Athos Agion Oros

990 - book: Athos Kuren, a Danish cookbook

In 940 I showed you a new book about food and cooking on Athos. The writer makes an connection between the healthy food on Mount Athos and the fact that the monks suffer less from cancer.

The book has 257 pages and it discribes 96 recepies: of most of them it is likely that they are being cooked and served on the Holy Mountain, especially if you have the chance to visit Mylopotamos/Father Epifanios (see above picture), who has the reputation of being the best cook on Athos. But do not get the impression the the average meal on the Holy Mountain is of such a high standard. Most of the time it is very basic but tastfull, but do not expect to be in a restaurant.

The fisherman of Iviron, Father Ioannis

I have to give my compliments to the writer, but also to the photogapher, who make some beautifull pictures, knowing that both of them spend spend only a short time on Athos and only visited a small part of the peninsula. My only critism is that the writer could have done some more research about the Holy Mountain and Orthodoxy (the permit is called a Diamoniterion and not a dimitrion), but I have to realize it is mainly a cookbook and NOT an Athos-book. The second minor criticism is that some of the recepies are a little bit to much inspired by the Danish tast (eating fresh tuna steak or meat from large North Sea crabs is definitely not an option in Athos).

Father Ioannis enjoying a meal on his balustrade at the Iviron arsanas

A funny story from the book is the meeting between the writer and Father Ioannis, the fisherman form Iviron. They spend an evening and night talking, eating and drinking. The monk speach good English, is educated in film history and knew everything about Lars von Trier films!

Father Ioannis with lobsters!

Father Ioannis with octopodia.

You can buy the book here.

Wim, 28/1

978 - Georgian Monks on Mt Athos

This is the first English translation of the Georgian Lives of Euthymios the Hagiorite (955-1028) – along with John the Iberian – and George the Hagiorite (1009-1065). Commemorated as saints of the Orthodox Church, Euthymios and George were distinguished hegoumenoi on Mount Athos during the eleventh century who greatly influenced both the Church of Georgia and Georgian culture.

The end of the tenth century was a period when monks arrived from different parts of the Byzantine Empire to seek the solitary life on the Holy Mountain of Athos in northern Greece. Georgian monks formed a part of the initial steps to introduce the communal way of monastic life there, and one of the first communities on Mount Athos was Iviron, founded as the monastery of the Iberians (Georgians).

The monks of Iviron were strongly supported by their fellow countrymen back in Georgia and they also benefited from imperial patronage. Euthymios and George – wise leaders and spiritual teachers, outstanding translators and writers – were able to play a crucial role in this development by maintaining close contacts with the Byzantine imperial court as well as church leaders both in Constantinople and the Christian East.
hv

977 - Article by Jeff Koyen

Pilgrim's Progress
I am the Jew in the Vatican. The black man at the Klan rally. The capitalist in Red Square. I am a Roman Catholic living for four days with the monks of Mt. Athos, and the monks of Mt. Athos don't particularly like Roman Catholics.
I am in the holiest of Holy Lands for the Orthodox Church. The true church. The original church from which Roman Catholicism split when it got too big for its britches. The "Holy Mountain" is an idyllic, relatively untouched mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, somewhere on the upside of 130 square miles. Twenty monasteries carry on the traditions of the Orthodox Church, defending it against the changes that so corrupted Catholicism and denying modernization with...well...religious zeal
Read the complete story here.. An account of a "catholic", unexperienced, sceptical American journalist who is using the F** word to much, in my opinion , but a good writer.
hv

973 - M.Basil Pennington: O Holy Mountain!

I got the boat to the Simonos Petra landing. A merchant in Daphni gave me a bag of fish to bring along and a letter. Fortunately, he said to leave the fish at the dock. The climb, over a thousand feet straight up in the noonday sun, with my bag on my shoulder, was a real workout - purgatory on the way to heaven.

