Mount Athos

On Friday, June18, Jonathan and I headed for Mt. Athos. At one time there were over 100 monasteries dating back to the 5th century. Now there are 20 active monasteries, most of which are Greek, but a few of different Orthodox jurisdictions including St. Panteleimon a Rusian monastery that once housed 2000 monks and now about 250 to 300. There are 1500 or so monks today in the various monastaries. Our day began at 5:45am for a two hour bus drive from Thessaloniki to Ouranoupolis, at the entrance of the third of three fingers of the Halkidiki peninsulas. We then boarded a ferry for another two hour journey to Daphne, the port of entrance to the Holy Mountain. We were accompanied by about 130 other pilgrims, all men through the magnificent waters of the Aegean Sea, bluer and cleaner than any waters I have ever witnessed. We landed and then proceeded to a small bus waiting for us and some 12 others to the Monastery of Simono Petra, our destination. As we climbed the mountain we observed the breathtaking vistas of the Aegean below and the jagged peak of Mt. Athos above, similar to the majestic 14ers of the Colorado Rockies with the exception that it shoots straight out of the sea. We rounded a bend and there before us, perched like an eagles nest on a high cliff was the 1000 year old Monastery, home now to 55 monastics. We were received with genuine hospitality which included food and drink, shown to our rooms with time for exploration of the area and monastery prior to vespers. I was met and received by Fr. Iakovos, a schoolmate of mine from Seminary who is the Secretary to the Abbot, Fr. Elissaios and a monk at Simono Petra for 25 years. It was very nice to see him and he was a most gracious host. We attended vespers, a meal with the community, and then sat on the highest balcony with Fr. Iakovos, some 1000 feet directly above the sea below and watched a rain storm move in off the waters, including lightning and thunder. We then retired, preparing for the 4am services. Believe it or not, we made it to church with minutes to spare. Although Jonathan did not make it through the entire 3 and a half hour service, which included the midnight Services, hours, Orthros and Divine Liturgy, he was there for the first half of it. The chanting was beautiful, moving nicely and very meldically with a left and right choir going back and forth as Orthodox have done for centuries. The setting, the reverence, the precence of the saints all made for an incredible spiritual and asthetic experience. I failed to mention that the previous night we had a chance to venerate all of the relics at the Monastery which included pieces of the cross of our Lord, relics of St. Simon, St. Mary Magdaline, St. Barbara, St. Demetrios, St. Panteleimon, the left foot of Kyrikos-the little boy martyr whose relics we have at St. Catherine, and many more. After some more exploring of the area and monastery, pictures (which we will send later) we had our final services and a community meal before heading back to Daphne and reversing or steps back to Thessaloniki. A little note, when we got to Daphne a large group got off of the ferry before we boarded and I said to Jonathan, "Lets watch the people get off because I might know someone here". His response was something like, "Yeah, right dad. You're really going to know someone here. No sooner had I responded, "You never know, the Orthodox world is a small one", when someone said "Fr. Lou!". I looked and there was Chris a seminary graduate who visited Fr. Christodoulos a few times in Denver, and St. Catherine and then several other recent graduates of Holy Cross and Timothy Patitsas, leading them. We all embraced and Jonathan was at least mildly impressed at how small indeed the Orthodox world is!

We are now in Athens. Chris got into to town several hours ago. We finished a relaxing dinner on the roof of our hotel and I am gazing upon the beautifully lit Parthenon out my hotel window by our walk out balcony-which has a story all its own that I will complete this blog with. We arranged for two standard rooms at our hotel, paying for them in advance, one for the boys and one for Marsha and me. When we got here, the rooms were much less than we expected, to say the least. We were not very happy. I figured we had just two nights here and we had already paid for it so we could make due. Marsha had other thoughts. She went to the front desk and calmly explained the situation to which the manager essentially offered to us at no extra charge the roof suite, with flowered balcony an all. Marsha liked it so much that she even went through the flower pots and cleaned out the dead geraniums and straightened things up. We spent a good amount of time out on the balcony this evening. When you all are fast asleep, we will be enjoying coffee on our balcony in the morning gazing on the magnificent Parthenon....My wife is pretty special. Love to all from downtown Athens-Home of democracy. Fr. Lou