishing to visit the Mountain. The bureaucracy is deliberately complicated
in order to deter the idly curious visitor.
That is not to say that many do not visit the Mountain, at least for the
first time, out of mere curiosity. For many it is a combination of factors.
Men are drawn to Athos from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some are
artists who draw their inspiration from its scenery. Some are students of
history, anxious to experience this last surviving fragment of the Byzantine
empire. Some are art historians, wanting to see for themselves this living
treasure-house of eastern Christian art and architecture. Some are priests
from other Christian confessions, eager to be allowed to participate in the
liturgical life of an Orthodox monastery. Some are environmentalists, zeal-
ous for a greener world, bringing the gospel of organic farming, disciplined
forestry and proper drains. Some just want to stand back from the world and
be still.
All these are perfectly valid reasons for visiting Athos. Most people come
with some such reason at the forefront of their minds. The question then
arises: are they pilgrims or tourists? Every visitor to the Holy Mountain is

234 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

by definition a pilgrim: his entry permit admits him specifically in order 'to
visit the holy relics and venerate the holy places of our faith' and he will be
received as a pilgrim wherever he goes. How many visitors to the Holy
Mountain are conscious of this purpose? Philip Sherrard is in no doubt:
at least ninety per cent and possibly an even higher percentage of the visitors to
Athos today are not pilgrims. They are tourists, however much they may like to
think they are not ... They do not walk the long, steep, often relentless paths, so
that inner change, for the production of which walking is an essential element,
cannot take place in them. 4

But then we have to ask: what is pilgrimage? Here is Sherrard's answer:

[A] pilgrimage is not simply a matter of getting to a particular shrine or holy
place. It is a deliberate sundering and surrender of one's habitual conditions of
comfort, routine, safety, convenience. Unlike the tourist, whose aim is to see
things and to travel around in conditions which are as comfortable, secure, famil-
iar, convenient and unchallenging as possible, the pilgrim breaks with his mate-
rial servitude, puts his trust in God and sets out on a quest which is inward as
much as outward, and is, in varying degrees, into the unknown. In this sense, he
becomes the image of the spiritual seeker. He removes himself as far as possible
from the artificiality within which he is enclosed by his life in society. Of this
spiritual exploration, inward and outward, walking is an essential part. His feet
tread the earth-the earth from which he is made and from which he is usually
so cut off, especially in the more or less totally urbanized conditions of modern
life. Through his eyes, ears, nose, he renews his sense of natural beauty--of the
beauty of God's creation. He watches the flight of bird or insect, the ripple of
light on leaves, the timeless vistas of the sea; he listens to the song of water, the
calls of God's creatures; he breathes in the scent of tree and flower and soil. His
feet tire, his body aches, sweat drips from his head and trickles into his eyes and
down his neck. He tastes rigour and hardship. But through all this-and only
through all this, and through his prayer and dedication and confidence-slowly
an inner change is wrought, a new rhythm grows, a deeper harmony. The pil-
grimage is at work.
The crucial point in all this is that a pilgrimage is also a process which must
not be hurried. The bonds of routine, dependence on material comforts and con-
veniences, on the familiar and the settled, have a far stronger hold than one is
aware of. The conditions of modern life have so blunted the senses that it may
take days, weeks even, until they begin to respond truly to the beauty about
them .... If the would-be pilgrim attempts to speed this process up, or refuses
to face the conditions, including the rigours and hardships under which alone it
can develop, then he simply aborts his pilgrimage. He degenerates into being a
tourist. 5

Sherrard knew and loved the Mountain as well as anyone who has writ-
ten about it in the last century. He lived much of his life in Greece and he
converted to Orthodoxy; but he was still a westerner. Rene Gothoni has

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 235

written at length about the difference between the concept of pilgrimage in
the west, where the word 'pilgrim' means a traveller to a holy place or
shrine, and in the east, where the word proskynitis (normally translated into
English as 'pilgrim') actually means one who worships and bows down, i.e.
before the icons, relics, and holy places. 6 In other words, for a western pil-
grim the journey and the hardships relating to the journey are an essential
ingredient of the pilgrimage, whereas for the eastern pilgrim what matters
is not how he gets to the shrine but what he does when he has got there.
Sherrard stopped going to Athos in 1980, even though he lived another fif-
teen years after that. He preferred to remember it when every visitor per-
force conformed to his definition of a pilgrim, because there were no roads
and no vehicles and there was no alternative to walking. The 'tourist' inva-
sion was more than he could endure.
It is true that of the large numbers of visitors to the Holy Mountain
today the vast majority choose to travel by road, largely because it is more
convenient: it saves effort, and it saves time. Those of us who still choose to
walk are often branded as romantics and laughed at for preferring the old
routes. But we are not entitled to claim that only we are the true pilgrims.
In Greek terminology those who ride in motor vehicles are no less pilgrims
than we. In fact, if we do not venerate the relics and the icons and the holy
places when we reach our destination, we are completely failing in our duty
as proskynites.
But what about the visitor who is motivated by curiosity, or by his desire
to study the architecture, or the butterflies? Is he a pilgrim or a tourist?
Goth6ni has conducted fieldwork in Ouranopolis and interviewed many vis-
itors both before and after their journey to Athos. His research leads him to
conclude that, while many said beforehand that they were going out of
curiosity, nearly all realized by the time of their return that they had made
a pilgrimage. They were moved by what they had seen and experienced;
some were even reborn by it and felt that they now saw the world in a new
light. Moreover he suggests that laymen have now discovered pilgrimage to
be a way of distancing themselves from their everyday lives and concerns:
This type of pilgrimage, where the travellers only realise later that they have
made a pilgrimage, is usually connected with the search for a direction in life,
often with a religious search. During their journey many of the visitors deal with
the tension between what their life is and what they would like it to be. The
pilgrimage provides a cooling off period, a means by which the traveller can
reorient himself into his life situation. It contributes to a self-renewal, and, if it
is successful, the traveller gains a fresh insight into his worldly problems. In this
sense a pilgrimage really sets the traveller free. 7

Perhaps the last word on the subject should be said by the monks, for it
is they who have to suffer this formidable daily invasion of visitors. When

236 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

Goth6ni asked an elderly father how they coped with it, he received this
reply: 'Everyone who comes to the Holy Mountain is a pilgrim, whether he
knows it or not. Originally each of us was a visitor. Who is to say in what
way the will of God acts? Who is to say why the visitors really come? For
many visitors a pilgrimage to this Holy Mountain has become a yearly
habit.' 8

DEPARTURE FROM THE WORLD

When is the best time to go to Athos? Winter on the Holy Mountain is long,
wet, and often cold. Snow is by no means a rare occurrence, even at lower
levels; and stormy seas often confine boats to harbour. As a result there are
fewer visitors at this time, so for those who are not bothered by climatic
uncertainty and who want to have the Mountain to themselves, winter can
be a good time to go. Several monasteries have now installed central heating,
and others use wood-burning stoves. By contrast, high summer (mid-June
to mid-September) can be very hot and it is also the time that attracts the
greatest numbers of (mostly Greek) visitors. This means that long-distance
walking can be uncomfortable and guest facilities at many monasteries are
overstretched. Of those who are free to choose, many will prefer to plan
their visit either in the spring (mid-April to mid-June), when the tempera-
ture is more congenial for walking and the wild flowers are at their best, or
in autumn (mid-September to late October), when the selection of fruit and
vegetables on offer may be more appealing.
How does one get there? The first step is to reserve a place in the quota
for the day on which one wishes to enter Athos. The bureaucratic proce-
dure for this is occasionally subject to change at short notice/ but it goes
without saying that the more notice one can give, especially in summer and
around the time of major feasts, the better one's chances of success. Once
the necessary procedures have been completed, pilgrims travel to
Ouranopolis, which is the usual point of departure for Athos and literally
the end of the road.
Founded in 1922 as a village for refugees from Asia Minor, Ouranopolis
is now a summer resort for tourists. The only building of note is a
Byzantine tower beside the quay. Known as Prosphori (meaning 'the offer-
ing'), the tower was built in the thirteenth century by Emperor Andronikos
II and 'offered' to the monastery of Vatopedi in perpetuity. It is said that
the emperor's wife stayed there. In 1922 the land surrounding the tower
was confiscated from the monastery by the Greek government. The village
that sprang up there was initially known as Pyrgos ('tower'), but when the
population grew to more than soo it was renamed Ouranopolis, after an

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 237

ancient town of that name that stood on the other side of the peninsula
between Ierissos and Nea Rhoda. In 1928 the tower became home to a
remarkable couple, Sydney and Joice Loch. Sydney Loch (1889-1954) was
British, and a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, Joice (1893-1982) was
Australian; both were writers and together they played an important part
in providing employment for the villagers. They founded a rug-weaving
enterprise, using designs from paintings on Mount Athos-the phiale at
Lavra, the tree of life at Esphigmenou, an animal fresco at Vatopedi-and
for many years carpets of high quality were produced. 10 Sydney became a
regular visitor to the Mountain and numbered abbots, monks and hermits
among his close friends. 11 Many Athonites passed through the tower when
making an excursion into the outside world, as did pilgrims travelling in
the opposite direction. The Lochs' hospitality became famous and the
tower remained an important meeting-point for monks and laymen until
Joice's death in 1982. Sadly the tower today is an empty shell and pilgrims
must find other accommodation in the town, but the Lochs are still remem-
bered with great affection and respect by older residents.
From Ouranopolis there is a boat every morning (in high summer there
is sometimes a second departure), which is the only reliable means of access
to the Mountain. (On certain days of the week there is also a boat in the
morning from lerissos for monasteries on the east coast as far as Iviron, but
this service is unreliable because of frequent stormy weather.) Before
embarking, the pilgrim obtains his diamonitirion, the official permit entitling
him to hospitality at the monasteries for (usually) four nights.
The voyage from Ouranopolis is the final stage in the process of depart-
ing from the world and entering Athos. Womenfolk are left behind on the
quayside as the ferryboat heads out to sea. Soon the tower of Prosphori dis-
appears behind a headland, and a glimpse of the wall that marks the bound-
ary indicates that the ship has entered Athonite waters. Regrettably, mobile
telephones do not have to be left behind and Greek businessmen make their
last frantic calls to colleagues and clients in Athens as they struggle with the
prospect of cutting links with their mundane concerns for the next four or
five days. Anyone wearing shorts on the boat will be asked to change into
long trousers out of respect for the monks; anyone spotted using a video
camera will have it confiscated for the duration of his visit. There is an air
of expectation as first-time pilgrims pore over their maps and try to identi-
fy passing settlements, while others toss morsels to Athonite seagulls and
keep a watch for monastic dolphins.
The ships now in service between Ouranopolis and Daphne are very
similar in style to the sort of car ferries that operate on short-distance routes
between Greek islands. The lower deck is likely to be occupied by lorries
serving the timber industry on the Mountain or carrying building materials
for the numerous reconstruction projects now in progress and smaller com-

238 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

mercia} vehicles bringing in supplies to supplement what the monks pro-
duce for themselves. The middle deck is an enclosed saloon which provides
shelter and refreshments. If the weather is fine, most passengers make for
the top deck, which is open to the sky and offers a good view of the passing
coastline.
After about 45 minutes the hillside skete of Thivais comes into view. A
dependency of St Panteleimonos, it had long been a deserted ruin until a
year or two ago when it was repopulated by a pair of Russian monks. Half an
hour later the boat makes its first call, at MegaliJovantsa, a cell of Chilandar,
which has recently been carefully restored and extended. Perhaps a couple of
people disembark here, and the boat is quickly off again and heading for the
attractive port buildings of the inland monastery of Zographou. For the
handful of pilgrims who get off here, the path follows a beautiful valley up
to the Bulgarian monastery, which can be reached in less than an hour's walk.
The boat then calls briefly at the port of Konstamonitou, another inland
monastery, before moving on to Dochiariou, the first of the monasteries that
can actually be seen from the sea.
The monastery clings to a steep hillside and the architecture has to obey
the terrain. Seen from outside, with its high walls dominated by an even
taller defence tower, it looks much like a castle; inside, the courtyard is nar-
row and terraced and the tightly packed buildings present a charmingly
ramshackle appearance. There is a small brotherhood of just 25 monks.
They have done much of the restoration work themselves, with some
rather unhappy results. 12 A few years ago half the monks rebelled against
the abbot's rule and, refusing to work to his demanding regime, left the
monastery; the guest house was forced to close for several months.
From Dochiariou it is a short journey to the next monastery,
Xenophontos. In 1998 it celebrated its millennium; the founder, the blessed
Xenophon, was officially canonized and the celebrations attracted a remark-
able array of distinguished guests including the Ecumenical Patriarch, the
President and Prime Minister of Greece, the Archbishop of Athens, numer-
ous bishops and government ministers, and as many as 2000 pilgrims. There
was even a postage stamp issued to mark the event, and a catalogue raisonni
of the monastery's icons was published in Greek and English. There are 35
monks here.
The last monastery at which the boat calls before reaching Daphne is the
Roussikon, St Panteleimonos. Robert Byron called it a 'barracks' when he
visited the place in the 1920s. 'Block after block of huge tenements that
would disfigure a Clydeside slum, balconies rusting, windows broken,
stretch down to the sea, six or seven stories high ... Over all, more squalid
than romantic, broods an air of disuse. m When he wrote that, there were
still over 6oo monks there; now there are about fifty. The 'tenements'
remain, though they were further damaged by a serious fire in 1968 and

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 239

103 Pilgrims and monks preparing for departure from the port of Daphne. Bags are
inspected by customs officers to ensure no treasures are being smuggled out.

much of the monastery is deserted; but it seems to have found a number of

wealthy benefactors and the parts that are occupied have seen great
improvements in recent years.
At about midday the boat arrives in the little port of Daphne, where it
terminates and disgorges all remaining passengers and vehicles before tak-
ing on a fresh load for the return journey. For an hour or so either side of
noon the jetty and seafront are crowded with arriving and departing pil-
grims, for this is the point at which most visitors to Athos begin and end
their pilgrimage. At other times it reverts to being a sleepy fishing village
with one or two shops, a post office, a police station, and one (recently
refurbished) cafe. But the newly arrived visitor is confronted by a bustling
scene of monks and pilgrims jostling for a place on the (alarmingly dis-
tressed) bus that will shortly begin the arduous climb up to the monastery
of Xeropotamou and on to Karyes. It is not a comfortable ride, and for
many it is an unsettling introduction to life on the Holy Mountain. But
there is some comfort in knowing that within about 45 minutes one will
arrive in the capital.

240 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

 KARYES

As capital cities go, Karyes is somewhat unprepossessing. It is little more

than a village, with a population of about 300 or 400 and, though attractive
from a distance, presents a run-down appearance to the visitor arriving from
the outside world. But it is the administrative centre of the whole
Mountain, the seat of its parliament, the Holy Community, and its execu-
tive body, the Holy Epistasia. The main street, aptly named Holy Ghost
Street, is lined with shops selling basic provisions, ecclesiastical supplies,
clothes, books and souvenirs. Some are manned by monks, others by lay-
men; all operate more as centres of gossip than of commerce. There is also
a police station, a post office, a (recently opened) branch of the Agricultural
Bank of Greece, and a couple of eating-houses, one of which also offers
accommodation. The lunchtime scene described by Sydney Loch in the
1950s is no different today:
The bare dining-room was full of munching labourers, and monks entertaining
relations from the world. Talk drowned the clatter of cultery. The Greek diner
found enough in a little red wine, or a thumbnail glass of raki, to magnify a
saucer of salted herrings and another of salted cucumbers into a repast, capable
of being lengthened indefinitely by optimistic talk. A waiter moved between the

104 Capital of Athas, Karyes presents a ramshackle appearance to the visitor.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 241

 tables calling, 'Command me!' but nothing of account was ordered, except a bot-
tle of beer for me to garnish the beans. 14

In the centre of the town is the church of the Protaton, the oldest
church and the nearest thing to a cathedral on Athos. Inside, the magnifi-
cent frescos, painted by Panselinos around 1300, await much-needed and
long-delayed conservation. The Protaton also contains the famous miracle-
working icon known as the Axion Estin which every year on the day after
Pascha is borne through the streets of Karyes in an imposing procession
down to the nearby monastery of Koutloumousiou. At other times it
remains in the sanctuary of the church to be venerated by the faithful.
Other treasures belonging to the Protaton are stored in the tower that is
adjacent to the building occupied by the Holy Community and some of
them are displayed in a museum there.
Unless he has business with the Holy Community (such as the need to
extend a diamonitirion) or with the representative of one of the monasteries
(whose crumbling residences are scattered around the town), there is little
to detain the pilgrim in Karyes. One's time on the Mountain is more prof-
itably spent visiting the monasteries and sketes and enjoying the natural
beauty of the peninsula.