The monastery itself is quite cool, catching the mountain breezes. It is very well kept. I received a cheerful welcome from the guest-master, Father Theologos, and was given a room that looks out on the courtyard and the katholikon, the main church of the monastery. I hope I will be able to stay here. Silence reigns here except for the birds, the wind and the water.
Contemplative silence described in O Holy Mountain! - Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos by Fr. M. Basil Pennington (1931–2005), who was a Trappist monk at St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, as well as a spiritual writer and teacher.
Fr. Basil Pennington's book O Holy Mountain! is out of print. But it appears to have been republished under the torturous title, The Monks of Mount Athos: A Western Monk's Extraordinary Spiritual Journey on Eastern Holy Ground.
See also nr. 471. More parts of this book here. Thanks to On an overgrown path
hv

967 - books: Ταξίδι Μυσταγωγικό στην Αθωνική Πολιτεία

Vasilis showed us in a commend this book: Ταξίδι Μυσταγωγικό στην Αθωνική Πολιτεία, written by Barlas Giorgos and he translated the title into: "Initiation travel in de State of Athos". Google translate gives this result: "Travel poetry in Athonite".
Whatever title it may have in English, at has some rare pictures, made by Michael Konstantinidis (for more Athos pictures of his hand look here).

refectory of Vatopediou
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The same refectory in 1980: still with the beautifull blue colour under the marble tables (foto wv)

Wim, 7/1

949 - a cartoon about Silouan / Athos (in French)

A Belgian cartonist Gaëtan Evrard drew a Christian cartoon about the monk / Saint Silouan, who lived on the Holy Mountain, called “Starets Silouan a monk of Mount Athos: According to the biography of Father Sophrony” (ISBN : 978-2-930273-48-8 ).

This is his story:
Simeon Ivanovich Antonov was born in 1866 in the province of Tambov, Russia.
He leads the life of a poor farmer, practically illiterate, and then at the military service that of a simple soldier. In 1892 he moved to Mount Athos, the Garden of the Mother of God, amid the 2000 monks of the Russian monastery St. Panteleimon. He was tonsured as a monk by the name of Silouan and he lived, until his death in 1938, the seemingly ordinary life of a simple monk. In reality, the starets Silouan is an authentic witness of Christ and a spiritual of our time. The simple and powerful starets touches the heart. His testimony has saved many men from despair. On November 26, 1987, the universality of starets Silouan has been recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who has canonized him. In the act of canonization, the new saint is presented as the "prophetic and apostolic Doctor of the Church and the Christian people."
Wim, 15/12

940 - book: Athos Kuren by Stig Ekkert from Danmark

In August 2008 I told you that a cook book would be published by this Danish docter (see 541). He found out that Athos monks do not have as much cancer as other people in Europe, and he thinks it is because of their healthy eating habbits.

In is for sale in Denmark for Dkr 299,00 (€ 40,00)/ Publisher Gyldendal ISBN 9788702074499.
Wim, 3/12

939 - The Geographical Magazine: Februari 1936

This magazine was recently for sale on E-bay but I was not able to buy it, so you will have to do it with the front page. Don't confuse this (English) magazine with National Geographic magazine, that has an Athos article in the december magazine, now available in shops (for pictures see ΑΓΙΟΡΕΙΤΙΚΕΣ ΜΝΗΜΕΣ 646).

The article in latest National Geographic is oké; part of the text is a bit predictable, but you can't expect anything else if you write an article for such a big public. I have to compliment the writer by mentioning Mylopotamos / Father Epifanios and by quoting Father Makarios from the Marouda cell. But they could have made more out of it, we know why......! (also see National Geographic 1916 and 1983).
Wim, 2/12

924 - book: Le Mont Athos F. Perilla 1927

A book with 12 colour plates of aquarlles of the writer:

Wim, 23/11

920 - Athos in National Geographic magazine december 2009

In a couple of days the december 2009 magazine of National Geopraphic is for sale in the shops with a special item about Athos. Here a preview from the National Geographic site:

