in my religious wanderings, and still unending inchoate search for meaning, I spent 14 years as an Orthodox Christian - my wife still is, and we were married in the Orthodox Church, St. Mark Orthodox Church in Bethesda Maryland.
But for a decade, beginning in 1981, my spiritual home was on a rocky peninsula in Northern Greece, on Mount Athos. I took a trip there that year, and for some reason when I asked the Abbot of one of the Monasteries to serve as my spiritual father, he agreed, which surprised even many of the monks.
I made two subsequent trips, in 1983, but then not again until 1989. I simply could not afford it.
Yet Geronda, as we called Father Aimilianos, remained my spiritual advisor. On the trip in 1983 I wrestled with whether I should become a monk. He told me I could be a good monk, but my life was a preparation for marriage. He told me to return to America, to marry Leaves on the Current. He knew her only through knowing my heart. He told me I had a sensitive soul, but she had a more sensitive soul, and that I should defer to her. Two and half years later we were married.
The monastery where he still is, although due to poor health he is no longer the abbot, is Simona Petra. It was the primary focus of the remarkable piece on 60 Minutes this evening on Mount Athos. And the memories came flooding back.
Some day I will take the photos I have and convert them to digital format so I can upload them.
This is how many people know what used to be my home: this picture shot from below The monastery is perched on a rock. The only building I know that is similar is the famous Potala - what was the Palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, Tibet.
if you want pictures of the Holy Mountain, 'Agion Orous' as it is said in Greece, you can explore this website (I have linked to the English language version). You can search online and find many pictures, some videos, some music.
But that will not explain Athos. The piece on 60 Minutes was reasonably accurate. But no video, no picture, no words are sufficient to explain the Holy Mountain.
At its peak, there were perhaps 20,000 people living on the Mountain - and yes, there is a mountain at the tip of the peninsula, one that rises to 7,000 feet or so. The oldest of the 20 ruling monasteries, Megista Lavra, is located nearby. As of my last trip in '89 there were still some monks living in caves high above the water.
Today there are perhaps 2,000 monks. They come from all over the world. When I traveled around the Mountain on my three trips, I visited 18 of the 20 ruling monasteries, and quite a few smaller monastic establishments. I met monks from Canada, the US, Peru, all over Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere.
Some were of Greek heritage. Others of heritage from traditional Orthodox cultures - Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, and Russia.
Some of the churches are immense. Others are tiny.
Some were thriving communities, others barely hanging on.
At a difficult time in my life I was accepted by the community of Simona Petra. There were a father and son there - the father having briefly served as abbot of one of the other monasteries. I saw him in the video tonight. One of his daughters is the abbess of Ormilia, a remarkable convent on the mainland Chalkidiki Peninsula, where I have also visited.
I worked with the monks. I was in with them when the abbot was instructing - one French monk was translating into English for me - he is a remarkable man, and will not tell you of his former life, when he was one of the primary leaders of the strike at the Sorbonne in 1968. At one point the discussion became heated, and after it went on for while, I asked to speak. I will not discuss the issue, nor what i said, but perhaps it was the perspective I was able to offer, it helped break the tension. With permission from Geronda, several of the monks came to talk with me afterward.
It may be hard to imagine a life devoted to prayer - even when cooking, or washing dishes, or gardening, or baking bread, . . . the monks will repeat the Jesus prayer.
The version recited by Bob Simon was not complete. The entire prayer, in English, would be
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy Upon Me Sinner As I write those words the Greek floods my mind - after my first trip to Athos that is how I prayed it. I still have well worn prayer ropes. I have an icon the Geronda took off his wall and gave to me. He started to give me an ancient icon, then realized I would probably get arrested, so he gave me a more modern one that no one would question.
For years I would commemorate all the monks I knew by name. Even today, 22 years after i was last on Athos, I can with little trouble remember perhaps 2 dozen names, and visualize what those men looked like.
I am no longer an Orthodox Christian. Somehow I think Geronda knew I would not remain one, although would remain both sympathetic to Athos and committed to Leaves on the Current.
I know several others among his spiritual children, at least one of whom has also left the Church, but maintains a deeply held fondness for our shared home.
Some of those I knew there were brilliant, university educated, capable of great feats of scholarship. They offered those gifts to the Monastery - the librarian Fr. Makarios helped write a multi-volume set of the saints of the Church by day. It was not available in English at the time, so I own a set of it in French, which I can still somewhat read, even if I cannot speak it.
Others were simpler folk. One monk I remember was a retired NCO from the Greek army, with a remarkable ability to see to the heart of things and put them into simple and direct words, always rooted in the love of God which he offered to the target of his remarks.
Perhaps the most remarkable monk was Fr. Gelasios. I first saw him in 1981, when he came into the trapeza (refectory, or dining hall) and stuffed his pockets with food. No one said anything about it.
I inquired. I learned about this remarkable man. When he first came to Simona Petra, he came from having been a fisherman. He was assigned to live in the small building at the Arsenade, the dock at the base of the hill on top which sits the monastery itself. He had befrieded a local somewhat feral cat that lived with him. One day as he returned to his quarters, as he opened the door the cat hissed at him. He was surprised but kept entering the room, whereupon the cat jumped upon him, digging its claws into his leg. Fr. Gelasios jumped backward, as the snake on the floor struck the cat instead of him.
Athonite snakes can be very poisonous, as this one was. Fr. Gelasios killed the snake, and turned to the cat, who was quickly turning ill. He tended it. Its whiskers fell out, but he kept it alive.
Fr. Gelasios decided that he would care for all the cats he could because one cat had been willing to risk its life for his.
One of my favorite pictures in the world appears at the end of Phillip Sherrard's remarkable book, Athos, the Mountain of Silence. It is a picture of Fr. Gelasios, at his final living place in the port for Holy Mountain of Dafni, where the ferries from the outside world (which depart from Ouranopolis) dock, and pilgrims must debark and travel up to the monastic capital to get their papers approved before visiting the monasteries. Fr. Gelasios is feeding around 20 cats, who surround him with their tails up, the tips bent to the side.
I was told this story by Father Athanasios, the son of the family I told you about above. One sister is the abbess of Ormilia, where their mother retired to be a nun under her direction. Two other sisters are married to priests, IIRC. I looked for him in the video, but did not recognize him, even as I recognized his father, and other monks I knew.
Mountain of Silence I twice spent at least 3 weeks there. One trip was shorter. I remember how silent it was compared to the world outside. By my last trip there were phone connections. Simona Petra, which had a source of small scale hydroelectric power, had some limited electricity. You could travel on the logging roads, perhaps hitching a ride on a truck - some of the monasteries sell timber as a source of income. But if you walked the ancient footpaths, especially if by yourself, all you heard were the sounds of the natural world.
In the monasteries, some pilgrims and tourists would be uncomfortable with the silence. They would want conversation. When it was offered, it was not chatting. There was far more attention to the person speaking than we are used to experiencing. It could be unsettling to be listened to that way.
The most important sound was that of the services. The prayers, the chanting, the sounds of the censer being swung. Or the call to prayer, the semantron, the piece of wood that would be tapped rhythmically. And on occasion, the bells.
I sit now alone in my living room, except for the cats. I have something in common with Fr. Gelasios. I was by background a dog person. We now have 5 rescued cats.
I am no longer a member of the Orthodox Church. But a part of me remains rooted in Northern Greece, on a rocky peninsula with 2,000 monks. I was there accepted without judgment. It was there i began to truly understand love offered without restriction, seeking nothing in return.
So I admit. Watching 60 Minutes made me homesick.
I thought I would explain why, or at least try to.
I hope you don't mind.
Peace.