TRAVELLING ON THE HoLY MouNTAIN

Walking on Athos can be one of the most memorable aspects of one's pil-
grimage. Large groups are not normally encouraged because they can dis-
turb the peace and may be difficult for monasteries to accommodate. Small
groups, however, are well suited to the conditions and walking with a close
friend can be a most rewarding way to enrich an existing relationship.
Walking alone is a deeply edifying experience and for many provides the best
means to internalize their pilgrimage. Loch records the following exchange
with a monk as he was about to leave the monastery of Dochiariou:
'Why do you always go round alone?' asked Veniamin, following to see the last of
me.
'I like it that way, I suppose.'
'The Virgin goes with you', he said. 15

But solitary walkers are warned of the need to exercise vigilance. Most paths
are not much frequented and a broken ankle or worse could expose one to

105 Right: A typical Athonite path in springtime. Such paths are not much frequented by
pilgrims and soon become overgrown.

242 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

106 Pilgrims boarding a monastic vehicle at Karyes. Motorized transport is a recent phenomenon on the
Mountain and its spread is regretted by many.

serious danger. Furthermore there are said to be bands of wandering maraud-

ers, and there are stories of people disappearing in mysterious circumstances.
The paths of Athos provide some of the most delightful walking in
Europe. Many of them were originally intended as mule-tracks and have a
good stone base with steps for steeper gradients. They pass through a glori-
ously varied landscape, ranging from open moorland to dense forest to
mountain scrub, and they afford fantastic views over both land and sea with
regular glimpses of the summit of Athos itself. There was once a complete
network of such paths covering the whole Mountain but sadly this is no
longer the case. In many places paths have been destroyed in order to make
way for roads that follow the same route and others are so badly neglected
that they are no longer passable. But a good many of them remain and by
using them pilgrims help to keep them open.
There is for example a delightful path from Simonopetra to St Paul's via
Grigoriou and Dionysiou. The distance can be covered comfortably in a day,
with pauses at the monasteries on the way. There are no intrusive motor
roads and the path is easy to follow. There is a good deal of going up and
down and, though the distances are not great, the walk can be tiring, espe-

244 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

cially on a hot day. But it is a rewarding experience and can be recommend-
ed as an introduction to Athas.
Even more dramatic is the walk round the southern tip of the peninsu-
la, the area known as the desert of Athas. The landscape is incredibly deso-
late here and between settlements there are few signs of life. Because there
is no alternative to them, the paths are quite well maintained, but they are
often very hard going and the gradients can be exhausting. But this is in
many ways the finest walk on Athas; the views, both down to the sea and up
to the peak, are spectacular; and anyone who travels this way is in no doubt
that he has made a pilgrimage.
Some other parts of the peninsula are less attractive to the walker. The
coastal path from Lavra to Iviron, for example, has now largely been super-
seded by a dirt road; the route from Daphne to Simonopetra has suffered
the same fate. On the west coast at least there is usually the option of tak-
ing the boat. There is a daily service from Daphne to Kafsokalyvia which
calls at all the intervening monasteries and sketes. A similar service on the
east coast starts from Ierissos but does not often go beyond Iviron. When
it runs, it provides a relatively comfortable and inexpensive means of trav-
elling from place to place and is used by monks and pilgrims alike. But
when it was first introduced it aroused the same reaction of horror that
now greets the arrival of motorized transport on land. 'Was the Mountain
suffering from the motor-boat age, and all it represented?' wondered
Sydney Loch in the 1950s:
It was no longer secure in the old sense of the word from the outside world.
Society no longer had sympathy with the monastic way of life. The modern man
demanded speed, noise, change.
The tourist was ousting the pilgrim of the past, who arrived after difficulty,
in the mood to venerate. The sightseer now caught a bus across the mountains,
or came in his own car to Erissos, and ran up and down either coast of the
Mountain in a motor-boat. With him came the post, newspapers, and his own
sceptical mind prepared to smile at what he found there, rather than regard a lit-
tle enviously a single-mindedness beyond his own duplication. 16

HOSPITALITY IN THE MONASTERIES

Be he tourist or pilgrim, today's visitor will sooner or later find himself at

the gates of a monastery. It may be helpful to have some idea of what to
expect within: the pattern does not vary much from one house to the next.
On arrival at a monastery, pilgrims should go straight to the guest house
(archontariki) where they will be warmly welcomed by the guest master
(archontaris) and offered refreshment (usually a tot of raki, a glass of water,

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 245

107 Inside the guest house at Stavronikita. A simple saloon is provided for the use of pilgrims.

a cup of Greek coffee, and a piece of loukoumi). Those who intend to stay
the night will be given a bed, usually in a dormitory with a number of other
guests. The guest master will also announce the times of services and meals;
he may mention the rules of the house and he may offer a tour of the
monastery (always worth taking) . Otherwise visitors are left very much to
their own devices. Some guest houses are now equipped with showers,
though hot water remains a rarity. Visitors should always take care to be
properly clothed when appearing in public. Those who wish to bathe in the
sea should do so out of sight of monasteries: officially both bathing and
fishing are forbidden .
Hospitality at the monasteries is free and to attempt to pay for it may
cause offence. On the other hand it is usually expected that guests will stay
only one night. Those wishing to stay longer should ask if this is possible,
and usually permission is given. Then it may be appropriate to make a small
offering 'for the church' . Even this may be refused but usually donations are
gratefully accepted.
Meals on Athas are generally simple but wholesome. In most monaster-
ies monks and pilgrims eat together in the refectory (trapeza), but usually at
separate tables. The pilgrims' diet is the same as the monks'. Gone are the

246 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

108 More lavish quarters are available at Vatopedi for distinguished visitors. The wood-burning stove
was made in Russia in the nineteenth century.

days when Covel would dine with a retired patriarch at the Lavra on 'fish,
oil, salt, beans, artichokes, beets, cheese, onions, garlic, olives, caviar,
rhubarb ... oranges and wine ... twenty or thirty good glasses at a sitting' .17
Regardless of whether they are Orthodox, pilgrims will be expected to fol-
low the calendar of fasts and feasts. Those who arrive too late for trapez a
will always be given something to eat in the guest house.
The liturgical routine is the foundation of the religious life and visitors
are generally encouraged to participate in it. Orthodox pilgrims are expect-
ed to attend services and are usually invited to make their confession and
to receive communion. Non-Orthodox may not receive communion, and
different monasteries have different customs about the attendance of non-
Orthodox at services (this is true also of formal meals in the refectory) .
Restrictions are often imposed for the purely practical reason that there is
not enough room for all in the body of the church; they are certainly never
meant to cause offence. When non-Orthodox are asked to remain in the
narthex or eat after the others have finished, it is the monks' way of show-
ing how special Orthodoxy is to them. Athas has never been at the fore-
front of ecumenical dialogue. On the other hand many monks enjoy the
opportunity to discuss questions of belief and practice with members of

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 247

other churches. Pilgrims should take advice from the archontaris about
what is possible.
At sunset the gates are shut, no further visitors are admitted, and monks
soon retire to their cells. The hours of darkness are regarded as a time for
silence and prayer, and visitors are asked to behave accordingly. Some monas-
teries turn off the electricity at night in an attempt to discourage idle chat-
ter. Services resume in the early hours and it is assumed that most people will
want to take some rest before then. Most monasteries run according to
'Byzantine time' which starts the clock for each new day at sunset.
Depending on the season, therefore, clocks will be between three and six
hours ahead of local Greek time. Guest masters however realize that this may
be confusing and will generally translate the timetable into 'cosmic time' for
the benefit of visitors. No such concession is likely to be made, however, with
regard to the date. As mentioned above, the whole Mountain still follows the
Julian calendar and is therefore thirteen days behind the outside world.
All the monasteries are veritable treasure-houses filled with priceless
relics of their Byzantine past, many of which were displayed for the first
time in the exhibition at Thessaloniki in 1997,--8. Treasures of particular
religious significance, such as relics of the saints and miracle-working icons,
are often kept in the church and may be displayed at certain times for
veneration by Orthodox pilgrims. Other items are likely to be kept in a
strongroom to which supervised access can sometimes be arranged. Most
monasteries also house important collections of manuscripts. The vast
majority of these are liturgical, many date from the Byzantine period, and
some are beautifully illuminated. A small proportion (five per cent) are clas-
sical texts. 18 Permission to read manuscripts can usually be obtained if the
request is supported by a letter of recommendation. Printed books are often
kept in another library to which access is less restricted. Books in various
languages may also be available in the guest house.
Photographers find Athos irresistibly photogenic. Most monasteries
permit photography within their walls, but not inside the church, especially
during services. Monks do not normally allow themselves to be photo-
graphed; a request to do so may have to go to the abbot. The same procedure
may be necessary for photography of icons, frescos and other treasures. The
best advice is always to ask. Failure to do so may cause serious offence. Video
cameras and camcorders are prohibited everywhere on the Mountain.
The common language in the Greek monasteries is Greek, in St
Panteleimonos Russian, in Chilandar Serbian, in Zographou Bulgarian, and
in the sketes of Prodromos and Lakkou Romanian. Some communities are
more cosmopolitan than others, but many now include monks from over-
seas. As a result English is now quite widely spoken on the Mountain. To
have no Greek remains a disadvantage, but not nearly so much as it was a
few years ago.

248 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

 THE SPIRITUAL HARVEST

The ever-increasing number of visitors makes it not uncommon, particularly

at the major feasts, for the pilgrims to outnumber the monks. One cannot help
wondering if such numbers do not present a distraction and a burden to the
monks. A monk of Iviron responded to the question in this way:
Besides praying for the world, hospitality is the Orthodox monk's traditional
means of fulfilling the second commandment. How tiring this can be for the
monks depends not so much on the numbers of visitors but on their reasons for
coming. But even then, as Fr J once said to me, people have their reasons for vis-
iting Athos, but God has His. An Austrian might come purely to climb Athos,
but God meets him and changes him; the poor man finds that he has encoun-
tered a Holy Mountain more vast than the heavens!

Does this sort of encounter actually happen; or is this wishful thinking

on the part of a monk? What is the pilgrim's experience? Here we may cite
the response of a Greek medical student when questioned by Rene Goth6ni
about his recent visit to Athos:
Walking was incredible-first of all tiring, physically very tiring. We walked
from Megisti Lavra to Karakallou for about twelve hours. The eye could see a
long way-the sky, the virgin nature, the mountain, the valleys. The spirit soars
in these parts. You get a splendid feeling. We had many rests. Drank only water.
We climbed about 1,ooo meters, Athos was right over our heads and then from
1,ooo meters down to the sea and then from the sea up to about 200 meters to
Karakallou. I felt there, at 1,ooo meters on Athos, between the trees-it is impos-
sible for me to translate my thoughts into words, it was the kind of experience
you can live, not explain-! found myself there, I returned to my roots as a
human being. My mind became peaceful. I found myself as a human being. 19

Archimandrite Aimilianos has written perceptively about the role of a

monk's spiritual father, comparing it with the efforts made by a father in the
world for his own children:
The worker, the farmer, the professional man, all strive to make their living, to
gather together their families, to enjoy their material goods and provide for their
children. This is true of every father, but much more so of the spiritual father
and the spiritual harvest. The seed which is sown and the garnered treasures are
his children. And the children are the life of the father. 20

In a vivid demonstration of the central role played by hospitality in the life

of the monastery Fr Aimilianos then extends this image of fatherhood
beyond the monk to the pilgrim:

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 249

 And there is another harvest: not this time in the cell, but in the guesthouse.
Each day men gather there--our brothers. They come from all parts. The hos-
pitable monks offer themselves in sacrifice. Joy, faith, warmth and jubilation
erupt in the hearts of the guests. Their life changes. They find meaning. They
weep for joy, each finding what was necessary for him. They become one with
the monks. A living change wrought by the right hand of the Lord. Here, then,
is the other harvest in the hearts and the homes of those who have left the
Monastery to return as soon as possible. 21

A pilgrim's enjoyment of monastic hospitality is not only a privilege; it car-

ries responsibilities too. The next few pages recount a few of my own expe-
riences, beginning with some of the major feasts I have attended in the
course of several pilgrimages.

PASCHA AT XEROPOTAMOU

In 1994 I was invited to celebrate Pascha at the monastery of Xeropotamou.

In February of that year Archimandrite Joseph, the abbot of that monastery,
had been deposed, together with the representatives of Dionysiou,
Philotheou and Simonopetra, by a delegation of bishops sent by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate/2 and when I arrived on the Mountain, on Great
Thursday of Holy Week, the depositions were still in place. This was my
fourth visit to Athos and I travelled alone.
I went first to Simonopetra, striding south from Daphne in the pleasant
April sunshine. Arriving at the monastery around 2.30 pm, I was warmly
received in the traditional fashion and given a room to myself, a rare privi-
lege in this already crowded monastery. The fathers were very frank in dis-
cussing with me the recent tension with Constantinople and explaining the
background to it. The Friends of Mount Athos, of which I was Honorary
Secretary, had published protests in the British press, the only group in the
outside world to have responded to the monks' appeal for help, and for this
they were truly grateful.
That night the depositions were retracted by fax from Constantinople.
Whether our fumbling interventions had assisted the process we shall never
know; but it was an exciting moment to be there. The monks insisted, how-
ever, that, even though the immediate crisis was over, the underlying prob-
lem had not gone away and they would continue to need our support. I left
the monastery with many expressions of good will but with little material
sustenance. My breakfast was a piece of loukoumi and a glass of water. But
it was Great Friday and I was expected at Xeropotamou.
Pinning my hopes on the restaurant in Daphne, I retraced my steps
along the dusty road that I had taken the day before and reached the port

2 50 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

109 Great Friday at Simonopetra. A coffee break during the preparation of fish to be eaten at the
com in g feast.

around IO am. To my dismay the restaurant was closed, not because it was
Great Friday but for refurbishment. Equally dismayed was a Lebanese doc-
tor whom I had met at Simonopetra. He was travelling with two Serbs, and
all three were going to Chilandar for Pascha. One of the Serbs, a journalist
whom I had met the night before, spoke movingly to me about his country's
guilt in the recent war in Bosnia.
Taking my leave, I followed the steep path up to Xeropotamou and
reached the monastery at about I I .30. Fr B, an English monk whom I had
met in Oxford some months before, emerged from the katholikon to wel-
come me. With his long, divided, white beard he seemed older than I
remembered him. He quickly whisked me into church for the hours (third,
sixth, and ninth) and went off to telephone the good news of the retracted
depositions to the British press and the BBC. He later told me with some
satisfaction that a journalist from the Independent newspaper would visit the
Mountain the following week .
After the hours I went to the guest house where I met another
Englishman, formerly Nicholas, now Evangelos, >vho had been baptized at
the monastery of Philotheou and was a spiritual child of Archimandrite

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 251

Ephraim, formerly abbot of that monastery. We became good friends and I
was given a room to myself (containing five beds) next to his-sparsely fur-
nished but pleasant enough and with electricity. After a short rest I went
down to the katholikon for vespers at 5 pm. Xeropotamou is one of the
monasteries that does not normally admit the non-Orthodox to the body of
the church during services, and I was then not yet Orthodox. But since I had
been invited to be there, I had earlier taken the liberty of making my accept-
ance dependent on my being allowed in. Fr B now gave me a bilingual
service book which made it easier to follow what was going on. Great Friday
vespers is a beautiful service lasting two hours during which the figure of
Christ is taken down from the cross and placed on the Epitaphion (sepul-
chre). The tomb had already been decorated with flowers and bay and was
now placed in the middle of the church. After compline the pilgrims were
given a light meal of fruit, halva, olives, and water in the refectory while the
monks fasted. I retired to my room at about 7.30 pm.
The next morning, Great Saturday, I was up in time for matins which
began at 2.30 am. Everyone in church was given a candle to hold. At about
5.00 we processed once round the outside of the church, then came back in,
stooping to pass under the Epitaphion as we did so. The service was over by
about 6.oo and everyone retired to sleep for a few hours. By mid-morning I
had wandered outside the monastery to take some photographs, but I was
brought back by the sound of the talanto. Vespers began at 10.30 and was fol-
lowed by the Liturgy of St Basil. Immediately after this, at 2 pm, there was
trapeza-a fasting meal consisting of bean soup, a whole cucumber, a raw
onion, bread, olives, halva, and water. The food was welcome, and for once
there was time enough to eat it.
The weather was cool and cloudy, in tune with the Great Friday lamen-
tations ('Today the sky is black, today is a black day'). I was pleased there-
fore to be invited to help Fr B with his work in the kitchen, chopping onion
leaves and breaking eggs. Fr B was the monastery's chief cook and he had
what seemed to me a very modern kitchen by Athonite standards-two
large gas rings, several electric stoves, and a vast dishwasher. The commu-
nity numbered 25 monks and one novice and there were as many as forty
pilgrims to be fed too. Later, when he had an hour to spare, we strolled out-
side together and he told me something about his past life. He had been a
pupil of Dimitri Obolensky at Oxford and then became a schoolmaster,
first in England and later in Athens. He had first come to Athos as a pil-
grim in 1961. Now he had been at Xeropotamou for seven years, having
been baptized at Simonopetra by Fr Aimilianos. Archimandrite Joseph, he
told me, had been abbot of Xeropotamou for ten years and was the
youngest abbot ever when he was first elected. His predecessor had been
killed in a road accident (a surprising fate for an Athonite) and Joseph was
the only priest there at the time. But he was a good choice and had made a

252 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

110 'Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!' Pilgrims and monks listen to the Resurrection
story outside the katholikon at Vatopedi.

very successful abbot. He was busy hearing confessions that day but would
like to see me the next day after the services.
The next day was Pascha, culmination of the great fast and of all the
long services of the preceding days. I was woken at I .oo am and remained
in the narthex of the katholikon until the end of the hours. At I .30 all lights
were extinguished, and the sudden darkness produced a silence that was
pregnant with anticipation. Then at last Christ rose, and light was dispensed
to all from the royal doors. Shielding our candles from the wind, we all
processed outside to the phiale (the monastery's sacred fountain where every
month water is blessed for use in the church). There the Resurrection story
(Mark I 6: I -8) was read and the great Easter hymn ('Christ is risen from the
dead; trampling down death by death; and upon those in the tombs bestow-
ing life') was sung endlessly. Returning to the church, we (the pilgrims)
greeted each of the fathers individually with the words 'Christos anesti'
('Christ is risen'), starting with the abbot and moving all the way round the
church, venerating the icons, the cross, and the gospel in passing. The great
candelabra were now set swinging, creating a ballet of golden light, which
was all very glorious and uplifting. The Easter hymn was sung in English by
Fr B, in French by another father, and in Romanian by a priest from a near-
by cell traditionally reserved for Romanians. Then followed the Liturgy of
St John Chrysostom at which most of those present received holy com-
munion. (At the end I took antidoron, which is blessed bread, sometimes
available to the non-Orthodox.)

