The Holy Mountain
Mt. Athos

   For over a thousand years, Mt. Athos has been a lasting part of Orthodox spirituality.  There are 20 monasteries where monks live together and which contains a church katholikon, an increasing number of sketes (14 I know of) where monks live in small groups in small dwellings often with a small chapel in a community with a central church, and an unknown number of hermitages.  Mt. Athos has been home to a number of Orthodox saints, beginning with St. Athanasios who founded the first monastery, the Great Lavra, in 963, and continuing to the present day including my spiritual grandfather (my spiritual father's spiritual father).  My spiritual father himself is an Athonite monk so I able to go with little effort or planning.  Most men who go arrange months ahead of time to stay in a monastery for one night and can only stay on the Holy Mountain for 4 days.  My priest gave me a letter asking the monasteries to allow me to stay as long as I wanted.  I tried to make plans ahead of time for what to do, but my priest just told me not to plan anything and just let the Holy Mother guide me.  The one thing I did plan to do, to spend a few days at Moni Dionysiou when I first arrived, was canceled as they were having an 18 hour service to their patron, St. John the Baptist.  I had to change quickly and went to the only monastery I could think of, my priest's own Moni Grigoriou.  I made my way from place to place, walking when I could or taking a bus or boat when it was too far.  I stayed for 10 days and was welcomed everywhere I went, though many times I didn't meet anyone who spoke English. 
    There are three I have the best memories of.  The first was Moni Simonos Petros, hanging way up on a mountain.  It felt like a cave in places and many of 'hallways' were actually balconies hanging to the side.  This monastery has the most beautiful chanting, the sound continues to follow me (especially since they gave me some CDs).  The monks here were also very friendly and I had a nice long talk with one of them.  The other was Moni Iveron, which has a well-known miracle working icon which I was able to venerate several times.  I also met a monk in the bookstore who had traveled in Asia and served me and some other young men vodka while we talked.  The third is the first I went to, Moni Grigoriou.  Their chanting was almost as good as Simonos Petros, and the monks were also very friendly and seemed to engage the visitors more than at many of the other monasteries.  Being there was one of my most memorable experiences and I want to go back again sometime.  Next time I want to spend more time in a single monastery because it was a little tiring going form place to place and I felt a little like I was in a rush the whole time.  The whole time I felt like I was at home.  Not that I think I should join a monastery, but at home in the Orthodox faith, which is lived in every Orthodox parish, but so richly expressed in the incomparable beauty of the worship of the Holy Mountain. 

Note:  The Greeks commonly call this area Agion Oros (Agion Oros ) or the Holy Mountain.  In English it is often identified with the mountain itself, Mt. Athos, though most Orthodox still refer to it by the Greek name.  I have used both names to refer to the peninsula here.
Note 2:  Moni = monastery.
  
  The peak of Mt. Athos, taken from the ferry on the way to the port of Daphni.
  My first stop was Moni Gregoriou.  This is my priest's monastery and I met a few monks there who remembered him.  The monks here were very friendly to all the visitors and the chanting was very beautiful.  It also had more cats than any other monastery I visited.
  When it is time for a service to begin in the church one of the monks takes a wooden hammer and bangs a complex melody on this board.  The metal hoop is also used to call the monks at certain times.  At other monasteries the monks have a wooden board that is carried around.
  After leaving Moni Gregoriou I walked to the only monastery I could think of at the time, Moni Simonos Petros.  It was one of two I knew well.  I knew this one from hearing their chanting an Ancient Faith Radio.  They had the most beautiful chanting of all the monasteries I visited.  I stopped for a drink at this fountain I found about half way there.
  Moni Simonos Petros hangs way up on the mountain cliff.  The balconies you see serve as hallways between the rooms.  When I arrived the guest master asked me where I was going next.  I didn't have any plan so I just said the only other monastery name I knew, Moni Iveron.  I didn't really know where I was going next, but the guest master was very helpful and said there would be a van going to the administrative capital of Mt. Athos, Kyres, and it wasn't far from there.  So, locked into it, that's where I went, to the far side of the peninsula.
  After arriving in Kyres, I walked to Moni Iveron.  On the way I passed this little chapel in the forest.
  The guest room I stayed in at M. Iveron looked over the dome of the katholikon (chapel) to the peak of Mt. Athos.
  The font where holy water is kept at M. Iveron.
  By now I had pulled out a map and decided where to go next.  Not far from M. Iveron was Moni Stavronikitas.  This was a quiet, pleasant monastery and the only one with no electricity.  After several days of going to matins and liturgy in the early, early morning I was exhausted and missed matins and arrived late to liturgy.  This was the only monastery I stayed at where there was no electricity.
  Next, I went to the small monastery Moni Pandocrator.  When I arrived a monk told me, "Now we do not have visitors because of construction."  I looked a bit worried and began to wonder when I could go next when he said, "But you will stay."  I think this was a joke he played on everyone.  Not many people came here, only eight others.
  I planned to go to Great Lavra next, but the wind was blowing strong and the ferry wasn't running.  I caught a ride with some other guys in a truck, one spoke English.  They wanted to visit the brand new Skete Prophetos Ilias (Prophet Elijah) and I came too.  There were few monks living there yet, but everything was looked ready.  The church was huge, you can see the domed building way above the walls.  This was big enough to be a monastery, but I was told there is a rule that there can only be 20 monasteries so it's just a very big skete.  We went inside and venerated the relics and icons.  If I had to guess I'd say it was Russian.  It was the only one I was in other than the Russian Moni St. Pantelemonos that had an icon of my patron saint, St. Seraphim.
  A real well near the entrance to the church.  After leaving here we went to Kyres and I took a bus to Great Lavra.
  Great Lavra is the oldest and largest monastery on the Holy Mountain.  It was the first one founded, and the only one which has never burned down.  It also has many churches in addition to the main one.  This is one of my most beautiful ever pictures, it was taken in one of the smaller chapels.
  An interesting fountain I found at Lavra.  It wasn't functioning, but I thought the hands catching the water was nice.

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    For more information on Mt. Athos there is an short article on Orthodoxwiki.org   with a lot of links including information on visiting.  Some GPS information is available on Svobodat.com with links for Garmin users.  I found two good .kmz files for Google Earth.  There is a  listing of all monasteries   on a file that will work with my GPS Tuner   PDA software.  And all the paths and roads   connecting the monasteries.