Moines de l'Athos

Lebeau and Tharaud

MONKS OF ATHOS

Constantinople, June 21, 1902

The traveler who wishes to visit the monasteries of Athos must, in Constantinople, obtain a double recommendation. He must first secure from the Ecumenical Patriarch a letter of introduction for the council of monks of the holy mountain — the protaton — which sits at Karyès. Since the days when the Byzantine emperors ceased to be the supreme masters of the convents, many of which had risen through their munificence, the Orthodox patriarchate is the sole authority recognized by the Greek monks of Athos. But beside the Greek convents, the most numerous and the most venerable for the antiquity of their traditions, rich Russian monasteries, populated by a veritable army of monks, have established themselves on the peninsula. Greek monks and Russian monks contend for hegemony over the holy mountain, and while in principle the Russian monks recognize the supremacy of the Greek patriarch, it is not without advantage, we are told, in order to be received with great kindness, to arrive at their door with a letter from the Tsar’s representative to the Sultan — then Zinoviev.

In the caique that carried us across the Golden Horn from the Galata shore to the Phanar, we were told that His Holiness Joachim III had been twice elected Patriarch of Constantinople: the first time, some fifteen years before, he had resigned his high office to return to the cenobitic life, which had more charm for him than the grandeur of power. It was in his hermitage near Lavra, where he gave himself over to exercises of piety, reading, and gardening, that he was recalled to the patriarchal throne.

[The narrative continues with the travelers’ journey to the monasteries of Mount Athos, describing the monastic life, the tensions between Greek and Russian monks, the ancient traditions, the treasures of sacred art, the rigorous asceticism of the hermits, and the extraordinary landscape of the holy mountain. The account provides vivid descriptions of the various monasteries — Lavra, Vatopedi, Iviron, and others — their libraries of ancient manuscripts, their chapels adorned with Byzantine mosaics and icons, and the daily rhythm of prayer and fasting. The authors observe the political undercurrents between Russia and the Ecumenical Patriarchate for influence over the monastic republic, and reflect on the strange survival of this medieval world at the threshold of the twentieth century.]

“Oh! We are rich,” answers Father Anaximenus, “very rich. The monks of Athos are very rich.”

[The text continues through detailed descriptions of monastic customs, the breathtaking natural beauty of the peninsula, encounters with individual monks and their stories, and philosophical reflections on the endurance of contemplative life in the modern world.]