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 253

 By 6.oo the Liturgy was over and monks and pilgrims processed with-
out a pause into the refectory, the abbot in full regalia leading the proces-
sion. The icon of the Resurrection was carried aloft, hymns continued to be
sung, censers to be swung, candelabra to be rotated, all combining to
demonstrate that the festal meal about to be eaten in the refectory was in
every sense a continuation of the liturgical meal that had just been celebrat-
ed in the katholikon. Fr B had taken immense trouble with the food. There
was the traditional egg and lemon soup, steaming hot and good; a large piece
of meaty fish, cold and (to my taste) less good; salad, cheese, a painted egg;
and plenty of strong white wine. The meal was not hurried, but by 6.30 it
was over and I was pleased to retire to my bed where I slept until 9.00. For
the rest of the day there was peace and quiet in the monastery as most peo-
ple relaxed and enjoyed the holiday.
At 4.30 pm there was a short service of vespers in the katholikon with
readings in English, Romanian, and Greek, another ballet of candles, and
another round of greeting all the fathers. Then there was a gathering in the
synodikon (the monks' reception room, or senior common room as I referred
to it in my diary) at which the abbot held court, talking about the recent
retractions (which had particularly affected him) and answering questions
from monks and pilgrims. Everyone there was given a cake, a glass of
liqueur and an Easter egg. This was followed by dinner: a warm risotto with
mushrooms and peas, artichoke hearts in an egg sauce, yogurt, wine, and
another Easter egg (I now had three, all of which I kept as sustenance for
my walking tour that was to come). After dinner I was summoned by the
abbot and we discussed some of the problems that were of concern to the
monks at the time and our hope that he would some day come to England.
The next morning, Bright Monday, I left Xeropotamou after trapeza on
a journey that took me round the northern part of the peninsula, staying
one night at Dochiariou and two at Chilandar, before arriving at Vatopedi
on the Thursday. My feelings were similar to those of Donald Nicol, who
wrote of his experience of Pascha at Chilandar in 1949, 'Somehow I feel that
my Easter this year has been a real one and not just a matter of a special day
in my diary. ' 23

CHRISTMAS AT VATOPEDI

I returned to the Mountain on Thursday 4 January 1996 (NS), this time

travelling with a friend who was an Anglican ordinand. On Athos of course
it was only 22 December 1995. We had already celebrated a snowy new year
in Oxfordshire; but we were here for the festival of the Nativity of Christ.
Even though it was winter, there was standing room only on the bus

254 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

from Daphne to Karyes, but it was not quite as crowded as it is in the sum-
mertime. In Karyes we were met by Fr A, a hermit monk, who had invited
us to visit his hermitage at Kapsala, high up in the hills above Karyes. 24
There we were warmly received and given a feast of a meal, far more than
we could possibly eat: spinach pie, ladies' fingers, yogurt, oranges, lemon-
ade and coffee. In exchange we brought him a Christmas cake which my
wife had made for him. His house, more like an Alpine chalet than an
Athonite cell, is on two floors. Downstairs is a large living room with a
wood-burning stove, a reception area, a bed, and enormous numbers of
icons, photographs and treasures of all sorts. Fr A is very house-proud and
everything is beautifully arranged. He played cassettes of a book by Fr
Sophrony and Russian Orthodox chant. When we had eaten, I went outside
to take photographs. The view from his garden was magnificent, taking in
the Serai just below in Karyes and the whole of the east coast as far as the
eye could see. Only the peak of Athos itself was, as usual, hidden by cloud.
The garden was decorated in similar manner to the house, with numerous
icons, painted ornaments and (in winter) plastic flowers. Fr A then showed
us upstairs, where the space is divided into six very small rooms, including
a library and a chapel. There were also two guest rooms but he was having
trouble with the stove, he said, and the house was damp, so it would be
more convenient if we were to continue our journey to Vatopedi, where he
would join us in two days' time for the feast. We departed, leaving this
eccentric but cultivated hermit to his favourite occupations of talking to
the birds and feeding his pet lizards, and reached the monastery before the
gates shut at sunset.
The next day, 23 December, was 'rather a churchy day', according to my
diary. We attended the hours from 4.00 to 6.30. There was then a break for
sleep until9.oo, and we were back in church until 1.30 pm when there was
trapeza: soup with pasta, bread, olives, an apple and water. In wintertime the
shortness of the days means that the liturgical routine is concentrated into
a very few hours. At 3.30 we were back in the katholikon for vespers, fol-
lowed again by trapeza (this time halva, bread, olives, an orange and water)
and then compline. Since evenings are longer, more time is available after
dinner for discussion with the fathers. Wood-burning stoves are lit in every
room and a very warm and cosy atmosphere is created.
Vatopedi maintains a policy of openness which some have mistaken for
worldliness. No monastery is more welcoming to its visitors, regardless of
whether they are Orthodox; no brotherhood is more devoted to the cenobitic
way of life or more serious in the way that they practise it. Thanks to the
presence of inspiring spiritual fathers, it has attracted a steady flow of
recruits from all over the world. No restrictions are put in the way of non-
Orthodox pilgrims in either church or refectory. They are positively encour-
aged to do everything that the Orthodox do except receive holy communion.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 255

 The following day was Christmas Eve, a Saturday. We rose at 5.30 and
attended church until8.3o when there was trapeza-rice, olives, salad, pota-
toes, bread, an orange and (rather surprisingly) wine. At 1.00 we returned
to the katholikon for Great Vespers, a beautifully sung service during which
the great candelabra were.swung for the first time. This was followed at 2.30
by a fasting meal of bean soup, olives, bread, a raw onion, an orange, and
water. The monks processed in and out of the refectory singing hymns. We
greeted Fr A who had just arrived for the coming feast. At 4 pm we retired
to our rooms to rest and a period of silence began.
At 8 pm both monks and pilgrims gathered in the synodikon to listen to
a homily by Elder Joseph, the disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast and
principal spiritual father of the monastery. Then at 9 pm the vigil began.
The church was alternately made light and dark with use of all the candles
and candelabra at different times. The effect was highly theatrical and quite
beautiful. At one point the brows of all were anointed ('for healing of body
and soul') by a priest standing in the middle of the nave. The icons were
venerated several times. And then a very exciting event took place: two
novices were brought forward to be tonsured as monks. As the abbot cut a
lock of hair from the head of each of them, so the Elder Joseph pronounced
their new monastic names for the first time-Fr J, originally from France,
and Fr A, from Cyprus. To my even greater surprise I was instructed to
photograph this rite of passage. As I stepped forward to do so, a shade whis-
pered in audible tones, 'Your turn next!' In conclusion, the Liturgy of St
Basil was celebrated by Abbot Ephraim, finishing at 6.30. The feast that fol-
lowed included a generous portion of fish (rophos), with salad, cheese, and
bread, full decanters of wine, and a portion of kataiphi to end with. It was
now Christmas morning and we exchanged greetings with each other before
retiring to our rooms where we slept contentedly until I I .30.
After the rigours of the vigil Christmas Day itself was a joyful and
relaxed holiday. No work was done by most monks and a good part of the
day was devoted to rest and leisure activities. Vespers was celebrated at 3
pm, and after that the abbot held a reception for the brotherhood and their
guests. Drinks and sweets were served, Christmas greetings were
exchanged, and the atmosphere was suitably festive. Roaring fires were lit in
every room, ensuring that no one was cold, and as the darkness settled early,
monks entertained pilgrims with stories of miraculous happenings and holy
men of long ago.
After Christmas I stayed on at the monastery for a further week, reading
the proofs of the Elder Joseph's biography of Elder Joseph the Hesychast as
my diakonima (monastic obedience). This gave me an opportunity to get to
know more of the fathers, and to see for myself how well the restoration of
the monastery was progressing. Decaying buildings have been expertly and
lovingly restored; gardens and vineyards have been brought back into full

256 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

production; a completely new guest house has been constructed in a disused
wing (though the constant flow of pilgrims means that the old one is still
needed); icons and other treasures have been conserved and exhibited in a
beautifully designed museum; manuscripts have been catalogued; an ambi-
tious programme of publications is now bearing fruit. I also spent some time
with Fr A, the deputy abbot, planning the forthcoming visit of Abbot
Ephraim to England. The days passed all too quickly and very soon my fifth
visit to the Mountain was ended.

PENTECOST IN THE DESERT

In June 1998 I returned to Athos, travelling with a friend who is a rug deal-
er. It was my seventh visit and the second that we had made together. We
went first to Karyes to inspect the progress of work on the Protaton Tower.
We were met by the architects, Petros Koufopoulos and Stavros
Mamaloukos, and the architectural historian Ploutos Theocharides, who
showed us over the building. Restoration of the fabric was almost complete
and they were well advanced with plans for the interior refurbishment. Our
interest focused on this part of the project because it was to be funded by
the Friends of Mount Athos with the proceeds of the Onassis Prize won in
1997 by the President of the society, Sir Steven Runciman. 25 Having seen
the tower, we were received formally by the Protos, who presented with us
with silver plaques to commemorate our visit and kindly arranged transport
for us to Simonopetra in his private vehicle (registration number AO 1). At
Simonopetra, where we stayed a night, we were shown the monastery's new
library, which had been designed by the same partnership that was now at
work on the Protaton Tower. The work had been done beautifully using tra-
ditional materials and maintaining the highest standards of craftsmanship.
It augured very well indeed for our project in Karyes and we were greatly
encouraged. Next morning we took the coastal path via Grigoriou and
Dionysiou to St Paul's. From there it was our intention to proceed into the
desert and walk round the southern tip of the peninsula to the Lavra.
Setting out from St Paul's on the Saturday morning, we walked along
the coast as far as New Skete where we sought out Fr N, the celebrated
iconographer. He invited us to visit his cell and, having been assured that
there would indeed be a boat to Kafsokalyvia in the afternoon, we were
delighted to accept his hospitality. His balcony affords a delightful view of
the surrounding cells of the skete (where about forty-five monks live today)
and the sea below. Even at New Skete there was construction work in
progress, the workers being Pontic Greeks from Russia; there were some
terrible examples of new building in the worst modern concrete style.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 257

Happily Fr N's cell is older and built on traditional lines with a beautiful
garden. Inside, he showed us his studio, where he was working on several
icons, and the comfortable accommodation that he offers to his guests
(mostly students of iconography). It was tempting to stay but we were anx-
ious to reach Kafsokalyvia that night because there would be a vigil for
Pentecost, together with a panegyri, since Pentecost is the feast to which that
skete is dedicated. Having enjoyed a substantial meal of spaghetti and red
wine, we ran down to the port in time to catch the boat at 1 pm.
It was a scenic voyage. The boat called first at St Anne's skete, a depend-
ency of the Lavra and the biggest and oldest skete on the Mountain. There
is currently a brotherhood of 105 monks, scattered among the fifty-odd cells.
The next stop was Karoulia, where a collection of hermitages cling precari-
ously to the sheer face of the cliffs, overhanging the sea itself 100 metres or
more below. Some of the cells are still inhabited but only two or three pas-
sengers disembarked here. Everyone else stayed on board, eager to reach the
boat's final destination, the skete of the Holy Trinity at Kafsokalyvia.
Arriving at about 2 pm, we began the stiff climb up to the church,
together with about two dozen other pilgrims. There were rumours that the
skete would not be able to provide accommodation for all the pilgrims who
were expected, so there was some incentive not to be last. But in the event,
as usual on Athos, there were beds and food for all and we need not have
worried. On arrival we were received with traditional hospitality and shown
to a room that contained eight beds. After a short rest we explored the skete,
which is home to thirty-five monks, and conversed with some of the fathers
and other pilgrims. A sense of expectation hung in the air as we all waited
for things to happen.
At 8.30 pm there was a service of short vespers in the kyriakon, a large
and beautiful building which occupies the only piece of level ground in the
whole skete. This was followed by a great feast with vast plates of fish,
cheese and salad, bowls of cherries, plenty of wine, and even macaroons.
There was no nonsense about segregating the Orthodox from the non-
Orthodox or the fathers from the pilgrims. There were roughly equal
numbers of each and everyone sat at the same tables and tucked in to the
same food with enthusiasm and a real sense of fellowship. There was a truly
festive atmosphere that was much less formal than one would find in any of
the ruling monasteries today, more reminiscent in fact of the stories told by
Sydney Loch and others who had visited the Mountain in the first half of
the twentieth century.
After the meal, monks and pilgrims returned to church for the vigil
which would continue through the night. But since we planned an early
start the next morning, we (rather reluctantly) retired to our beds in the
early hours. When we rose at 6.oo, the vigil was still in progress, so we stole
quietly away in the direction of Agios Neilos, and from there across the

258 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

desert to the Romanian skete of Prodromos which we reached by about
10.00. Refreshed by a suitably festive meal generously provided by the kind
fathers of this cenobitic skete, we continued on our way to the Lavra where
we established ourselves in the guest house for the night.
Lavra seemed to have changed very little since my last visit ten years
before, except that the buildings were in a much worse state of collapse and
the monks were ten years older. Many of the fathers still appeared to be
living according to the idiorrhythmic system, despite the fact that it was
formally abandoned in 1980. They did not come to services in the church or
meals in the refectory, nor did they attempt to fraternize much with pil-
grims, though those on duty in the guest house were friendly enough.
There had been some reconstruction work carried out on the buildings,
though it did not look particularly well done to me; and in places there was
a good deal of rusting old scaffolding that looked as if it had become per-
manent. Staying here was not an uplifting experience. But one other
Pentecost-related incident must be recounted.
The service of vespers at Pentecost includes a sequence of so-called
kneeling prayers that require prostrations. We attended this service at the
Lavra and took our places in the body of the katholikon. My prostrations
obviously did not pass muster and drew the inevitable challenge from a
fierce-looking monk:
'Are you Orthodox?'
'No.'
'Would you please take a seat in the narthex.'

I obeyed, with some reluctance. My bitterness towards the brotherhood was

not sweetened by the fact that my rug-dealing companion, no more
Orthodox than I, had prostrated himself with sufficient conviction to be
permitted to remain in the church. I was of course happy for him; but such
incidents, all too common in certain monasteries, do nothing to promote the
virtues of Orthodoxy. The next morning we left for the Romanian skete of
Lakkou, where happily such discriminatory thoughts would never cross the
minds of the fathers-fathers who have themselves suffered more than their
fair share of persecution at the hands of the Greek civil authorities.

VISITING AN ELDER

In August 2000 I made my tenth visit to the Mountain, this time at the behest
of the abbot of Vatopedi who summoned me to act as godfather to a young
American catechumen (candidate for baptism). I felt greatly honoured to be
asked to play this responsible role and I had no hesitation in accepting.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 259

 A few days before the baptism, my prospective godson and I decided to
visit Elder Dionysios, the renowned Romanian elder who lived at Kolitsou,
about an hour's walk from Vatopedi in the direction of Pantokrator. Then
aged ninety-two, he had been on the Mountain for seventy-four years, but
he continued to receive visitors for a few hours each morning. He was high-
ly regarded by the fathers of Vatopedi and we were encouraged to seek the
benefit of his wisdom.
I have always felt a sense of anxiety and awe when approaching any of
the great holy men of Athos who have become legendary figures in their
time. Nor am I alone in this. Fr Nikolaos writes movingly of his 'encounter
with a living saint' when he visited the famous Greek Elder Pai:ssios
(1924-1994) for the first time in 1971:
His humble hut was situated at the lowest point of a ravine, but maybe it was
the highest place on earth! While we descended the pathway on foot, we ascend-
ed it with our soul. We did not talk to each other. It seemed we were anticipat-
ing something sacred. Here, absolute quietude prevailed, even if we could hear
the birds, cicadas or the rustle of the leaves. This quietude was not only pecu-
liar or unusual, but it radiated a deep sense of mystery. It did not invite you to
enjoy it, but rather it created a deep feeling of contrition. It was not relaxing,
but stimulating. You were silent and everything in you functioned as intensely
as ever. You worried, but you felt unusually serene. You anticipated something
great. 26

We felt something of this as we approached the remote settlement of

Kolitsou. Here, as at Lakkou, the true ascetic life continues, unaffected by
what is happening in the monasteries. We felt privileged to find it.
We were received by a youngish monk who brought us the traditional
tray of hospitality. When we explained that we had come to see the elder we
were asked to wait for a few minutes. We sat on a bench in the reception
room where we were soon joined by a frail and diminutive figure who greet-
ed us warmly. On learning that the young American sitting next to him was
about to be baptized, the elder beamed and began to talk freely about the life
that lay ahead of him in the world and the temptations that it would bring.
'And what would be your advice to a young man who is about to be baptized?'
asked my godson.
'You must either marry or become a monk', was the elder's immediate and
slightly puzzling response. To emphasize that no other option was possible, he
repeated it. 'You must either marry or become a monk.'

