Mount Athos

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Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in northeastern Greece and an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. It is governed as an autonomous polity within the Greek Republic. Mount Athos is home to 20 monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. 

Videos

1. Mount Athos, CBS News, 60 Minutes
   • Profile
     • Bob Simon steps back in time when he gets rare access to monks in ancient monasteries on a remote Greek peninsula who have lived a Spartan life of prayer in a tradition virtually unchanged for a thousand years.
   • Videos
     • Part 1
       Channel :- CBS News
       Published On :- 2011-Dec-25th
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     • Part 2
       Channel :- CBS News
       Published On :- 2011-Dec-25th
       Link
2. Athos | Feature Documentary
   • Profile
     • Mount Athos on a peninsula off the cost of Greece is one of Europe’s last remaining secrets: a monks’ republic. Access to women is strictly denied and in order to keep unwanted tourists out, visas are granted only to pilgrims and workers. For the first time, a filmmaker was given access to all forms of monastic life on the holy mountain.
   • Videos
     • Video #1
       Channel :- Syndicado
       Published On :- 2019-Feb-15th
       Link

Early Christianity

Blessed Mary

According to the Athonite tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary was sailing accompanied by St John the Evangelist from Joppa to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. When the ship was blown off course to then-pagan Athos, it was forced to anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron.

The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the wonderful and wild natural beauty of the mountain, she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden.

A voice was heard saying “Ἔστω ὁ τόπος οὗτος κλῆρος σὸς καὶ περιβόλαιον σὸν καὶ παράδεισος, ἔτι δὲ καὶ λιμὴν σωτήριος τῶν θελόντων σωθῆναι” (Translation: “Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved“).

From that moment the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and was out of bounds to all other women.

Islamic Conquest of Egypt

After the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, many Orthodox monks from the Egyptian desert tried to find another calm place; some of them came to the Athos peninsula. An ancient document states that monks “built huts of wood with roofs of straw […] and by collecting fruit from the wild trees were providing themselves improvised meals.