Wim, 16/11

872 - Books: The Holy Mountain by C. Cavarnos

HOLY MOUNTAIN by Constantine Cavarnos
Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,
Belmont, US, 1977

hv

856 - book: Athos: Berg der Verklärung by Chrysostomus Dahm and Ludger Bernhard 1959

This book was published in 1959 in German and was translated in English - Athos: Mountain of Light; see picture below with the seldom-found wrap around band of paper with the quote by Pope John XXIII, ”This is an important and wonderful book on our separated brethren.” (Private audience of 3 Oct. 1959).

Wim Voogd, 24-8

855 - book: Athos - The Mountain of Silence - by Sherrard 1960

A fascinating book about the Greek Orthodox monastery at Mount Athos. This large and handsome book is lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs, Sherrard was a British scholar who lived much of his life in Greece, and followed the Greek Orthodox religion. Published nearly 50 years ago.

From the Dust Jacket: "Mount Athos, the rocky peninsula that projects into the Aegean Sea from the coast of northern Greece, is famed as the home of several thousand Orthodox monks, living in numerous cells and monasteries. Here is carried on a way of life begun by the early Christian hermits of the Egyptian desert and brought to Athos over a thousand years ago. Dr. Philip Sherrard, a Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, who has devoted himself particularly to the study of Greek Orthodoxy, has lived on Athos, and had the benefit, for this book, of highly skilled photography and colour-printing. The result is to present the life of the monks, in its setting of landscape, architecture, and art, with extraordinary vividness and sympathetic understanding, superb photographs being matched by first-class writing. This is the first of a series of scholarly, colour-illustrated books on selected places."

Colour-photographs include: The Athos peninsula seen from the isthmus joining it to the mainland; The Monastery of Dionysiou on the western seaboard of the Athos peninsula; St. Peter the Athonit. After a fresco by Manuel Panselinos in the Protaton of Karyes; The Death of St. Athanasios. 16th Century fresco in the eastern transept of the Refectory of the Great Lavra; The Monastery of Dionysiou; South-Western approach to the Monastery of Xeropotamou; The inner court of the Monastery of Chilandari; A holy monk. From an Athonite fresco; and much more.

Dionysiou

Wim, 19/8

853 - book: Franz Spunda: Legenden und Fresken vom Berg Athos

This German book is published in Stuttgart by J.F. Steinkopf in 1962. It contains information based on travels to Mount Athos from 1924 to 1961 (159 pages and 27 illustrations plus two maps).

Contents include: Die Mystik auf dem Athos; Der Athos in unserer Zeit; Die Legenden auf dem Athos; Die Fresken vom Athos; Entstehungszeiten der wichtigsten Fresken auf dem Athos; Wort= und Sacherklarungen; Verzeichnis der bildtafeln.

Wim, 17/8

852 - book: Mount Athos by John Julius Norwich and Reresby Sitwell

MOUNT ATHOS BY JOHN JULIUS NORWICH AND RERESBY SITWELL. WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHORS AND A. COSTA. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. First Edition.

From the Dust Jacket: "Mount Athos is a land of monks and hermits where no woman, child or eunuch is admitted. Twenty 'Ruling Monasteries' provide the unique form of local government over this remote peninsula in northern Greece which culminates in the 7000 foot marble peak -- the Holy Mountain of the Orthodox faith. The authors of this book came to study the churches, libraries and treasures and to record in photographs as much as the monks would permit. Apart from staying at the great monasteries -- seventeen of which are Greek, one Russian, one Serbian and one Bulgarian -- they also visited some of the dependent communities. Those vary in size from small villages to the precarious cliff dwellings of the true anchorites who still seek after the 'Uncreated Light of Mount Tabor' and follow the austerities prescribed a thousand years ago by St. Athanasius the Athonite. In a paradise of mountain and forest, Athos constitutes a survival from the Byzantine age, but recruits are few, and the noise and tensions of the modern world are closing in. This book attempts to portray some aspects of a strange, picturesque but doomed way of life..."