The explanation of this apparently stark choice is provided for us by Fr

Alexander Golitzin who quotes the advice given to him by an Athonite abbot:
'We Christians are not meant to live alone. We are called to be part of a family.
We thus have a choice: we can either make a new family [i.e., marry], or join an

260 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

 existing one [become monks].' To choose the first, although certainly worthy and
blessed by Church and Tradition, is still to remain within the circles of blood and
kinship, nor will it elicit cries of outrage from near and dear (unless, of course,
it is marriage to the 'wrong' person ... ). To choose the second, on the other
hand , is really and truly a break with the 'world', a kind of death, and it is accom-
panied by the same sort of mourning as would be expected at a funeral. One's
kin will respond to it as to a desertion, an abandonment, a kind of familial apos-
tasy. The Athonite, in particular the Greek Athonite, genuinely does depart here
from the secular norm. He has, in embracing the family of monks, left the
'world' and set out on the road to a different society. 27

STAYING ON

The Mountain exercises strong powers over those who visit it. We have
already remarked on the fact that even those whose journey was originally
motivated by mere curiosity return to the world conscious of having made
a pilgrimage. Some are so moved by their experience that they do not return
at all, or only after an extended stay. Just as one or two undergraduates each
year are likely eventually to become senior members of the institution at

III 'Master, give the blessing.' A baptismal feast at Vatopedi.

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 261

which they studied, so one or two pilgrims each year will turn into novices.
Nor is it uncommon for non-Orthodox pilgrims to choose to be received
into Orthodoxy on the Mountain. The monks do not recognize the validity
of sacraments conferred by other Christian churches. This means that a
non-Orthodox who wishes to become Orthodox on Athos has no choice but
to be baptized or, in the case of those who have been baptized already,
rebaptized. As was noted in the last chapter, this issue has long been debat-
ed and the idea of rebaptism is anathema to those who feel committed to
'one baptism for the remission of sins'. But for those who have fallen under
the spell of the Holy Mountain there is no alternative.
Like a novice, a candidate for baptism will first be assigned to a senior
monk for a course of instruction lasting several weeks. This normally
involves a study of the gospels and also a study of Orthodox doctrine, on
which he is examined. In other respects he lives like a monk, attends serv-
ices in the katholikon, eats in the refectory, but has little contact with
pilgrims or anyone else in the monastery, and prepares himself for the
coming event. As the time approaches, the abbot will ask the monk in
charge of the candidate if he is ready; he may also require the candidate to
make a confession of his past life; and he will need to assure himself that
the candidate is indeed ready. Meanwhile the candidate, like a novice, is
likely to experience a whole range of emotions from serious doubt to wild
euphoria as this course proceeds. By the end of it he will probably yearn so
much for baptism that he can think of nothing else. The day will be chosen
by the abbot, as will the form of the service and the place where it is to be
performed. In summer it is sometimes done quietly in the sea; otherwise,
like a tonsure, it takes place in the katholikon in the middle of the Divine
Liturgy on Sunday, thus ensuring maximum exposure before the whole
body of monks and pilgrims.
On the appointed day the candidate must present himself early in the
narthex where the priests of the monastery will read exorcisms over him in
order to achieve a spiritual catharsis of the soul and body. Later, when the
Liturgy has reached a suitable point (usually after the reading of the epis-
tle), the abbot will lead the monks and pilgrims to the narthex where the
candidate is waiting with his sponsor or godfather. Taking the candidate
out of the church, the abbot then questions him. He asks him to renounce
the devil, to breathe and spit on him, and to turn to Christ. The candidate
is then asked to recite the creed three times and, as he re-enters the church,
to prostrate himself and invoke the Holy Trinity. The candidate, like a
novice, then retires to a side chapel where he removes his clothes. Naked
except for a pair of shorts, he returns and is anointed with oil, tonsured,
and then totally immersed three times in the font 'in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit'. He is then dried and receives chris-
mation when the abbot anoints certain parts of his body (forehead, eyes,

262 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

I I2 The mystery of Athos: a wayside cross near Simonopetra.

nose, lips, ears, chest, hands, and feet) with myrrh. Each time the abbot
says 'the seal of the gift of the holy Spirit', summoning the Spirit to endue
the newly baptized with divine grace. The candidate then retires once more
to the side chapel to change into a brand new set of clothes, symbolizing
his rebirth as a new man. Returning to the narthex, he is clothed in a white
baptismal robe and processes with the abbot back into the body of the
church where he is given a seat of honour next to his godfather. The
Liturgy then resumes. The neophyte and his godfather are called to the
royal doors twice, for special prayers and for the sponsor to place a bap-
tismal cross round his godson's neck; and they receive communion ahead
of everybody else. At the end of the service they process out of the church
with the abbot, whereupon they receive congratulations and are embraced
by the whole company of monks and pilgrims. After weeks of preparation
the endurance test is finally over and everyone can relax . The newly bap-
tized is warmly welcomed as an honorary member of the monastic broth-
erhood; and to symbolize this reception he and his godfather are honoured
with seats at the abbot's table in the refectory where the meal that follows
is truly a joyful feast .
After baptism the neophyte is required to stay on at the monastery, usu-
ally for another week, to receive communion daily and to begin to practise
his Orthodoxy with the full support of a loving brotherhood . The differ-

ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM 263

ence between the neophyte and the novice is that the latter stays on for ever,
while the former returns to the world. The world can seem a harsh, evil and
frightening environment after a long period of time spent on the Holy
Mountain. The neophyte is warned that he can expect to be assailed by
temptations, demons will lie in wait for him at every turn. At the same time
he has the comfort of knowing that he is for the rest of his life an honorary
member of the most exclusive Orthodox brotherhood in the world.

264 ATHOS TODAY: FOR THE PILGRIM

 EPILOGUE

T he exclusiveness of Athos is essential to its survival. If it were to be

compromised, there is no doubt that within a very short space of time
the sole surviving holy mountain would suffer the same fate as the others,
like Meteora and countless other monasteries in Greece and the Middle
East that are now either museums of Byzantine art or deserted ruins. Thirty
years ago it seemed that this was the inevitable fate of Mount Athos. But
the Mother of God was not willing to surrender her garden. Its soil has
been refertilized and has given birth to a new spring. The garden is bloom-
ing again as freshly as ever, welcoming newcomers to its groves, and export-
ing its fruits to the world.
Despite appearances to the contrary, the Mountain is not a place of total
isolation and introspection. It is a world apart; but it does not shun the rest
of the world; nor can it afford to do so. It relies on the world for supplying
it with new blood and for supporting its economy. But the relationship with
the world is a true symbiosis. Just as the Mountain needs the world, so the
world needs the Mountain. The monks see their principal duty as being to
pray for the world, a world of which they no longer form a part, a world to
which they have died, but a world which they continue to cherish almost as
if it were their creation. The world needs those prayers as never before.
What could be more reassuring for us as we lie in our beds at night than to
know that there are 16oo or so monks on Mount Athos praying now, for us?
The monks' care for the world takes concrete as well as spiritual form.
We cannot close this book without mention of the Holy Convent of the
Annunciation at Ormylia, a daughter house of the monastery of Simono-
petra, where a thriving community of some 125 nuns live an ascetic life that
is consciously modelled on that of their parent monastery. Under the inspir-
ing leadership of the Abbess Nikodeme the sisters provide countless bene-
fits to their neighbours and visitors. Their organic farming methods are an
example to local agriculturalists; their community centre cares for both the
physical and the spiritual needs of the local population and specializes in the
early diagnosis of cancer in women; they also have a centre for the treatment
of distressed icons and other works of art. They too provide hospitality for
numerous pilgrims, and are a living witness that Athos cares for women as
well as men.
The monks also demonstrate their mission to the world in practical ways.
In 1992 four Athonites went to Albania to help to reinvigorate the Church
there after many years of communist oppression and persecution. The fol-
lowing year the abbot of Xeropotamou twice visited Georgia to co-ordinate
efforts being made by the Church to alleviate suffering in that country. In
1996 the Holy Community expressed its support for refugees from Bosnia
by sending a sum of money to the patriarchate of Serbia. The monastery of
Koutloumousiou is closely involved with a number of initiatives to improve
the lot of young people in Greece. Athonite monks have recently been sec-
onded to Calabria in order to repopulate an eleventh-century Byzantine
monastery there. Relics of the saints and miracle-working icons are regu-
larly sent out into the world for the faithful to venerate. In 1999 the Axion
Estin icon of the Mother of God was taken from Karyes to Athens where it
succeeded in raising 470 million drachmas for the victims of the recent
earthquake disaster. These are just a few examples of the Athonite mission
to the world during the 1990s.
But what does the future hold for Athos? How will the monks cope with
the advent of the third millennium? How will they respond to the demands
brought to bear by membership of the European Union, the relentless
growth of tourism, the invasive tendencies of new technology? Will they
withdraw into their shell and revert to being a collection of reactionary
divines in the decline of life? Or will they be forced to yield to the raucous
and ill-informed clamour of politicians who insist that they must 'mend
their ways', abandon their Byzantine bureaucracy, Hellenize their remain-
ing non-Greek monasteries, sell off their treasures, even admit women?
The monks know that in order to survive they must tread cautiously; they
know that they must look for a middle way, and that to find it they need to
summon up all their skills of tact and diplomacy. They may give the impres-
sion of inhabiting an otherworldly paradise where they are so close to God
that they no longer have a care in the world; and at one level that image is
not so far from the truth. But that is only part of the picture. There are some
extremely astute men among them who are quite well aware of what is going
on in the outside world and have a fairly shrewd idea of how to deal with it.
They know that, in order to survive, they must first of all protect their
seclusion, and that without it any hope of preserving the true monastic way
of life is lost. The vast majority of monks are also determined to maintain
the pan-Orthodox traditions of the Mountain. Athos has survived threats to
its autonomy in the past, and it owes its survival on numerous occasions to
the unstinting support of the other Orthodox nations, notably Serbia, Roma-
nia and Russia. To turn its back on these former benefactors at a time when
they most need the support and example of this supranational monastic
model would be an act of unforgivable betrayal. Athos, like the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, draws strength from its very supranational status; and nothing
should stand in the way of its continuation.
There are signs that relations with the Patriarchate in Constantinople

266 EPILOGUE
and with the government in Athens have at last begun to improve and that
the tensions of recent years are becoming more relaxed. The Patriarchate
itself is in a highly precarious position and knows that it must look for friends
beyond Athens. More than once the Greek government has announced an
undertaking to guarantee the ancient rights and privileges of the monks and
the visits made by European commissioners to the Mountain and the
remarks they have made at the time have gone some way towards allaying
the monks' fears for their future security. It is important for all concerned
that human rights should be respected and that a more constructive dialogue
should take the place of the scenes of ugly confrontation that have charac-
terized some recent episodes.
The fact is that once again Athos is operating in just the same way that
it has done for centuries. It is providing a viable alternative to the rapidly
spreading materialism and secularism of modern society, an alternative that
is clearly much needed and much appreciated by large numbers of men, be
they monks or pilgrims; and let it not be forgotten that daughter houses such
as Ormylia provide the same alternative for women. Athos is also once again
performing its traditional role as the spiritual heart of Orthodoxy. Thanks
to the presence of spiritual fathers like Fr Vasileios, Fr Aimilianos, Elder
Joseph and Abbot George, Athos has rediscovered its voice; and with God's
help that voice will continue to be heard for many centuries to come.

EPILOGUE 267
 NOTES

INTRODUCTION de Selincourt (Harmondsworth,

I954).
I R. Byron, The Station. Athos: Trea- 4 Herodotus 7.22.
sures and Men (I93I, repr. London, 5 M.G.A.P. de Choiseul-Gouffier,
I984), p.98. Voyage pittoresque en Grice, 2 vols
2 See P. Meyer, Die Haupturkunden for (Paris, 1782-I8o9), vol.z, pp.I46--5o.
die Geschichte der Athoskloster (Leipzig, 6 W.M. Leake, Travels in Northern
I894), pp.I13, I2I. Greece, 4 vols (London, 1835), vol.3,
3 M. Choukas, Black Angels of Athos p.I45·
(London, I935), p.296. 7 T. Spratt, 'Remarks on the Isthmus
4 P. Sherrard, Athos: The Mountain of of Mount Athos', Journal of the
Silence (London, I96o), p.26. Royal Geographical Society, 17
5 J.J. Norwich and R. Sitwell, Mount (I847), 145-50.
Athos (London, I966), p.I4. 8 A. Struck, 'Der Xerxeskanal am
6 C. Cavarnos, Anchored in God: An Athos', Neue Jahrbiicher for das klas-
Inside Account of Life, Art, and sische Altertum: Geschichte und Liter-
Thought on the Holy Mountain of atur, IO (I907), I15-30.
Athos (Ist edn Athens, I959; 2nd 9 B.S.]. Isserlin et al., 'The Canal of
edn. Belmont, MA, I975), p.2I4. Xerxes on the Mount Athos Penin-
7 Ibid., pp.2I4-I5. sula: Preliminary Investigations in
8 C. Cavarnos, The Holy Mountain I99I-I992', Annual of the British
(Belmont, MA, I973), pp.I28-31. School at Athens, 89 (I994), 277-84
9 Ibid., p.I29. and plates 43-4; 'The Canal of
IO Gabriel, Abbot of the Monastery of Xerxes: Investigations in I993-
Dionysiou, The Voice of One Crying I994', Annual ofthe British School at
in the Wilderness (Volos, I955), Athens, 9I (I996), 329-40.
quoted by C. Cavarnos, Anchored in IO V.K. Karastathis and S.P. Papa-
God, p.zi6. marinopoulos, Geophysical Prospect-
ing, 45 (I997), 389-401. Reported by
Norman Hammond in The Times, 5
CHAPTER I January I998.
I I B.S.]. Isserlin, 'The Canal of
IAeschylus, Agamemnon, z8I-3I6, Xerxes: Facts and Problems',Annual
translated by Louis MacNeice (Lon- of the British School of Athens, 86
don, I936). (I99I), 83.
2 Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, I2 J.N. Loch, A Fringe ofBlue (London,
1.6oi-4. See also Sophocles frag- I968), p.u4. Joice's husband Sydney
ment 776 Pearson and commentary Loch was a Scotsman who was wel-
ad loc. comed as an honoured guest every-
3 Herodotus 6.44, translated by Aubrey where on the Holy Mountain and who
 knew it as few laymen do, as is evident 2 Lift of St Peter the Athonite, 11 PC
from his delightful book Athos: The ISO, Ioos.
Holy Mountain (London, I957). On 3 In this section I am greatly indebted
the Lochs see further, p.238. to the writings of Bishop Kallistos of
I3 Vitruvius, De Architectura, 2 prae(, Diokleia (formerly Timothy Ware),
translated by F. Granger (Cam- in particular The Orthodox Church,
bridge, MA, and London, I93I). rev. edn. (Harmondsworth, I993),
I4 P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria pp.257-6o, and The Orthodox Way,
(Oxford, I972), vol.I, P·4 and note 12; rev. edn. (New York, I995), pp. 76-8.
Plutarch, Lift ofAlexander, 72.7. 4 On the Annunciation, 4-5 in Patrolo-
IS G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros gia Orienta/is, vol.I9 (Paris, I926),
(Athens, I903; repr. Mount Athos, p.488.
I988), p.I2. 5 V. Lossky, 'Panagia', in The Mother
I6 Leone Battista Alberti, Ten Books on of God, ed. E.L. Mascall (London,
Architecture, 1.4, translated by James I949), P·35·
Leoni, edited by Joseph Rykwert 6 T. Ware, The Orthodox Church,
(repr. London, I955). p.26o.
I7 Ibid. 6-4- 7 See, for example, Hieromonk
I8 The scheme of Dinocrates and the Alexander (Golitzin) (trans.), The
subsequent fashion for mountain Living Witness of the Holy Mountain
carving are well documented and (South Canaan, PA, I996), p.105, an
illustrated in Simon Schama, Land- excellent collection of modern
scape and Memory (London, I995), Athonite spiritual writings.
ch.7, 'Dinocrates and the Shaman: 8 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden for die
Altitude, Beatitude, Magnitude'. Geschichte der Athoskloster, p.113.
See also H. Meyer, 'Der Berg des See also Actes de Xenophon, No.1.
Athos als Alexander: zu den realen I75 [a. 1089].
Grundlagen der Vision des 9 Actes du Protaton, No.8, 45-53.
Deinokrates', Rivista di archeologia, IO Ibid., NO.I3, 7I-2.
IO (I986), 22-30. II Ibid. 72-4.
I9 See J.C. Lawson, Modern Greek I2 On this whole question see Alice-
Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: Mary Talbot, 'Women and Mt
A Study in Survivals (Cambridge, Athos', in A. Bryer and M. Cun-
I 9 Io), p.I8s. ningham (eds.), Mount Athos and
20 See Pomponius Mela 2.2.32; Lucian, Byzantine Monasticism (Aldershot,
Macrobii, s; Aelian, Varia Historia, I996), pp.67-79. Talbot describes a
9-IO. range of business transactions
2I However, all five cities and the route between Athonite monks and women
of the canal are located with bold in the Byzantine period, often acts of
precision on a map in my possession donation that 'explicitly reveal
printed in London in I725. women's strong yearning for spiri-
tual links with the Holy Mountain
which they could never visit' (p.77).
CHAPTER 2 I3 F.W. Hasluck, Athos and its Monas-
teries, London, I924), p.I2.
The monastery of Konstamonitou I4 Ploutarchos L. Theocharides, 'Recent
also claims a Constantinian founda- Research into Athonite Monastic
tion, but the claim seems to be based Architecture, Tenth-Sixteenth Cen-
on a false etymology. turies', in Bryer and Cunningham

