First of all, if you want to come to Mount Athos and become a monk, you must be sure that you are free of legal bindings. One of the most common bindings, is of one’s debts in this world, which you must to pay yourself. Another binding is that of marriage.
Karyes has been the seat of the self-governing body of Mount Athos and the seat of the ‘protos’ since the 10th century. At that time the settlement comprised some small older monasteries and the residences of representatives of distant ones.
During the reign of Emperor Anastasios I (491-518), a young deacon moved to Constantinople. He led an ascetic life of prayer and fasting, but in his humility he thought of himself as being rather worldly.
The modern double-headed eagle flag for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and of Mount Athos, features the eagle with an orb with a cross in the right claw symbolizing spiritual authority, and a sword in the left symbolizing secular authority.
On the eighth day after His Nativity, our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised, in accordance with Old Testament Law. All male infants underwent circumcision as a sign of God’s Covenant with the holy Forefather Abraham and his descendants.
The monastic settlements on Mount Athos can be separated into the following categories: the twenty monasteries and their dependencies – that is sketes, kellia, kalyves, hermitages and dwellings.
We wish to thank you for being with us during 2019. Your support was invaluable for us and it was an incredible year and the top read ascetic posts this year show once again your love for God and his saints. Below are the top 10 ascetic posts for 2020 based on the most read ascetic articles in 2019. We wish you a new blessed year 2020 full of realizations and grace of God. Before leaving you in the companion of the list, what is humbling for us is that the most visited page (aside of general pages like Home […]
Some say that Christmas was put on purpose on December 25th because Roman Emperor Aurelian established in 274 the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” (Sol Invictus) on the same day. Also in the same period were the Saturnalia (in the honor of roman god Saturn) held on 17 December, later expanded till 23 December.
The cell of Burazeri, also Belozyorka, is a dependency of the Monastery of Chilandari on Mount Athos. It is located in Karyes, south of the Skete of Saint Andrew (Sarai).
The Resurrection of Christ is the most significant event to take place in History. It is the event that differentiates Christianity from every other religion. Other religions have mortal leaders, whereas the Head of the Church is the Resurrected Christ. “Resurrection of Christ” implies the deification and the resurrection of human nature, and the hope for deification and resurrection of our own hypostasis. Since the medicine has been discovered, there is hope for life.
The skete Bogoroditsa belongs to the Holy Monastery of Saint Panteleimon. It is situated in a forested area, between the monasteries of Vatopedi and Pantokrator.
Byzantine Chant is not just another form of music. It is a tool on which we can pray better. It is, in fact, a form of melodic prayer. If the music in general is composed to be listened to, the psaltic music is made to pray to the fullest and therefore it sounds best in the Church and not so much in the concerts.
The Skete belongs to the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra and took its name from Saint Maximus the Kafsokalyvi who lived there in the fourteenth century and used to build improvised shacks. When realizing that there was the fear of him loving the shacks, he immediately started burning them. He wanted to give all his love to God alone. The name „kafsokalyvi” (Greek) means „shack-burner”.
The cell of Saint Eustathios from Mylopotamos is the largest Athonite dependency of the Great Lavra Monastery in Mount Athos. The settlement is founded by Saint Athanasios the Athonite and is known throughout the Orthodox world for its vineyards and for the production of liturgical wine.
Built on an idyllic forested slope of the western bank of the Puranta stream, which flows adjacent to the Holy Monastery of St. Panteleimon (Rusikon), the Hermitage of the Holy Xenofont Monastery at an altitude of 260 m overlooks the Gulf of Sighnitiki and the Sithonia peninsula. The skete is dedicated to the Announciation of Theotokos.
Lakkoskiti (Romanian: Schitul Lacu) is the short form name of a small “monastic village” consisting the idiorrhythmic “skete of Aghiou Dimitriou tou Lakkou”. Sited at the north foothills of Mount Athos, in Greece, in a valley crossed by Morfonou River and surrounded by a wonderful forest of chestnut trees, it is inhabited by Romanian monks. Lakkoskiti belongs to Agiou Pavlou (Greek: Αγίου Παύλου, English: Saint Paul) Monastery.
The Skete of Saint Panteleimon, not to be confused with the monastery of the same name, some kilometres away, is a skete of the Koutloumousiou monastery in Mount Athos Greece.
Karoulia is the most isolated area located at the southernmost shore of Mount Athos on a rocky and very steep site and belongs to Megisti Lavra monastery.
Not far, and at higher altitude from Karoulia, one finds the Katounakia hesychasterion. The scenery here is calmer compared to that of Karoulia. The region of Katounakia is a group of cells located between St. Anne’s Skete and Karoulia.
on the 23rd of October, 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Bartholomew II, proclaimed the entry into the Official Calendar of the Church of yet another Athonite saint: Elder Sophronios (Sacharov) from Essex. The announcement was made in the conference of the Holy Council of Mount Athos by His All-Holiness with a lot of emotion.
As part of his official visit to the Holy Mountain, the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Bartholomew II, has just been to the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi.
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew announced the entry in the Official Calendar of the Church of the Saints Daniel of Katounakia, Hieronymos of Simonopetra, Joseph the Hesychast and Ephraim of Katounakia.
The Romanian Skete Prodromos (Romanian: Schitul românesc Prodromu, Greek: Τιμίου Προδρόμου) is a Romanian cenobitic skete belonging to the Great Lavra Monastery, located in the eastern extremity (called Vigla) of the Eastern Orthodox Monastic State of the Holy Mountain Athos, between the Aegean Sea in the East and the peak of Athos rising 2033 m in the West, nearby the cave of Athanasios the Athonite. Its name, Prodromos, is the Greek for “The Forerunner”, a cognomen of St. John the Baptist.
Between the Major Skete of Saint Anne and Karoulia, on a steep and rocky mountain side, the Minor Skete of Saint Anne was founded by a few monks who settled there during the 17th century.
St. Anne’s Skete (or, less commonly, The Major Skete of St. Anne’s) is one of four sketes attached to the Great Lavra of Mount Athos. It a Greek idiorrhythmic (hermitage-style) skete consisting of fifty one kalyvae and it is located at an altitude of 340 m in a rugged but fertile region close to the Athos cape, near Little St. Anne’s Skete about 800 meters from the New Skete.
First of all we should mention that our illnesses are a result of Adam’s fall. In paradise there were no illnesses. So, demonic energy is more or less involved in various degrees and because of various causes and for various purposes: to pay off for a particular sin, to stop someone from a wrong path or for one to receive a higher degree of spiritual knowledge etc.
The Skete of Prophet Elijah (Greek: Σκήτη Προφήτη Ηλία, Russian: Ильинский скит) is a cenobitic skete of Pantokratoros monastery in Mount Athos, Greece.
New Skete on Mount Athos is one of two sketes attached to St. Paul’s Monastery. It is located between St. Paul’s Monastery and St. Anne’s Skete. The skete was founded in the 18th century. In 1760, the central church of the skete (the kiriakon) was built and dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos. Next to the kiriakon is the chappel of the cemetery, with the dedication of All Saints.
The Esphigmenou Monastery (Greek: Εσφιγμένου) is located on the northeastern coast of the Athos Peninsula in northern Greece close to the Monastery of Chilandari. It is ranked eighteenth in the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries located on the peninsula. As is the case with the other institutions on Mount Athos, life at Esphigmenou is cenobitic.
The St. Panteleimon’s Monastery (Greek: Άγιος Παντελεήμων, Agios Panteleimon; Russian: Ρωσικό, Rossikon)) is one of the twenty monasteries located on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northeastern Greece.
