Mt. Athos

[Nickolai]

Iv'e been really interested in the Holy Mountain lately, and was wondering. I know someone on here has to have been to it. What's the level of difficulty for an American to get onto it? and what is the best way to get from Thessolinki to Oranoupolis?

Also, What are the Monks like? Would they not like the fact that I'm OCA? Since I would not be re-baptized. Only chrismated.

I'm planning on taking this trip next year in September 2005 maybe. Is that a good time to go?

I've already asked too many questions
Thanks in advance if anyone can help me out.


Christos Anesti, Chrestos Voskrese, Harisutosu Fukkatsu.

 

[Iacobus]

Iv'e been really interested in the Holy Mountain lately, and was wondering. I know someone on here has to have been to it. What's the level of difficulty for an American to get onto it? and what is the best way to get from Thessolinki to Oranoupolis?

Also, What are the Monks like? Would they not like the fact that I'm OCA? Since I would not be re-baptized. Only chrismated.

I'm planning on taking this trip next year in September 2005 maybe. Is that a good time to go?

I've already asked too many questions
Thanks in advance if anyone can help me out.


Christos Anesti, Chrestos Voskrese, Harisutosu Fukkatsu.

It will be the most wonderful experience of your life. I'm not kidding a bit.

I was there last December. Oblio and Prodromos have both been there. Probably others on the Board have been there as well. PM any one of us with your questions. But the short answer is -- don't worry. You'll love the monks. They'll be fine with you. And catch the 5 AM bus from Thessaloniki to Ouranopolis.

My only regret is that I'm not there now.

James

 

[Suzannah]

I think you are wonderful to be so interested! Send a pm to Oblio or Prodromos. Both have been there...prodromos lives in Thessaloniki, and he has been there many times...I'm sure he would be overjoyed to help you plan your trip!

God bless you in your journey!!!

 

[prodromos]

Yup! The sofa bed in the spare room is being readied as we speak.

One thing to keep in mind though is that Summer is peak season for visitors to the Holy Mountain so if that is the only time you can come we need to know well in advance as there are limits to how many people can enter each day. Both Oblio and Iacobus went during Winter which is much quieter people wise but but is more than compensated by the weather. Ask Iacobus about the day he was "supposed" to leave Mount Athos .

If your priest or bishop have contacts on Mount Athos then USE THEM, as being invited to the Holy Mountain bypasses all the red tape and restrictions. If you are Greek then there are fewer restrictions, otherwise you will need proof of your Orthodoxy such as your baptismal certificate. Oblio got one made specially for him at the eleventh hour before coming to Greece as it had somehow been overlooked. If I remember anything else I'll post it but please remember there is a comfortable bed waiting for you here as a way point on your pilgrimage. We'd love to have you stay.

John

 

[MariaRegina]

Read THE MOUNTAIN OF SILENCE by Kyriacos Markides

Are there any other pilgrim's guides to Mt. Athos that we can read (especially those of us who are female)? Since we cannot go, I'd like to see it through the eyes of another.

I picked up the CD offered through Regina Orthodox Press -- I wasn't too impressed by it.

 

[Oblio]

John has some great links, but I seem to have misplaced them. Here is one:

A Pilgrim's Guide to Mount Athos

 

[MariaRegina]

http://www.hri.org/MPA/other/Agio_Oros/

Thanks Chris.

From that website, if you click the url above, you see a list of the participating monasteries. If those monasteries are clicked a nice picture is displayed. They are breathtakingly beautiful.

 

[Cradle]

I've only been to the Holy Mountain once, and that was the 80s. So my info is likely to be outdated! If people travel from as far away as the US especially for that, then I suppose I should be ashamed .

I hear nowadays there are more roads and more visitors, and more modern facilities, like electricity in the visitors' rooms. But at the time it was literally stuck in the Byzantine era. You had that constant feeling the emperor will turn up anytime from just round the corner. On the other hand, some of the monasteries were almost in ruins due to occational earthquakes and fires, and there was no money to rebuild them. So I guess a slight degree of modernisation is the necessary fruit of maintenance.

I remember being very enthousiastic about it for about six months after my visit - after that I gradually became my usual self again . An interesting "coincidence" is that it was there that I first saw the man who was to become my spiritual father in times of need more than a decade later, physically very far away from Athos (although there is no apparent connection between the two events, as I had to introduce myself from the beginning in the second occation). Anyway, in that sense I suppose I can call it a life-changing experience in the long term, or maybe a life-supporting or constantly life-correcting one.

 

[Iacobus]

Both Oblio and Iacobus went during Winter which is much quieter people wise but but is more than compensated by the weather. Ask Iacobus about the day he was "supposed" to leave Mount Athos .

John

The most amazing 24 hours ever.

James

P.S. - God bless John. He's sent more people to Mt. Athos than anyone else in history. He collected me at my hotel at 4 AM, thrust coffee in my hand, negotiated my bus ticket, gave me a phone card, and sent me on my way, all before I had awakened.

 

[Nickolai]

Thanks everyone for the Info.

Prodromos, Thank you very much for your generosity. I may just stay with you guys when I go. You don't have to get ready for me any time soon though. maybe in a year I will acctually have the money to go. The cheapest tickets I have seen from pittsburgh are 650$ to land in Thessolaniki. With an overnight stay in Vienna for some reason. That's if I went for the winter. I may be able to do that if I can save a lot of money from now till then, but it looks more likely that I will make the trip next fall. But I will deffinitly go within the next year and a half.

I want to make sure I know what I need to do to get onto the Mountain far in advance. I worry myself if I don't take care of stuff early.

Again thanks everyone for the info.

 

[Matrona]

Nickolai, how exciting this must be for you, to plan a trip to the Holy Mountain!

My patron saint's incorrupt relics are located in Zographou monastery, although to this day, no one knows how they got there.

While I'm posting, I might as well clear something up. I heard somewhere that the ban on women extends to images of them as well. Is this true? Surely this can't extend to icons... I can hardly imagine an Orthodox Church, much less the monastic heart of Orthodoxy, without an icon of Panagia...

 

[Nickolai]

I know for a fact that many of the Monastaries have Icons of the Theotokos. But then again, the mountain does belongs to her. The No Women Rule is pretty strict. Since it even applies to animals.

 

[Matrona]

I know for a fact that many of the Monastaries have Icons of the Theotokos. But then again, the mountain does belongs to her. The No Women Rule is pretty strict. Since it even applies to animals.

Yeah, I thought of the Mother of God of three hands located at the Chilandar monastery (pray for Chilandar!), right after I posted that. But I wonder about other women, even holy women.

For the record, I wonder about my patron saint--it seems only natural that her relics would have an icon of her nearby. But it said her relics are on Athos in the newsletter I was sent by a monastery. Ah, I don't know what to think. I should really go to bed now.

 

[Cradle]

There is a "ban on female saints", in that no monastery, skete or chapel on the whole Mountain is dedicated to any female saint, other than the Mother of God. With a single exception, the skete of St Anne, dedicated to the mother of the Mother of God .

Did I get that right prodromos?