NOTES TO PAGES I2-28 269

 (eds}, op. cit., p.2I2. Further archae- 4 The lives of these early Athonites
ological investigation, made in are described by Kirsopp Lake in his
2ooo-I, has revealed traces of what Early Days of Monasticism on Mt
is described as a basilica-style Athos (Oxford, I909).
church of the Palaeochristian period 5 Papachryssanthou, op. cit., pp.22-
beneath the north choir of the pres- 3I; id., 'La Vie de Saint Euthyme le
ent katholikon Jeune et Ia metropole de Thessa-
I5 The Great and Holy Monastery of lonique', Revue des Etudes Byzan-
Vatopaidi (Mount Athos, I994), p.21. tines, 32 (I974), 225-45.
I6 This section owes much to P. 6 Lake, op. cit., pp.26-7.
Oswald, 'The Flora and Fauna of 7 Actes du Protaton, No.7.
Mount Athos', Annual Report of the 8 E. Amand de Mendieta, Mount
Friends of Mount Athos (I995}, Athos: The Garden of the Panaghia
PP·35-9· See also the essays in S. (Berlin, I972), pp.67-g.
Dafis et al., Nature and Natural 9 On St Athanasios seeP. Lemerle, 'La
Environment in Mount Athos (Thes- Vie anctenne de saint Athanase
saloniki, I997) and 0. Rackham, I'Athonite composee au debut du
'The Holy Mountain', Plant Talk, Xle siecle par Athanase de Lavra', in
27 (Jan. 2002), Ig-23. Millenaire du Mont Athos (Cheve-
I7 SeeM. and R. Higgins, A Geological togne, I963), vol. I, PP·59-Ioo; J.
Companion to Greece and the Aegean Leroy, 'La Conversion de saint
(London, I996), pp.II2-I3, 2I2. Athanase I' Athonite a!'ideal cenobi-
I8 K. Ganiatsas, 'I vlastesis kai i chloris tique et a !'influence studite'' ibid.,
tis chersonesou tou Agiou Orous', vol. I, pp.IOI-20; K. Ware, 'St
Athonike Politeia (Thessaloniki, Athanasios the Athonite: Tradition-
I963), pp.5o9-678. alist or Innovator?', in A. Bryer and
I9 S. Papadopoulos (ed.}, Simonopetra: M. Cunningham (eds), Mount Athos
Mount Athos (Athens, I99I), P·57· and Byzantine Monasticism, pp.3-I6.
20 G.E.H. Palmer, Silence over Athos', IO SeeR. Morris, Monks and Laymen in
first published m the periodical Byzantium, 843-1118 (Cambridge,
Orthodox Lift (Holy Trinity Russian I995), PP·34-5·
Orthodox Monastery, Jordanville, I I J. Noret, Vitae duae antiquae Sancti
NY), Nov.- Dec. I968, P-33· Athanasii Athonitae (Louvain, I982),
Vita A, I64. 37·
I2 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden for die
CHAPTER 3 Geschichte der Athoskliister, pp.I02-
22.
A helpful summary of the iconoclast I3 Vita A, I40.I-2, I55.8, 8.II.
controversy may be found in J.M. I4 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, p.117.
Hussey, The Orthodox Church in the I5 Vatopedi's precedence over Iviron
Byzantine Empire (Oxford, I986), did not become formally established
pp.3o-68. until I362.
2 See D. Papachryssanthou (ed. ), Actes I6 Actes d'Iviron, voi.I, No.7·
du Protaton, Archives de l'Athos VII I7 Actes du Protaton, No.8.
(Paris, I975), pp.6-I9. I8 On the early development of Vato-
3 See R. Morris, 'The Origins of pedi see N. Oikonomides, 'Byzan-
Athos', in A. Bryer and M. Cun- tine Vatopaidi: A Monastery of the
ningham (eds), Mount Athos and High Aristocracy', in The Holy and
Byzantine Monasticism, p.38 n.9. Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, voi.I,

270 NOTES TO PAGES 28-53

 pp.44-53; and Actes de Vatopidi, Medakovic, Chilandar on the Holy
vol.I, PP·3-37· Mountain (Belgrade, I978), P·37·
I9 0. Lancaster, Sailing to Byzantium 33 Actes de Zographou, Nos. 3 and 4·
(London, I969), P·75· 34 D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Com-
20 On the landholdings of I viron see monwealth: Eastern Europe, soo-1453
Actes d'Iviron, vol.I, pp.25-59 and (London, I97I), p.383.
70--91. 35 S. Runciman, A History of the Cru-
2I See the article by Dom Leo Bonsall, sades, vol. 3 (Cambridge, I954),
'The Benedictine Monastery of St p.I30.
Mary on Mount Athos', Eastern 36 S. Runciman, Byzantine Civilisation
Churches Review, 2:3 (I969), 262-7. (London, I933), P·55·
See also P. Lemerle, 'Les Archives du
monastere des Amalfitans au Mont
Athos', Epeteris Hetaireias Byzanti- CHAPTER 4
non Spoudon, 23 (I953), 548--66 and
A. Pertusi, 'Nuovi documenti sui R.M. Dawkins, The Monks of Athos
Benedettini Amalfitani dell'Athos', (London, I936), p.300.
Aevum, 27 (I953), 4Io-29. 2 Several versions of the story are
22 The number of monasteries was now related by Dawkins, op. cit., pp.30I-3.
thought to exceed 40, but the figure 3 M. Gedeon, 0 Athos. Anamniseis,
of I8o clearly includes other lavras, Eggrapha, Simeioseis (Constantino-
cells and hermitages. ple, I885), pp.I37-45, quotes from a
23 Actes du Protaton, No. 8. Illustrated hagiographical document which
in Treasures ofMount Athos (Thessa- reports the tradition, but the docu-
loniki, I997), p.5I0. ment is of uncertain date.
24 Op. cit., pp.n-8. 4 Op. cit., p.89.
25 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, p.I63. 5 D.M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of
26 For the latest assessment see Morris, Byzantium I26I-I4SJ, 2nd edn
op. cit., pp.275-8. (Cambridge, I993), p.I22.
27 Ibid., pp.294-5. 6 Op. cit., p.90.
28 For a sketch of the early Russian 7 See the discussion by I. Tarnanidis
presence on the Holy Mountain see inS. Papadopoulos (ed.), Simonope-
N. Fennell, The Russians on Athos tra. Mount Athos, pp.I8-zo.
(Bern, zooi), pp.5I-5. 8 Actes de Dionysiou, No.4; illustrated
29 Actes d'Iviron, vol. I, No.21. in Treasures ofMount Athos, p.5I8.
30 See the biography by Dimitri 9 N. Oikonomides, 'Patronage in
Obolensky, 'Sava of Serbia', in his Palaiologan Mt Athos', in A. Bryer
Six Byzantine Portraits (Oxford, and M. Cunningham (eds), Mount
I988), pp.115-72. It includes a Athos and Byzantine Monasticism,
description of the foundation of the p.I09.
monastery 'which became for many IO SeeS. Binon, Les Origines ligendaires
centuries the fountain-head from de Xeropotamou et de Saint Paul
which the Serbs drank at the source (Louvain, I942), pp.I85-8.
of Byzantine spirituality and cul- I I Actes de Kutlumus, No. 26.
ture' (ibid., p.7). I2 E.A. Zachariadou, 'A Safe and Holy
3I See Actes de Chilandar, vol. I, Nos. 3 Mountain', in A. Bryer and M. Cun-
and4. ningham (eds), Mount Athos and
32 Ibid., vol. 2, No. I32. Illustrated in Byzantine Monasticism, p.IJI.
D. Bogdanovic, V.J. Djuric, D. I3 See R. Goth6ni, Tales and Truth:

NOTES TO PAGES 55-8I 271

 Pilgrimage on Mount Athos Past and 26 K. Ware, 'St Maximos of Kapsoka-
Present (Helsinki, I994), pp.26--(). lyvia and Fourteenth-Century
Interestingly, monk Isaiah listed Athonite Hesychasm', p.4I1.
Simonopetra as Bulgarian, Zographou 27 See K. Ware, 'The Fool in Christ as
as Wallachian, Koutloumousiou as Prophet and Apostle', in The Inner
Moldavian, and Philotheou as Alban- Kingdom (New York, 2000), pp.IS3-
Ian. 8o.
I4 D. Bogdanovic, V.J. Djuric, D. 28 Triads in Defence of the Hesychasts,
Medakovic, Chilandar on the Holy 1.3·43·
Mountain, pp-4o-2. 29 Ibid. I.2.I2.
I5 Actes de Chilandar, p.292. 30 K. Ware, 'St Maximos of Kapsoka-
I6 Op. cit., p.255. lyvia and Fourteenth-Century
I7 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, pp.I97- Athonite Hesychasm', P-430.
203. 3I The 'Painter's Manual' of Dionysius
I8 See p.112. of Fourna, tr. P. Hetherington (Lon-
I9 Triads in Defence of the Hesychasts, don, I974), p.2.
1.3.38, quoted by J. Meyendorff, A 32 See V.J. Djuric, 'Fresques medie-
Study of Gregory Palamas, 2nd edn. vales a Chilandar', Actes du X//e
(Crestwood, NY, I998), p.ISI. Congres Internationale des Etudes
20 T. Ware, The Orthodox Church, Byzantines (Ochrid, I96I), pp.83-6.
pp.6g-70. 33 This situation is in the process of
2I L. Brehier, Les Institutions de !'empire being rectified. Recent years have
byzantin (Paris, I949), pp.578-9, as seen sumptuous publications of the
translated by E. Amand de Mendi- icons of Vatopedi (I998), Pantokra-
eta. tor (I998), Xenophontos (I999), and
22 S. Runciman, The Last Byzantine St Paul's (I999).
Renaissance (Cambridge, I 970 ), P·47. 34 E.N. Tsigaridas, 'Portable Icons' in
23 D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Com- The Holy and Great Monastery of
monwealth: Eastern Europe, 50o- Vatopaidi, vol.2, P·394·
1453, P·390. 35 G.T. Stathis, 'The Musical Manu-
24 See his lecture "'Act out of Still- scripts' in The Holy and Great Mon-
ness": The Influence of Fourteenth- astery of Vatapaidi, vol.2, p.598.
Century Hesychasm on Byzantine 36 S. Runciman, The Last Byzantine
and Slav Civilization' (Toronto, Renaissance, P·79·
I995). 37 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, pp.203-
25 Edited by F. Halkin from transcrip- IO.
tions made by E. Kourilas: 'Deux vies 38 Ps-Sphrantzes, Chronicon Maius, ed.
de S. Maxime le Kausokalyve Ermite Grecu, p.320, quoted in D.M. Nicol,
au Mont Athos (XIVe s.)', Analecta op. cit., p.338.
Bollandiana, 54 (I936), 38-112. See
also the brief account of his life in
R.M. Dawkins, The Monks of Athos, CHAPTER 5
pp.I3I-S, and the much fuller
account by Kallistos Ware, 'St Maxi- S. Runciman, The Fall of Constan-
mos of Kapsokalyvia and Fourteenth- tinople 1453 (Cambridge, I969),
Century Athonite Hesychasm', m p.ISS·
Kathigitria: Essays Presented to Joan 2 C. G. Papadopoulos, Les Privileges du
Hussey on her Both Birthday (London, patriarcat oecumenique dans /'empire
I988), PP·409- 30. ottoman (Paris, I924), pp.27-41.

272 NOTES TO PAGES 83-115

 3 S. Runciman, The Great Church in Embroideries (Mount Athos, I998).
Captivity (Cambridge, I968), p.I82. I9 D. Bogdanovic, V Djuric, D.
4 G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros Medakovic, Chi/andar on the Holy
(Athens, I903; repr. Mount Athos, Mountain, p.I34·
I988), p.IIO. 20 N. Fennell, The Russians on Athos,
5 F. Dolger (ed.), Moncks/and Athos p.58.
(Munich, I943), p.I9 2I VG. Barsky, Travel Diary (St
6 On the history of this monastery see Petersburg, I793), pp.296, 300.
C. Patrinelis, A. Karakatsanis, M. 22 Quoted by C. Patrinelis m S.
Theocharis, Stavronikita Monastery: Papadopoulos (ed.), Simonopetra:
History-I cons-Embroderies Mount Athos, p.24.
(Athens, I974), pp.I7-38. 23 G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros, p.591.
7 P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, pp.2I2- 24 See S. Runciman, The Great Church
I4. in Captivity, pp.232-3, and T. Ware,
8 Ibid., pp.2Io-I2. Eustratios Argenti (Oxford, I964),
9 Ibid., pp.2I5-I8. p.22.
IO The exact date is uncertain; but the 25 Quoted by R.M. Dawkins, The
skete is mentioned in a Lavra docu- Monks ofAthos, p.69.
ment of I575, so it was certainly in 26 On the Athonite academy see P.M.
existence by then. Kitromilides, 'Athos and the
I I See above, pp.9o-2. Enlightenment', in A. Bryer and M.
I2 On the lives of Akakios and his disci- Cunningham (eds), Mount Athos and
ples see E. Kourilas, Istoria tou Byzantine Monasticism, pp.257-72;
Askitismou, Athonitai I (Thessaloniki, and id., 'Vatopaidi and the Greek
I929), pp.6&-87. Barsky's Travel Cultural Tradition: The Contribu-
Diary, describing his journeys to the tion of the Athonite Academy', in
holy places of Europe, Asia, and The Holy and Great Monastery of
Africa in the years I723-47, was pub- Vatopaidi, vol.I, pp.72-8o.
lished posthumously in I778. 27 I. Moisiodax, Apologia (Vienna,
I3 For details of their foundations see I780), p.I28.
P. Meyer, Haupturkunden, p.84. 28 A. Coray, Memoire sur /'hat actue/ de
I4 See C. Patrinelis in S. Papadopoulos Ia civilisation dans Ia Grece (Paris,
(ed.), Simonopetra: Mount Athos, I8o3), pp.65-6.
p.23. 29 On this movement, its aims, and its
I5 K. Sathas, Biographikon Schediasma achievements see Bishop Kallistos of
peri tou Patriarchou Ieremiou B Diokleia, 'The Spirituality of the
(Athens, I87o), p.I85. Philokalia', Sobornost, I3:I (I99I),
I 6 K. Chryssochoidis in S. Papadopou- 6-24.
los (ed.), The Holy Xenophontos 30 Phi/oka/ia, 5 vols (Athens, I957-63;
Monastery: The Icons (Mount Athos, repr. Athens, I974-6), vol.I, pp.xxiii-
I999), p.32. xxiv.
I7 See P.S. NaSturel, Le Mont Athos et 3I T. Ware, The Orthodox Church, p.IOo.
/es roumains. Recherches sur leurs rela- 32 M. Gedeon, 0 Athos, p.216.
tions du milieu du XIVe siec/e a I654 33 N.M. Vaporis, Father Kosmas, the
(Rome, I984). Apostle of the Poor: The Life of St
I 8 K. Chryssochoidis, 'An Outline of Kosmas Aito/os together with an Eng-
the History of the lveron Mona- lish Translation of his Teaching and
stery', in E. Vlachopoulou-Karabina, Letters (Brookline, MA, I977),
Holy Monastery of Iveron: Gold p.146.