Plates include: Letter from the Oecumenical Patriarchate with the accompanying envelope; The monastery of Esphigmenou; The ruined Tower of Milutin, on the way to Chilandar; The Shrine of the Virgin with wild madonna lilies near Chilandar; The great tower of the Serbian monastery of Chilandar; The approach to Chilandar; The monks of Esphigmenou; A monk of Esphigmenou wearing the 'great habit' appropriate to his rank; the Abbot of Esphigmenou in procession on the Feast Day; A monk fishing; and many more.
hv

851 - Sydney Lochs grave

We already wrote about Sydney Loch in blog 319. Vaislis mailed us some pictures from Ournopolis, and I was surprized to see some of the grave of Loch. I presume he 9and his wife) are burried somewhere in a graveyard in Ouranopolis.

The grave of Sidney Loch - picture by Vasilis

The gravestone - picture by Vasilis

Their house until 1982, the tower in Ouranopolis - picture by Vasilis

Joice Nankivell Loch 1887-1982

Her gravestone

Wim, 15/8 (picture

818 - Jean-Christophe Ballot

Vanite 1

Vanite 2

La Connaissance
On his website there are more interesting images of Mount Athos in 1995.
hv

813 - book: Manuel Panselinos 1956

The book Manuel Panselinos is written in French by Andrea Xyngopoulos. The drawings and sketches are by Photis Zachariou.

His most important work can be found in the Protaton church in Karyes (also see posts 393, 394, 663, 785 and 786 en 787).

His work is part of the Macedonian School.
I found this text on the internet about the Macedonian School:

The Macedonian School had its centre in Thessaloniki and flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries. Its hallmarks are realism in the depiction of the figures, not only in their external features but also in the rendering of their inner world, particularly their pathos. The compositions are crowded, with all the figures moving in the space, which is extensive and rendered in striking depth.

St Theodore Stratelates, Karyes, Protaton. Fresco by Manuel Panselinos, 14th c.

Painters from Thessaloniki were invited to paint Athonite foundations, and they frescoed the Protaton, the katholika of the Great Lavra, Vatopedi, Chelandari, and Pantokrator, and the refectory and cemetery church of Pantokrator. There were many famous ateliers of the Macedonian School, but head and shoulders above the rest stood the atelier of Manuel Panselinos.

All our information about Panselinos come from the Painter’s Manual, which was written in the early 18th century by an ordained monk and painter named Dionysios, a native of Fourna in Evrytania who lived on Mount Athos in the first half of the 18th century. Dionysios attributed to Manuel Panselinos the frescoes in the Protaton at Karyes, in the outer narthex of the katholikon of Vatopedi, and in the katholika of Pantokrator and the Great Lavra, and a large number of portable icons in monasteries on Mount Athos and elsewhere.

Sts Merkourios and Arsenios, Karyes, Protaton. Fresco by Manuel Panselinos, 14th c.

Scientific research has shown a number of paintings on Athos to be genuine works of Manuel Panselinos: the frescoes in the Protaton and the outer narthex of the katholikon of Vatopedi, a head of St Nicholas in the katholikon of the Great Lavra (the rest of the composition has been retouched), a portable icon of St Demetrios in the Great Lavra, and two icons of St Demetrios and St George in Vatopedi. Works of his have been located in monuments in Thessaloniki and other cities in Macedonia. Manuel’s frescoes are distinctive for their luminous colours, the consummate rendering of the figures, their welling spirituality, and the grandeur of the compositions.

Drawing from the central nave of the Protaton by Photis Zachariou

Apart from Manuel Panselinos’s paintings, works of the Macedonian School may also be admired in Chelandari Monastery, where the entire katholikon was frescoed by the renowned atelier of Michael Astrapas and Eutychios.

