Mount Athos – Heart of Eastern Orthodox Monastics
Athos Mountain is the monastic center of the Greek Orthodox Church, the state in the state, the living museum and the spiritual center of Greece.
Athos is one of the most amazing places on Earth, more similar to fiction than reality. Huge monasteries sweep the coast and appear on the slopes of the mountains with every turn of the road. There are caves in which shelters still live: as they lived for thousands of years. The coast here is perhaps the most beautiful in the Aegean Sea. Beaches are untouched and rarely used for swimming, as the monks do not go to the beach at all.
The shrouded in the fog of the peninsula to the east of thessalonikov is the place where the time stopped and the rules of the modern world do not work. Mount Athos, known as "Holy Mountain", is the house of Eastern Orthodox monastics. Here live according to Byzantine time, in which day starts at sunset. In their monasteries, most of which were built in the 10th century, Athos accommodates more than 1,500 monks. The only purpose of which is to get closer to God.
The monks of Athon pay every hour of wakefulness of prayer, every day is held at least eight hours of church services that begin in three in the morning. When the action does not happen in the church, the monks pray individually. It is only possible to see how their lips are silently moving under long beards.
Women strictly forbidden to visit Mount Athos. In accordance with faith, the female presence can lead to a change in the social dynamics of the monks society and slow down their path to spiritual enlightenment. The absence of women also facilitates life in celibacy. This tabu acts even in relation to livestock and other animals.
For Spiritual Finder, Athos is heaven on earth. Of course, being a monk not all honey and roses. This is a hard life.
A man who is capable of a weathered, pious behavior can come to Mount Athos: to visit church services, dine with monks, and stay at night in one of the monasteries. The ladies only remains that considering green hills and the ancient monasteries from afar, during a boat excursion.