NOTES TO PAGES 118-142 273

34 Quoted in C. Cavarnos, St Cosmas cient funds to write off the entire
Aitolos, 3rd edn. (Belmont, MA, debt and with the encouragement of
I98s), P·45 the senior monks intended to buy
35 A. Riley, Athos or the Mountain ofthe the monastery and have himself
Monks (London, I887), p.372. installed as abbot. This would have
36 This work is now available in English given the Russians another voice in
as The New Martyrs of the Turkish the Holy Community; but Fr
Yoke, tr. L.J. Papadopoulos and G. Nathanail died in 1890 and the
Lizardos (Seattle, WA, 1985). scheme came to nothing.
37 See P. Meyer, Haupturkunden,
pp.243-8.
38 It is worth noting that St Nikodimos CHAPTER 6
opposed Greek independence on the
grounds that it would expose Ortho- I I. Smolitsch, 'Le Mont Athos et la
doxy to to the malign influence of Russia', Le Millenaire duMont Athos,
the west. vol.I, p.318.
39 G. Smirnakis, ToAgion Oros, pp.173- 2 See A Monk of the Eastern Church
83. [Fr. Lev Gillet], The Jesus Prayer,
40 N. Fennell, The Russians on Athos, znd edn (New York, 1987), pp.83-6.
p. 74· Both this section and the next 3 N. Fennell, The Russians on Athos,
owe much to Fennell's work. p.2I8.
4 1 Ibid., p.s6. 4 Ibid., p.318.
42 The Greek brotherhood at lviron 5 Article 105 of the I975 Constitution,
banished its Georgian minority to a quoted by Charalambos K. Papas-
skete. See N. Fennell, op. cit., tathis, 'The Status of Mount Athos
pp. 132-8. The last Georgian monk in Hellenic Public Law', in A.-E. N.
of lviron, Fr Tikhon, died in 1956. Tachiaos (ed.), Mount Athos and the
43 N. Fennell, op. cit., p.81. European Community (Thessaloniki,
44 G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros, p.zo8. 1993), PP·SS-75 {p.59 n.10).
45 See for example Dorotheos, Mona- 6 Ibid., pp.72-3.
chos Vatopedinos, To Agio Oros 7 For a discussion of the unwritten
(Katerini, I985), vol.z, p.185. prohibition of women on Athos see
46 N. Fennell, op. cit., p.147. Alice-Mary Talbot, 'Women and Mt
47 See A.-E. Tachiaos, 'The zoth Cen- Athos' in Bryer and Cunningham
tury', in S. Papadopoulos (ed.), (eds), Mount Athos and Byzantine
Simonopetra: Mount Athos, pp.26-7. Monasticism, pp.67-79.
48 I Thraki, I877, quoted by N. Fen- 8 See V Makrides, 'Aspects of Greek
nell, op. cit., pp.175-6. Orthodox Fundamentalism', Ortho-
49 A. Riley, Athos or the Mountain ofthe dox Forum, 5 (199I), 49-72.
Monks, pp.248-g. 9 In fact not all Athonites supported
50 N. Fennell, op. cit., p.I78. the Allies. Some of the Russians
51 Ibid., p.3I7. were believed to have collaborated
52 G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros, with the Germans in the hope that a
pp.705-7· German victory would result in a
53 In the 188os the monastery of restoration of the old order.
Stavronikita fell seriously into debt. 10 W.B. Thomas, Dare to be Free (Lon-
By 1889 the representative of St don, I95I), pp.171-3.
Panteleimonos at Karyes, one Fr 1I S. Loch, Athos: The Holy Mountain,
Nathanail, had accumulated suffi- p.zz6.

274 NOTES TO PAGES 142-168

12 G. Smyrnakis, To Agion Oros, 3:4 (1976), 322-33, followed by an
pp.705-7· article by Garth Fowden entitled
13 Taken from G. Galitis eta!., Glauben 'The Orthodox Monastic Revival on
aus dem Herzen (Munich, 1994). Mount Athos' published in The
14 J.J. Norwich and R. Sitwell, Mount Times on 8 January 1977.
Athos, p.98. 27 But perhaps not universally. Sir
15 E. Amand de Mendieta, Mount Steven Runciman, President of the
Athos: The Garden of the Panaghia, Friends of Mount Athos until his
P·45· death in 2000, once told me that if he
16 P. Sherrard, Athos, the Mountain of were to retire to an Athonite
Silence, p.26. monastery he would have preferred
17 Archimandrite Sophrony, Saint it to be an idiorrhythmic one.
Silouan the Athonite, tr. R. Edmonds 28 Official Journal of the European
(Tolleshunt Knights, 1991), p.26. Communities 29III9.11.1979, p.186;
18 Ibid., p.42 (his italics). quoted by C.K. Papastathis, 'The
19 Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin), Status of Mount Athos in Hellenic
trans., The Living Witness ofthe Holy Public Law', P-55·
Mountain: Contemporary Voices from 29 The relevant documents are pub-
Mount Athos, p.147· lished in Fr Maximos, Human Rights
20 The millennium also occasioned the on Mount Athos (Welshpool, 1990),
publication of a most valuable col- PP·33-5·
lection of essays covering all aspects 30 N. Fennell, op. cit., p.309.
of Athonite history from the tenth 31 See for example the evidence
century to the twentieth: Le Mille- adduced in Fr Maximos, op. cit.,
na~re du Mont Athos, g63-I963. PP-39-42.
Etudes et melanges, 2 vols (Cheve- 32 Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, 'Athos
togne, 1963-4). after Ten Years: The Good News
21 See I. Doens, 'La G:U:bration du and the Bad', Sobornost, 15:1 (1993),
Millenaire de l'Athos sur la Sainte 35·
Montagne', Irenikon, 36 (1963), 33 The Prophet Elijah skete was not the
39Q-402. only Russian house to be Hellenized
22 When Constantine Cavarnos visited in the 1990s at the behest of Con-
Chilandar in 1958, however, he was stantinople. The Serai in Karyes,
informed by Fr Domitian, 'We now which had been deserted since the
have a tractor, too. It was sent as a death of the last Russian monks in
gift to our monastery by Premier the 1970s, suffered a similar, if less
Tito.' Anchored in God, p.140. violent, fate. Fearful that 'new blood'
23 See especially the new biography by would arrive from Russia to revive it,
Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, Elder Joseph the Patriarchate encouraged its par-
the Hesychast: Struggles-Experiences ent monastery (Vatopedi) to repopu-
-Teachings (Mount Athos, 1999). late the skete with Greek monks and
24 Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of this was duly done.
Entry (New York, 1984), P·9· 34 Communique of the Holy Commu-
25 See Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin), nity, 17 June 1994.
op. cit., p.15. 35 S. Runciman, 'Trouble on Holy
26 The first notice of the revival in Mountain', The Times, 17 April
English, so far as I am aware, was an 1995, p.I2.
article by Bishop Kallistos entitled 36 Treasures of Mount Athos (Thessa-
'Mount Athos Today' in Christian, loniki, 1997), p.xii.

NOTES TO PAGES 168-192 275

 CHAPTER 7 Vatopaidi: The Continuation of a
Tradition (Mount Athos, I996), p.8.
Ekklesia, I-I5 August I963, p.398. I7 Ibid., pp.42-5.
2 Histories kai Peristatika (Athens, I8 Philip Sherrard deplored this grow-
I944), pp.I8-I9. ing trend as long ago as I977: 'The
3 The journal Gregorios Palamas, Paths of Athos', Eastern Churches
March-April I963, p.I45· Review, 9 (I977), IOD-7.
4 Athos the Mountain ofSilence, P·3· I9 See P.M. Koufopoulos and S.B.
5 Figures taken from G.l. Mantzaridis, Mamaloukos, The Metalwork of
'Athonite Monasticism at the Dawn of Mount Athos from the Eighteenth to
its Second Millennium', in the exhi- the Twentieth Century (in Greek;
bition catalogue Treasures of Mount Athens, I997).
Athos, p.I6. 20 Ekklesia, I-I5 August I963, p.386.
6 See T. Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2I C. Cavarnos, Anchored in God, p.I83
pp.I78-87. (his italics).
7 See D. Conomos, 'The Musical Tra- 22 Archimandrite Aimilianos, 'Mount
dition of Mount Athos', Annual Athos: Sacred Vessel of the Prayer of
Report of the Friends of Mount Athos Jesus', m Hieromonk Alexander
(I996), pp.26-40. (Golitzin) trans., The Living Witness
8 Foreword to Archimandrite Vasileios, ofthe Holy Mountain, pp.I82-3.
Hymn ofEntry: Liturgy and Lift in the 23 See for example the portraits of
Orthodox Church, P·9· twentieth-century elders in Archi-
9 E. Amand de Mendieta, Mount mandrite Cherubim (Karambelas),
Athos: The Garden of the Panaghia, Contemporary Ascetics of Mount
P·321. Athos, 2 vols (Platina, CA, I99I-2).
IO Theoklitos, Metaxi Ouranou kai Cis. 24 Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia,
Agioritikos Monachismos, 2nd edn. 'Wolves and Monks: Life on the
(Athens, I967), pp.I28-9; quoted in Holy Mountain Today', Sobornost,
Amand de Mendieta, op. cit., p.323. 5=2 (I983), 64.
I I Preface to Hieromonk Makarios of 25 Elder Joseph, Elder Joseph the Hesy-
Simonos Petra, The Synaxarion: The chast: Struggles-Experiences-Teach-
Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox ings, P·47·
Church, voi.I (Ormylia, I998), p.v. 26 Archimandrite Aimilianos, 'The
I2 Archimandrite Aimilianos, Spiritual Role of the Spiritual Father', in
Instruction and Discourses, voi.I: The Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin)
Authentic Seal (Ormylia, I999), P·95· trans., The Living Witness ofthe Holy
I3 Available in English translation as Mountain, pp.I65-7·
Elder Joseph the Hesychast: Strug- 27 See T. Ware, The Orthodox Church,
gles- Experiences-Teachings, by Elder p.98.
Joseph (Mount Athos, I999). 28 On his own reception into Ortho-
I4 Elder Joseph the Hesychast, Monas- doxy by baptism see Pere Placide,
tic Wisdom: The Letters of Elder 'The Question of Baptism', m
Joseph the Hesychast (Florence, AZ, Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin)
I998). trans., The Living Witness ofthe Holy
I5 Elder Ephraim, Counsels from the Mountain, pp.87-90.
Holy Mountain: Selected from the 29 N. Fennell, The Russians on Athos,
Letters and Homilies ofElder Ephraim pp.282-3.
(Florence, AZ, I999). 30 Archimandrite Aimilianos, 'The
I6 The Great and Holy Monastery of House of God and the Gate of

276 NOTES TO PAGES I95-220

 Heaven', inS. Papadopoulos (ed.}, Greek, Roman and Byzantine
Simonopetra. Mount Athos, p.119. Studies, 34:3 (1993), 325-30.
31 Philokalia, vol.4 (Athens, 1961), 2 See the useful summary of 'Trav-
p.232; quoted in T. Ware, The ellers' Tales' in R. Gothoni, Tales
Orthodox Church, p.300. and Truth: Pilgrimage on Mount
32 Archimandrite Aimilianos, The Athos Past and Present (Helsinki,
Authentic Seal, pp.12o-1. 1994), pp.46--92.
33 S. Loch, Athos: The Holy 3 See R. GothOni, op. cit., p.s6.
Mountain, p.220. 4 P. Sherrard, 'The Paths of Athos',
34 Archimandrite Cherubim, Contem- Eastern Churches Review, 9: 1-2
porary Ascetics ofMount Athos, (1977), 102.
vol.I, pp.179-80. 5 Ibid., pp.IOI-2.
35 Ibid., pp.I91-2. 6 R. GothOni, op. cit., pp.165-71.
36 Fr Nikolaos Hatzinikolaou, 'Mount 7 R. GothOni, Paradise within Reach:
Athos: The Highest Place on Monasticism and Pilgrimage on Mt
Earth', Annual Report ofthe Athos (Helsinki, 1993), pp.134-5·
Friends ofMount Athos (2ooo), 8 Ibid., p.I35·
pp.n-8. 9 For the latest information readers
37 StJohn was abbot of St Catherine's are referred to the booklet
monastery, Sinai, in the mid-seventh produced by the Friends of Mount
century. His most important book, Athos (A Pilgrim's Guide to Mount
The Ladder ofDivine Ascent, which Athos, 2nd edn., 2000) or the soci-
is based on his own experiences of ety's website
nearly forty years as a desert (www.athosfriends.org).
anchorite, offers guidance to monks 10 The story is told in a booklet by
about how to progress through the Joice Loch, Prosporion -
stages of the ascetic life, breaking Uranopolous: Rugs and Dyes (lstan-
free of the earthly passions and bul, 1964). See also her autobiogra-
ascending to a level where they can phy, A Fringe of Blue (London,
enjoy union with God. The Ladder 1968).
is still greatly prized as a manual of II See his excellent account of his
monastic practice: graphic illustra- many journeys, Athos: The Holy
tions of it are to be found in the Mountain (London, 1957).
exonarthex of many katholika; and 12 See Archimandrite Ephrem Lash,
the text remains to this day 'Athos: A Working Community', in
prescribed reading in the refectories A. Bryer and M. Cunningham
of Athonite monasteries during (eds.), Mount Athos and Byzantine
Lent. Monasticism, pp.81-8.
38 Abbot George Kapsanis, 'Mount 13 R. Byron, The Station: Athos: Trea-
Athos and the European Commu- sures and Men, p.149.
nity', in A.-E.N. Tachiaos (ed.), 14 S. Loch, Athos: The Holy
Mount Athos and the European Com- Mountain, p.123.
munity, p.113. IS Ibid., p.96.
16 Ibid., p.243.
17 See R. Gothoni, Tales and Truth,
CHAPTER 8 P·49·
18 See S. Rudberg, 'Les Manuscrits a
See e.g. G. Speake, 'Janus Lascaris' contenu profane du Mont-Athos',
Visit to Mount Athos in 1491', Eranos, 54 (1956), 174-85.

NOTES TO PAGES 222-248 277

19 R. Goth6ni, Paradise within Reach, Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow
p.129. of Byzantium (London, 1997),
20 Archimandrite Aimilianos, The PP-355-7·
Authentic Seal, p.124. 25 The project was duly completed and
21 Ibid., pp. 125-6. the building rededicated in July 2000
22 See above, pp.189-90. in the presence of Sir Steven who
23 D. Nicol, 'A Sojourn on the Holy had travelled to Athos at the age of
Mountain in the Year 1949', Annual ninety-seven to witness the event.
Report ofthe Friends ofMount Athos 26 Fr Nikolaos Hatzinikolaou, 'Mount
(2ooo), p.107. Athos: The Highest Place on Earth',
24 Fr A was formerly a monk at Ein Annual Report ofthe Friends ofMount
Para in the West Bank where he Athos (2000), p.66
claims to have been the last of the 27 Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin),
desert fathers. His story is told in trans., The Living Witness of the
W. Dalrymple, From the Holy Holy Mountain, PP-33-4·
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282 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

 GLOSSARY

abaton: the traditional principle, common to all monasteries, that enables monks
and nuns to close their doors to members of the opposite sex.
archontariki: guest house.
archontaris: guest master.
Axion estin: ('It is meet') a hymn to the Virgin sung at the Divine Liturgy and other
services; also the title of the holiest icon on Athos, preserved in the sanctuary of
the church of the Protaton in Karyes.
cenobitic system: the system by which monks live a common life in spiritual obe-
dience to an abbot, worshipping and eating together, and contributing any wealth
they may have to the common purse; cf. idiorrhythmic system.
chrysobull: a document or charter bearing the emperor's gold seal.
coenobium: a house in which monks live according to the cenobitic system (q.v.).
Deesis: a visual representation of Christ flanked by the Virgin and StJohn the Bap-
tist in which the Virgin and StJohn intercede with Christ on behalf of the world.
diakonima: the work or duty allotted to a monk.
diamonitirion: the official permit or visa that permits a pilgrim to enter Athos and
to enjoy hospitality at the monasteries.
dikaios: the prior of a skete.
dokimos: a novice.
enkolpion: a pendant bearing a sacred image that is worn 'on the breast'.
exonarthex: the antechamber to the narthex (q.v.) in an Orthodox church.
hegoumenos: the abbot of a cenobitic monastery.
hesychasm: a spiritual tradition developed by StJohn Klimakos (seventh century)
for whom hesychia ('stillness', 'tranquillity') was a state of inner silence and vigi-
lance, closely associated with the name of Jesus and the repetition of short prayers.
idiorrhythmic system: the system by which monks were permitted to set their
own pattern, were not bound by the vow of poverty or of obedience to an abbot,
and lived in separate apartments, often with their own servants and their own
worldly goods, neither eating together nor contributing to a common purse; cf.
cenobitic system.
katholikon: the main church of a monastery.
kellion: a monk's cell; also a separate monastic house with a chapel and several
rooms, perhaps inhabited by three or four monks.
konaki: a monastery's residence in Karyes, inhabited by that monastery's represen-
tative to the Holy Community.
ktitor: the founder of a monastery; also used to refer to a major benefactor.
kyriakon: the main church of a skete, used for worship on Sunday (Kyriakt).
I avra: a group of cells for hermits.
metochion: a dependency of a ruling monastery.
narthex: the antechapel or vestibule at the west end of an Orthodox church.
panegyri: the annual celebration of a monastery or skete for the feast of its dedication.
prohegoumenos: the principal of an idiorrhythmic monastery.
proskynitis: a pilgrim.
protos hesychastes: the 'first hesychast', subsequently shortened to Protos ('first'),
as the primate of Athos is still known.
rason: a loose-cut gown with billowing sleeves, part of the monastic habit.
schema: the monastic habit: the small schema (now rarely conferred) is the first
grade; the great schema (or great habit) denotes the highest rank to which a monk
may be promoted.
simantron: an iron bar used instead of a bell to summon the fathers to prayer.
skete: a monastic village or group of houses gathered around a central church (or
kyriakon, q.v.), dependent upon a ruling monastery.
starets: elder.
synaxis: a meeting of the brotherhood of a monastery or of the representatives to
the Holy Community in Karyes.
synodikon: a part of the monastery set aside for meetings.
talanto: a wooden plank used instead of a bell to summon the fathers to prayer.
Theotokos: the Virgin Mary or Mother of God, as she is known to the Orthodox.
Tourkokratia: the period of Ottoman ('Turkish') rule.
Tragos: the earliest imperial document (dated 972) concerned with the organization
of the Holy Mountain as a whole, called Tragos ('goat') because it is written on
goatskin parchment.
trapez a: the refectory of a monastery.
typikon: the rule or charter by which a monastery or group of monasteries is gov-
erned.
waqf: a charitable foundation in Islamic law.