The characteristics of the Macedonian School remained apparent in all the frescoes and portable icons on Mount Athos until the beginning of the 16th century, when there was a gradual decline in the quality of the painting. Examples include the frescoes in the Chapel of St John the Baptist in the Protaton, which were painted in 1526. Wim, 4/6

803 - Another list

The 6,000 Beards of Athos door Ralph H. Brewster

[Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos. Bd. 1, T. 1, Heft 1. English] door Paul M. Mylonas

[Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos. Bd. 1, T. 1, Heft 2] door Paul M. Mylonas

[Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos. Bd. 1, T. 1, Heft 3] door Paul M. Mylonas

Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis the Teacher of Noetic Prayer door Monk Joseph Dionysiatis

Als Pilger auf dem Athos door Fritz Kreichauf

Anchored in God door Constantine Cavarnos

Athos 60: A Journal of a Visit to the Holy Mountain in the Days of Its Decline door Gareth Morgan

Athos : Berg der Verklärung door Chrysostomus Dahm

Athos : der heilige Berg des östlichen Christentums door Günter Spitzing

Athos : la Montagne transfigurée door Jean Biès

Athos : mountain of light door Chrysostomus Dahm

Athos : the Holy Mountain door Gerhard Trumler

Athos : the Holy Mountain door Aleksandar Deroko

Athos : travels on the Holy Mountain door Matthew Spencer

Athos and its monastic institutions through old engravings and other works of art door Paul M. Mylonas

Athos, or, The mountain of the monks door Athelstan Riley

Athos, the Holy Mountain : history, life, treasures door Panagiotis C. Christou

Athos: The Holy Mountain door Philip Sherrard

Athos: The Holy Mountain door Sydney Loch

Berg Athos : Geschichte einer Mönchsrepublik door Andreas E. Müller

Black angels of Athos door Michael Choukas

Chilandar door Dimitrije Bogdanović

The Chilandarians : Serbian monks on the Greek mountain door Slavko P. Todorovich

Cronaca di un viaggio al Monte Athos door Paolo Biffis

Dare To Be Free door Walter Babington Thomas

De Solesmes au Mont Athos door Claude Chevreuil

Der Athos : auf den Spuren einer Faszination door Rolf Kuhlmann

Der Mönch in mir : Erfahrungen eines Athos-Pilgers für unser Leben door Heinz Nußbaumer

The early days of monasticism on mount Athos door Kirsopp Lake

Elder Joseph the Hesychast: Struggles, Experiences, Teachings door Elder Joseph

Erlebnis Athos : im Banne der Stundentrommel door Rudolf Bischof

Florilège du Mont Athos door Fabian Da Costa

Greek traditional architecture. Mount Athos door Ploutarchos Theocharides

The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi : tradition, history, art

Holy Mountain : bulwark of Orthodoxy and of the Greek nation door Andrew Simonopetritis

The Holy Mountain : the garden of the Virgin Mary door Konstantinos Faridis

The Holy Mountain Athos

The Holy Mountain: Two Lectures on Mount Athos, of Which the First Deals with Its Scholars, Missionaries and Saints and the Second with I door Constantine Cavarnos

Icons of the Holy Monastery of Pantokrator

J'ai été moine au Mont Athos door Costa de Loverdo

Journey from Paradise: Mt. Athos and the Interior Life (Editions Du Beffroi) door Ralph Harper

L'Athos : notes d'une excursion à la presqu'île et à la montagne des moines door Alexandre-Stanislas Neyrat

L'envers de la vie : notes du Mont Athos door Jean-Louis Poitevin

LE JARDIN DE LA VIERGE door Frère Jean

Le Mont Athos : itinéraire d'une découverte : récit door Jean-Jacques de Dardel

Le Mont Athos : la république de la foi door Enrico Rodolfo Galbiati

Le Mont Athos : Merveille du christianisme byzantin door André Paléologue

Le Mont Athos : souvenirs de voyage door Antonin Proust

Le Mont Athos: Un itinéraire photographique door Marc Lafontaine

Le Mont-Athos : les fondations monastiques : un millénaire de spiritualité et d'art orthodoxe door Massimo Capuani