284 GWSSARY
 INDEX

Note: page numbers in italics refer to Antony, St 227

illustrations or their captions. Apollo I7
Arabs 42, 6I
abaton, principle of 25, 27 Arcadius, Emperor 22
Academy I36-8, 137, I4I archaeology 12, I6
Adrianople SI, 53, 86, 11 I Argonauts IO
Aeschylus 9 Argos 9, IO
Agapios Landos, hermit I34-S Aristotle I37
Agathangelos, St I42 Arsenios, Fr 178, 208
Aimilianos, Abbot of Simonopetra I79, Asia Minor disaster I66
2oo,2oi,207,2o8,220,249-S0,252, Athanasios, Abbot of Vatopedi 53
267 Athanasios the Athonite, St 39, 40,
Akakios of Kafsokalyvia I24-5 4I-5I,42, 55,58,64, Io9, I22
Akathist Hymn 105 Athenagoras, Patriarch I64, I72
Albania I42, 265--6 Athens II, I3,74
Alberti, Leon Battista I3-I4 Athos, peak of I, 2, 9, 29, 30, 9I, 245, 255
Aleksey Aleksandrovich, Grand Duke Axion estin hymn I9, 2I
I52, I53 Axion estin icon 2I, 22, 242, 266
Alexander II, Tsar I 52 Axion estin ship 2I
Alexander III of Macedon (the Great)
I3-I5 Balkan Wars IS6, I57, I59
Alexander VII, Pope I4 baptism 209-IO, 211, 2I4, 262-4
Alexander Basarab 79 Bardas Skleros 55
Alexander (Golitzin), Fr 259--60 Barlaam of Calabria 88, I09
Alexios, Abbot of Xenophontos I79 Barsky, Vasily 125, I30, 132, I33, I50
Alexios, Tsar I30 Bartholomew, Patriarch I92
Alexios I Komnenos, Emperor 63 Basil, St 46, 47
Alexios III Angelos, Emperor 67 Basil I, Emperor 39
Alexios III Komnenos, Emperor of Basil II, Emperor 55, 6I
Trebizond 76 bees 33
Amalfitans, monastery of 56--7, 58, 62, Benedictines 58
67 Bogoroditsa, skete of 65, I46, 229
Amand de Mendieta, Emmanuel 40, 62, Boniface of Monferrat 69
73, 74, I70, 200 Bourazeri I9I
Andronikos II Palaiologos, Emperor Brehier, Louis 89
73-4,85,237 Brusa II3
animals, wild 2, 8, 35 Bucharest I27
domestic 26-7, 62, I23, I68, 182 Bulgaria 69, 7I, I27, I56, I57, I85, I97
Anthimos VI, Patriarch I 53 Bulgarians 3, 6I, 65, 67, 68, 74, 79, I30,
Anthony IV, Patriarch 85, I IO I57, I85
Byron, Robert 1, 9, 239 Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens
Byzantine Commonwealth 65, 90 164
Church, Greek 3, 164, 209
Calabria 266 Civil War, Greek 168
Calabrians, monastery of 58 Clement, monastery of 39, 55
calendar, Gregorian (new) 164 climate 29, 237
calendar, Julian (old) 164, 248 Constans, Emperor 81
canal of Xerxes 1, II, 11-12, 13 Constantine the Great, Emperor 6, 18, 27
Cantacuzino, Sherban, Prince of cross of 27
Wallachia IIS Constantine I, King of the Hellenes
Caracalla, Emperor 28 160
Catalan Grand Company 74 Constantine V, Emperor 38
Cavafy, Constantine 194 Constantine IX Monomachos, Emperor
Cavarnos, Constantine 4-5, 206 53, 61, 62
cenobitic system 3, 46, 47, 51, Iog-Io, Constantinople 72, 109, 194
122, 123, 144, 151, 163, 176, 215, 220, sack of 69, 71; recapture of 71; fall
255 of 71, 112, 113
triumph of 181, 206-7, 231 Hagia Sophia 1, 38, 114; Stoudios
Charalambos, Abbot of Dionysiou 175, monastery of StJohn the Baptist 42,
181 43,46,47, 109,212;Mangana
Chariton, Abbot of Koutloumousiou 79 monastery 61; Evergetis monastery
Charles I of Anjou 72 67; Church of the Holy Apostles 114;
Charter of 1924 162-4, 188, 193 Holy Synod 114, 136; Great Church
Cherubim (Karambelas), Archimandrite 1 43
227-30 Council of (AD 553) 19
Chilandar, monastery of 21-2; 66, 67, Constitution of Greece 183-4
81-5, IJO, 134, 143, 166, 170, 188, Covel, John 233, 247
248,251 Crete 42, 133
Tricherousa 21-2; Virgin Hodegetria Crusades 7, 69
mosaic icon 23, 93; dedication to the Cyprus 17, 69
Presentation of the Mother of God Cyril, monk of the Lavra 135
25; foundation 66-7; typikon 67; Cyril V, Patriarch 136, 138
attacked by Catalans 74; supported Cyril and Methodios, Sts 64-5
by Stefan Dushan 74; Milutin dip- Cyril of Alexandria, St 20
tych 83, 84; frescos 96, 106; icons Cyrillic alphabet 65
97, 98, 106; supported by Tsar Ivan
IV 130; and the Greek War of da Cortona, Pietro 14
Independence 145; occupied by Daniel, Abbot of Chilandar 74
Bulgarian troops 157; Pascha 254 Daniel of Katounakia, Elder 176, 177,
Chios 61 208,227--9
Choiseul-Gouffier, Compte de 12 Daphne 3,21, I7J,204,205,238,240,
Choukas, Michael 3 240,245,250
Christ Dapontis, Constantine 135, 138
Second Adam 19; Nativity 20, Dawkins, R.M. 72
254-7; Transfiguration 88, 89, 92 Demetrios, Patriarch 166
Christmas 20, 254-7 Demetrios, St 54
Christodoulidis, Sapphiros 142 Demosthenes 137
Christodoulos, Abbot of Descartes, Rene 136, 137
Koutloumousiou 179 desert of Athos go, 92, 124, 174, 176,

286 INDEX
 I96,204, 225-30,245,257,259 becomes cenobitic I44; a Zealot
de Valenciennes, Pierre-Henri I4, I5 monastery I64, I65, I66; refuses to
diamonitirion I63, 234, 235, 238, 242 exhibit treasures I92
diet 222,227-9,246-7,254,256 Euboea I, I79
Dimitrios Firfiris, Deacon I97 Eugenius IV, Pope 112
Dinocrates I3, I4, I5 eunuchs 25-6,6I,62
Dionysios III, Patriarch I24 European Union I82-4, I88, I9I, 204,
Dionysiois of Kolitsou, Elder I87, I89, 266
260 Eustathios, Archbishop of Thessaloniki
Dionysios of Phourna 93-5 68-9
Dionysiou, monastery of 77, I43, I45, Euthymios of Iviron 55
I7I, 244 Euthymios, Abbot of Vatopedi 72
Myrovlitissa 24; foundation 76; Euthymios the Younger, St 38
chrysobull of Alexios III Komnenos Evgenios, Abbot of Simonopetra I29
76, 78; Serbian house 8I; gospel
cover IOJ; cross of Empress Helena fasting 222
I04; supported by ruler of Wallachia Fennell, Nicholas I5I, I 55, I6I, 2I7
I29; becomes cenobitic I44; and flora 8, 34
World War II I67; twentieth-century Florence, Council of 86, I 11- I 2
decline I7o; revived by Abbot Franks 69, 70
Charalambos I8I; representative frescos 8, 94, 95, 98-106
deposed I89, 250 of Panselinos 95-6, 96; of
Dochiariou, monastery of 82, 239, 242 Theophanes the Cretan I I 8
Gorgoypekoos 24; supported by Friendly Society I45
Stefan Dushan 74; Serbian house 8I; Friends of Mount Athas I9I, 250, 257
revived in I979 I79 Fyodor Ivanovich, Tsar I30
Dormition, feast of 25
Gabriel, Abbot of Dionysiou 6, I7I-2,
Ecumenical Patriarch 3, 63, 85, 114-I5, 208
I76, I88, 266 Gabriel, hermit monk of Iviron 2I
and the Charter of I924 I62; ten- Gabriel IV, Patriarch I38, I43-4
sions with Athos I64, I89-92, I94, Galla Placidia, Empress 25
250,266-7 Gallipoli 74, I I3
Eden, Garden of I 9 Ganos, Mount 9I
enamel 83, IOJ, I07 Genesios 38
enkolpia I07 Gennadios, Patriarch I09, I I4
Enlightenment I38, I40 Genoese 74
entry permit see diamonitirion geology 29
Ephesus, Council of (AD 43I) I9 George I, King of the Hellenes I 57
Ephraim, Abbot of Philotheou I75, George, St 49, 54
I8I, 202, 25I-2 George (Kapsanis), Abbot of Grigoriou
founder of monasteries in North I79,23I-2,267
America 202 George Scholarios see Gennadios,
Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopedi 2II, 216, Patriarch
256,257,259 Georgia 265
Epirus, despotate of 7I Georgians 55-8, 79, I5o, I97
Esphigmenou, monastery of 66, I42, 2I4 support for Iviron I30
tradition of early foundation 28; sup- Gerasimos, Abbot of St Panteleimonos
ported by Stefan Dushan 74; I46, I5I

INDEX 287
Germans I6I, I66 2I, 22; Portaltissa zi; Tricherousa
Giotto 96 2I-2; Virgin Hodegetria 23, 97;
Glagolitic alphabet 64 Antiphonitria 24, zs; Vimatarissa z8;
Glorifiers of the Name I56--7 Presentation 98; Annunciation IOI,
Goth6ni, Rene 235-7, 249 106--7, 120; of Christ Pantokrator 99;
government, Greek 2, I63, I64, I66, of the Crucifixion Ioo, 106; of the
I82, I83, I88, I94, 204, 237, 267 Transfiguration II9; of St George
governor of Athos, civil 2, I63, I64, 49, 54; of Athos 26; of St Nicholas
I76, I9I 106; of StJohn the Evangelist 106; of
governor of Athos, Ottoman I22, I45, the Hospitality of Abraham 106--7; of
ISS, I56 St Anne I24
Great Idea I94 idiorrhythmic system 3, IOI)-IO, I22,
Gregory, Abbot of Chilandar I30 I23, I44, I63, I67, I76, I77, 2IO
Gregory X, Pope 72 in decline I8I-2, 206--7, 23I
Gregory Mammas, Patriarch I I4 lerissos 38, 238, 245
Gregory Palamas, St I8, 87, 92, 106 lgnatios, Abbot of Vatopedi I34
and the hesychast controversy 86--9o Independence, Greek War of 7, I45
Gregory of Sinai, St 75, 88, 9I, 92, 207 Innocent III, Pope 69
Grigoriou, monastery of 128, 244 Ioannina I36, I37
foundation 75; Serbian house 8I; Isaiah, Russian monk 8 I
supported by ruler of Moldavia 128; Islam I I3, I42
becomes cenobitic I44; revived by Isserlin, B.S.]. I2
Abbot George I79 isthmus of Athos I, II, II, I45
Italy I 10, I37
Habit see Schema Ivan IV ('the Terrible'), Tsar I30
Hasluck, F.W. 28 lviron, monastery or 7, I7, I8, 2I, 52,
Helena, Empress I04 67, I34, I43, I76, I97, 20I, 238, 245,
Hellenism 7, 7I, II8, I35, I36, I94 249
Henry of Flanders, Latin Emperor 70 Portaltissa zi, I3o; dedication to the
Hephaestion I3 Dormition zs; library 53, 58; foun-
hermits I8, 38-9, 43, I95, zoo, 204, dation ss-8; and the union of
206,225-30,228,255 churches 72;cod. I250 I02;sup-
Herodotus Io, II, I4, I37 ported by rulers of Georgia and
hesychasm 86--9o, I39, ISO Russia I3o; and the Greek War of
Holy Community 2, 6I, 75, I33, I34, Independence I45; ceases to be
I43-4, I46, I60, I66, I76, I88, I89, Georgian ISO; twentieth-century
I92,2I7,224,24I,242 decline I7o; revived in I990 I8I
and the Russians I 52, I s6, I 59; and skete of see Prodromos
the Charter of I924 I62, I63, I64;
relations with Constantinople I89-9I James II of Aragon 74
Holy Epistasia I34, I43, IS8, I63, I64, Jeremiah I, Patriarch I IS, I2I
24I Jeremiah II, Patriarch I22-3, I29
Homer I37 Jesus Prayer 88, 92, 142, 207-8, 220, 22I
hunting 35, 69, 205 Jews I33
Joachim I, Patriarch I22
iconoclasm 37-8 John I Tzimiskes, Emperor 39, 43, 46,
icon-painting 8, I97, I98, 225 55
icons Io6--7, I92, I97,248 John V Palaiologos, Emperor 76, 83-5,
of Mary vi, 2I, 24, 23I; Axion estin 9I

288 INDEX
John VI Kantakouzenos, Emperor 90, foundation 81; Serbian house 81;
91-2 becomes cenobitic 144; revived in
John VIII Palaiologos, Emperor 111-12 1980 179, 202; refuses to exhibit
John Bekkos, Patriarch 72 treasures 192
John Chrysostom, St 106 Konstantin Nikolaevich, Grand Duke
John Klimakos, St 88,121,231 I 52
John Kolobos 38, 39 Kontoglou, Photis 195
John of Damascus, St 21, 107 Korais, Adamantios 138
John of Georgia 43 Kosmas the Aetolian, St 137, 141-2
John of Sinai, St, Abbot of St Kosovo 113
Catherine's 121 Kotoulas, Dimitrios 35
John the Baptist, St 20, 76, 78 Koufopoulos, Petros 257
John the Iberian 55, 58 Koukouzeles, StJohn 102, 107
John Tornikios 55 Koutloumousiou, monastery of 127,
John Ugljesa, Prince 75 2JJ,242,266
John Vladislav 79 Phoveraprostasia 24; foundation 79;
Joseph, Abbot of Xeropotamou 189, 'lavra of Wallachia' 81; becomes
250,252-4 cenobitic 144; attempt to Russify
Joseph of Vatopedi, Elder 175, 180, I 52; revived by Abbot Christodoulos
181, 201, 2II, 256, 267 179
Joseph the Hesychast, Elder 175, 177, skete of see St Panteleimon
177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 201-2, 207, Kyminas, Mount 41,42
208,256
Julian the Apostate, Emperor 27 Lakkou, skete of 31, 125, 125, 126, 185,
189, 248, 259, 260
Kafsokalyvia, skete of 90, 124-5, 225, Lancaster, Osbert 55
245,258 Laourdas, Basil 195
Kallimachis family 150 Latin empire 7, 53, 58, 68-70, 71
Kallinikos V, Patriarch 138 Lavra, Great, monastery of 3, 6, 7,
Kallinikos the Hesychast, Elder 227-30 44-s, 51, s8, 61, 62, 110, 123, 134,
Kapsala 225, 255 143, 191-2,2JJ,247,249,259
Karakalou, monastery of 144, 249 Koukouzelissa 24; typikon 25, 47-51;
tradition of early foundation 28; foundation 39, 41-6; katholikon 43,
becomes cenobitic 144; revived from 46, 51; and the union of churches 73;
Philotheou 202 attacked by Catalans 74; supported
Karoulia 202, 206, 225, 226, 228, 258 by Stefan Dushan 74; icons 93, 106;
Karyes 2, 7, 18, 21, 39, 40, 43, 59, 73, frescos 96; and the Greek War of
8s, 143, 144, 168, 2o4, 205, 21 7, Independence 145; and World War II
241-2,241,244,255 167; its millennium 172; becomes
market 61, 62, 140; schools 134, 172; cenobitic 181; and the Romanian
and the millennium 172, 173 skete of Prodromos 188; relations
Kastoria 76, 79 with Constantinople 190; refuses to
Katounakia I 76 exhibit treasures 192; lay workers
Kiev 66 220
Lavra of the Caves 66 lavra (group of hermits) 38, 41, 42,
Kolitsou 186, 189, 260 59--61, 123
Kollyvades movement 139, 14o-1, 207, Lazarus 17
208 Lazarus I, Prince of Serbia 24
Konstamonitou, monastery of 66, 239 Leake, William Martin 12

INDEX 289
Lear, Edward I 45 Maximus the Confessor, St I99
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von I36, Megali Jovantsa 239
I37 Megali Vigla 29, I62
Lemerle, Paul 6 Mehmet II, Sultan I I4, I I8
Lemnos I, 9, IO Melana 42
Leo III, Emperor 38 Meletios, Abbot of Vatopedi I36
Leo of Benevento 58 Meletios, Patriarch I64
liberation of Athos I 56, I 57, 158, I94 Mese 59
libraries 8, 69, 7I, I34, I63, I97-9, 199, see also Karyes
2I7 metalwork 104, I07, 145, 205
LittleSt Anne I34, 178, 179 Meteora I, 25, 120, I78, I79, 20I, 23I,
Liturgy, Divine IOJ, 200, 2IO, 2I3, 2I5, 265
22I,222,253,262 Methodios I, Patriarch 38
Liturgy of St Basil 20, 252, 256 Michael VIII Palaiologos, Emperor 7I,
Loch, Joice 12, 238 72,73
Loch,Sydney 225,238,24I-2,245,258 Michael Maleinos 4I, 42
Locke,John I36, I37 Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia
Lossky, Vladimir 20 I29
Lyons, Council of 72 Mihnea III Radu of Wallachia I29
millennium of Athos 3, I72-3, 173,
Makarios of Corinth, St I40, 202 I95,206
Makarios of Simonopetra, Fr 200 Millet, Gabriel 6
Mamaloukos, Stavros 257 miracles 28
Manfred of Sicily 7I conversion of Athos I7-I8;
Manuel II Palaiologos, Emperor 85, Portaltissa at Iviron 2I, I3o;
104, I09, IIO, II I Tricherousa at Chilandar 2I-2; holy
Manuel Kantakouzenos I IO girdle of the Mother of God at
manuscripts 8, so, 53, I07, I34, I46, Vatopedi 22-4; icons at Vatopedi 24;
I92, I97, I99, 233, 248 Our Lady Antiphonitria at Vatopedi
music s8, 102 25; rescue of Arcadius at Vatopedi
Marathon IO 27; Vimatarissa at Vatopedi 28;
Mardonius IO Christ appears to St Silouan I7I
Marica II3 Mistra I09, II3
martyrdom 47, I43 Moisiodax, Iosipos I37, I38
martyrs I25 Moldavia I25
New Martyrs I42-3 support for monasteries I2I, I27-30,
Mary the Mother of God vi, 2, I6 I33, I35, I43
visits Athos I7-I8, 25; role in Mongols 75, 86, II I, II3, I3o, I46
Orthodoxy IC)-2I; Second Eve I9, Moravia 64, 65
2I; Dormition 20; role on Athos Morris, Rosemary 64
2I-5, I93, 23I; monasteries dedicated mosmcicons 23,54,93, 100, I06
to 24-5; Annunciation 84, 93; mosaics 48, 93
appears to St Maximos of Moscow
Kafsokalyvia 9I; cures Evgenios monastery of St Nicholas I30
Voulgaris I37 Murad II, Sultan 86, I20
see also icons music s8, I07, I79, I97
Matthew Basarab, Prince of Wallachia Muslims 4I
I29, I30 Mylopotamos 42
Maximos of Kafsokalyvia, St 9o-3, I24

290 INDEX
nationalism 140 skete 150
Neagoe Basarab, Prince of Wallachia Paisy Velichkovsky, St 133, 150, 161,
129 208
Neophytos, Abbot of Konstamonitou PaJamas, Panayiotis 137, 138
81 Palmer, Gerald 35-6, 202
Neophytos of Kafsokalyvia 136, 137 Panselinos, Manuel 93-6, 96, 106, 242
Nephon II, Patriarch 129 Pantokrator, monastery of 79, uo, 182
New Skete 125, 174, 175, 177, 179, 179, Gerontissa 24; foundation 76; fres-
18o,2oi,224-5,257-8 cos 106; icons 120; and the Prophet
Nicaea 113 Elijah skete 150; revived in 1992 181
Council of 164 Parfeny Aggeev 146
empire of 71 Parios, Athanasios 137, 140
Nicholas I, Tsar 152 Pascha 25o--4
Nicholas, St 106 Patmos 25, 136
Nicholas, Abbot of Vatopedi 52 Paul, St 175, 207
Nicholas Grammatikos, Patriarch 63 Paul, King of the Hellenes 172
Nicol, Donald 73, 85, 254 Paul of Xeropotamou 40
Nicolas Cabasilas, St 19 Pavel, Prior of the Prophet Elijah skete
Nikephoros II Phokas, Emperor 41-3 ISO, 151
Nikodeme, Abbess of Ormylia 265 Pavlides, Fr Pavlos 167-8, 167
Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain, St Pavlovsky, A.A. 159
139, 140, 141, 143, 161, 202, 208 Pelagonia, battle of 71
Nikolaos Hatzinikolaou, Fr 260 Pentecost 257--9
Nikon of Karoulia, Fr 202, 225, 228 Persian Wars ID--12, 15
Niphon, St 9o--1 Peter the Athonite, St 18, 39
Norwich, John Julius 4, 169-70, 176 Petronios, Prior of the Prodromos skete
Notaras, Makarios see Makarios of 188
Corinth, St Phi/oka/ia 90, 14D--1, 202, 225, 230
novitiate 210 Philotheou, monastery of 141
Gerontissa 24; Glykophilousa 24;
Obolensky, Dimitri 68, 90, 252 dedication to the Annunciation 24;
Ohrid 67,96 supported by Stefan Dushan 74;
Oikonomides, Nikolaos 55, 76 revived by Abbot Ephraim 177, 202;
olive trees 33 revives Xeropotamou and
Olympus, Mount (Bithynia) 38 Konstamonitou 179; representative
Olympus, Mount (Thessaly) 1 deposed 189, 250; refuses to exhibit
Ormylia, Holy Convent of the treasures 192
Annunciation 265, 267 Phokas, St 94
Orthodox Church 20, 72, 114, 163, 193, pilgrimage 17, 235-7, 245, 261
197,209 pilgrims 151, 154, 157, 190, 200, 204,
and the calendar 164 205,207,218,222,223,233-64
Orthodoxy, Triumph of 38, 41 pirates 27, 42, 134
Ottoman empire 7, 115 Plastiras, Nicholas 164
Ottomans 69, 71, 86, 111, 113-56 Plato 137
Ouranopolis 12, 21, 236, 237-8 Platonism 109
Plethon, George Gemistos 109, 110
Pachomios, monk 122 Plutarch 13, 14
Pa'issios, Elder 260 police 2, 158, 168, 240, 241
Paisy II, Prior of the Prophet Elijah population statistics 4, 145, 155, 168--<),

INDEX 291
 I73-4, I96 St Demetrios, skete of I25, I27
Prizren 96 St Panteleimon, monastery of 67, I30,
Prodromos, Romanian skete of 26, I46, 148-9, ISI, IS8, I84-S,239-40,
I88-g,224,248,259 248
Prodromos, skete of lviron I27 foundation 66, I46; ransacked by
Prophet Elijah, skete of I33, 147, ISO, Catalans 74; supported by Stefan
IS3, ISS, 2I7, 224 Dushan 74; becomes cenobitic I44; a
explusion of the brotherhood I89 Greek house I46, 146, ISO; moves to
Prosphori I2, 237, 238 new site I so; revives as a Russian
Protaton 40, 59, I34 house ISI-S; decline after World War
church of the 7, I8, 2I, 22, 59-6I, I I66, I6g; and St Silouan I7D--I
59, 242; its dedication to the St Panteleimon, skete of
Dormition 25; tower of the 6o, 6I, Koutloumousiou I27
257; icons 93; frescos 95-6, 96 St Paul, monastery of 8o, 125, I70, I74,
Protos 39,40, 59,62-3,86,257 244,257
appointed by ecumenical patriarch dedication to the Purification of the
8s; position abolished I34 Mother of God 25; foundation 79;
Pulcheria, Empress 28, 103 Serbian house 8 I; becomes cenobitic
I44
Rabdouchou 93 St Petersburg I 58
Radu-Serban, Prince of Wallachia I29 Salamis I, I I
relics 8, 43, 52, I42, I92, 235, 248 Savvas, St 22, 67
holy girdle of the Mother of God Schema
22-4, 24; of St Anne I24 Great I42, 2I2-I5
reliquaries 24, I07 Small 2ID--I2
Revolution, French I4, I40 schools I34, I36, I38, I40, I4I
Revolution, Russian I6o see also Academy
Riley, Athelstan I42, I 54 Selim II, Sultan I2I
Roman Catholic Church 20, I64 Seljuks II3
Romania 266 Serai see St Andrew, skete of
independence of I 52 Seraphim II, Patriarch I38
Romanians 3, 4, 65, 8I, 125, I66, 185, Serbia 65, 74-5, I27, IS6, I 57, I6o,
186,187, I88-g, I97,259 I88, I97, 266
Roussikon see St Panteleimon Serbs 2,66--7,74-5,79, II3, I90,25I
Rublev I07 supporters of Athonite monasteries
Runciman, Steven 69, go, 109, I I 5, 74-5, 79, 8I, I30
I9I, 257 Serres 76
Rus' 65,75 Sherrard, Philip 3-4, I70, I95-6, 202,
Russia I37, I4I, I42, I85, 233, 266 235,236
support for monasteries I30 Sicilians, monastery of 58
Russians 2, 65-6, 79, I30, I46--56, Silouan, St I7D--I, I74, 208
I57-6I, I68, I84-5, I89, I97,228 Simonopetra, monastery of 34, 75, I32,
Russo-Turkish War I 54 I33, 2I9, 244, 25I, 263
foundation 75-6; supported by rulers
St Andrew, skete of 152, I52-3, I 54, of Wallachia I27-9; port building
ISS, IS8, 159, 160, 224 I27-8, 1JI; becomes cenobitic I44;
St Anne, skete of I24, 124, Igo, 258 rebuilt with Russian help I 54;
St Basil in the desert I75 revived by Abbot Aimilianos I78-g;
St Basil on the Sea I06 representative deposed I89, 250;

292 INDEX
 library 257; parent of Ormylia 265 Thivais 239
Sinai, Mount I2I Thomas, St 22
sketes 3, I23-7, 224-5 Thomas, W.B. I67
Slavonic 64, 67, I4I Thucydides I37
Slavs 64-8 timber industry 3I, I83, 204, 238
Smyrna I42 Tito, Marshal I69
Smyrnakis, Gerasimos ISS, I68 Tolleshunt Knights, monastery of St
Society of Jesus I34 John the Baptist I74
Sophron~Fr I7o-I, I74,I7S,255 tourism I78, I83, I94, 234--6, 266
Sphrantzes, George III, 114 Tourkokratia 7, 90, I09, 113-56, I82,
Spratt, Lieut. T. I2 I93
Staro Nagoricino 96 Tragos of 972 39-4I, 43, 46
Stathis, Grigorios T. I07 Treasures of Mount Athos exhibition
Stavronikita, monastery 5, 30, 75, I IS, I92-3,248
II6-I7 Treaty of Berlin I62
mosaic icon Io6; foundation us, Treaty of Lausanne I62
I2I; frescos I I8, I2I; icons I I9; Treaty of Sevres I 62
revived by Abbot Vasileios I75-6; Trebizond, empire of 7I, 113
guest house 246 Trinity I9, 20
Stefan (Nutescu), Prior of Lakkou skete Trojan War 1}-IO, IS
I8S, I89 Troy I, 9, IO
Stefan Dushan, Tsar of Serbia 74-5, 85 Tsigaridas, Efthymios 106--7
Stefan I Nemanya 22, 67 Turkey I59, I62
Stefan the Great of Moldavia 128 typikon of I045 25-6, 53, 6I-3; of
Struck, A. I2 about I4oo 85; of I406 26, I 10; of
Studenica, monastery of 67, 96 I573 I22-3;of I783 I43-4
Sylvester, Patriarch of Alexandria I22 see also Tragos of 972, Charter of
Symeon see Stefan I Nemanya I924
Symeon the New Theologian 88
union of churches 72-3, III-I2
Tabor, Mount 88, 89, 92
textiles I28, 238 Vasileios (Gontikakis), Abbot of
Thasos IO Stavronikita and Iviron 5, I75--6,
Theocharides, Ploutos 257 I8I, I99, 267
Theodora, Empress 38 Vatopedi, monastery of 6, 7, I8, 47, 6I,
Theodore the Stoudite, St 47 62, I23, I34, I43, 216, 237, 26I
Theodorit, Prior of St Andrew's skete holy girdle of the Mother of God
I 53 22-4,24;icons 24,25,49,93,99,
Theodosius I the Great, Emperor 27, IOI, 106--7; dedication to the
28 Annunciation 24, Io6; traditions of
Theodosius II, Emperor 28 early foundation 27-8; cross of
Theoklitos of Dionysiou, Fr 200, 206 Constantine 27; katholikon 48;
Theophanes, Abbot of Vatopedi 9I, 92 library so; foundation SI-S; and the
Theophanes the Cretan II8, II9, 120, union of churches 72-3; supported
I2I by Stefan Dushan 74; mosaics 93;
Theophilos, Emperor 2I frescos 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 106; mosaic
theosis (deification) 36, 200 icon 100; wooden lectern IDS;
Theotokos see Mary the Mother of God 'Jasper' 108, IOI)-IO; supported by
Thessaloniki 7I, 86, IS6, I6o, I92, 234 Tsar Ivan IV I30; and the Athonite

INDEX 293
 Academy I36, I37, I38; and the Xenophontos, monastery of I28, I33, 239
Greek War of Independence I45; tradition of early foundation 28;
twentieth-century decline I7o; mosaic icons 54, 93; supported by
revived in I990 IBo, I8I; and the Stefan Dushan 74; supported by
Romanians I 89; programme of rulers of Wallachia I29-30; becomes
restoration 203; refectory 207, 26I; cenobitic I44; revived by Abbot
guest house 247; Pascha 253; Alexios I79; its millennium 239
Christmas 255-7 skete of I27
vegetation 8, 3D-I, 3I, 32,33 Xeropotamou, monastery of 79, I35,
Venetians 69, I33-4 240,25D-4
Venizelos, Eleftherios I6o, I95 tradition of early foundation 28; and
Vitruvius I3, I4 the union of churches 73; supported
Vlachs 63-4 by Stefan Dushan 74; Pulcheria
von Erlach, Johann Bernard Fischer I4 Paten I03; revived in I98o I79, 202;
Voulgaris, Evgenios I36-8, I40 abbot deposed I89, 250
Xerxes I, ID-I2
Wallachia 7crSI Xylourgou, monastery of 65, 65, 66, I46
support for monasteries I IS, I2I,
I27-30, I33, I35, I43 Yugoslavia I66
waqf I2I
Ware, Bishop Kallistos I9, 20, 3I, 89, Zealots I64
90, 9I, 92, I68, I76, I85, I88, I99, Zerzoulis, Nikolaos I38
208 Zeus 2,9, I6
and the Philokalia I4I, 202 Zoe, Empress 24
Wolff, Kaspar Friedrich I37 Zographou, monastery of 32, 67,
women, exclusion of 25-7, I63 I8s-8,248
flouted 63-4, I 68 foundation 67; port buildings 68,
woodcarving IDS, 125 239; and the union of churches 73;
World War I I6o, I6I, I6I, I62 supported by Stefan Dushan 74;
World War II I66-8, I74 becomes cenobitic I44; occupied by
Bulgarian troops I 57; decline after
Xanthopoulos, Kallistos and lgnatios 222 World War I 166
Xenophon, St 28 Zygos 42, 59, 67

294 INDEX
 PHOTOGRAPHIC AcKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jacket image, 1, 5, 7, 8, g, 10, II, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33,
36, 37, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 59, 62, 64, 68, 69, 70, 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91,
92, 93, 94, g6, 97, 98, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, III, II2 ©Graham
Speake; 2 Restricted gift of Mrs Harold T. Martin, 1983.36 The Art Institute of
Chicago; frontispiece, 3, 23, 39, 65 Holy Community, Karyes; 4, 34, 35, 40, 41 ©
monastery of Chilandar; 6 ©Romanian skete of Prodromos; 16, 17, 38, 42, 43, 44, 49,
so, 83, 85, 110 ©monastery of Vatopedi; 18 ©Anthony Hazledine; 20, 45, ©monastery
of Iviron; 21 ©monastery of Xenophontos; 22 © Fr John Maitland Moir; 30, 47, 48,
61, 67 ©monastery of Dionysiou; 46 ©monastery of Xeropotamou; 54© monastery
of Stavronikita; 55, 56 © monastery of Pantokrator; 6o © monastery of Grigoriou; 63
© monastery of Simonopetra; 66 © Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; 71 © Skete of St
Andrew; 72, 73, 76, 79, 82 © Mount Athos Photographic Archive; 78, 101 © Gerald
Palmer; 95 ©monastery of Esphigmenou.