Legenden und Fresken vom Berg Athos door Franz Spunda

The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain: Contemporary Voices from Mount Athos door Alexander Golitzin

London Bridges: A Novel door Jane Stevenson

Miracle on the Monastery Mountain door Douglas Lyttle

The monastic magnet : roads to and from Mount Athos

The monks of Athos door R. M. Dawkins

Monks of Dust: The Holy Men of Mount Athos door Xavier Zimbardo

The monks of Mount Athos door Jacques Valentin

The Monks of Mount Athos: A Western Monk's Extraordinary Spiritual Journey on Eastern Holy Ground door M. Basil Pennington

Monnikenrepubliek van den Berg Athos door Wilhelmus Petrus Theunissen

Mont Athos : la sainte montagne door Randoll Coate

Mont Athos : sur les chemins de l'Infini door Jean-Yves Leloup

Mont Athos, Montaigne Sainte (Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain) door Jacques Lacarrière

Mont-Athos door Jean-François Bonhomme

Mont-Athos : presqu'île sacrée door Emanuele Grassi

Monte Athos : porta del cielo door Kiros Kokkas

Mount Athos door John Julius Norwich

Mount Athos : a journey of self-discovery door Luiz Rocha

Mount Athos, the sacred bridge : the spirituality of the Holy Mountain

Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise door Graham Speake

Obedience is life : Elder Ephraim of Katounakia door Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

Paradise besieged : a journey to medieval Mount Athos at the dawn of the information age door Richard John Friedlander

Paradise within reach : monasticism and pilgrimage on Mt. Athos door René Gothóni

Paroles du Mont Athos door Jean-Yves Leloup

Passages through paradise [videorecording] : a trip to Mount Athos door Yiannis Lambrou

Phoenix: The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men door Robert Byron

A photographic itinerary on Mount Athos, 1969 door Takis Tloupas

A photographic itinerary on Mount Athos, 1969-2001 door Costas Balafas

Photographies : Mont Athos door Jean-Christophe Ballot

Recollections of Mount Athos door Archimandrite Cherubim

Riding with the Lion: In Search of Mystical Christianity (Arkana) door Kyriacos C. Markides

Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven--A Pilgrimage door Scott Cairns

Simonopetra : Mount Athos

Stavronikita Monastery : history, icons, embroideries door Christos Patrinelis

Stundentrommel vom heiligen Berg Athos door Erhart Kästner

Tales and truth : pilgrimage on Mount Athos past and present door René Gothóni

Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain door Christopher Merrill

The Unknown Pilgrim: The Soul's Journey to God and to the Holy Mountain of Athos door Rene Gothoni

Vidy monastyreĭ i skitov Sviatoĭ Afonskoĭ gory

Visages athonites door Jacques Lacarrière

Voyage de deux Bénédictins aux monastères du Mont-Athos door Placide de Meester

Άγιον Όρος : ένα ταξίδι μέσα από τους θρύλους και την ιστορία door Petros Chartokollēs

Άγιον Όρος : σιωπή = Mount Athos : silence door Alkis Astras

Αγιον Ορος 365 = Mount Athos 365

Αγιον Ορος : η πρωτη επαφη = Mount Athos : the first contact door Alkis Astras

Αγιον Ορος : ματιες = Glimpses of the Holy Mountain door Monk Gavriel Philotheites

Αγιον Ορος : οι αγιοι τοποι της Μακεδονιας door Eustathios Charitopoulos

Αγιον Ορος : περπατωντας το φως και το σκοταδι = Mount Athos : walking on light and door Alkis Astras

Αγιον Ορος : το υψηλοτερο σημειο της γης door Metropolitan of Mesogaia Nikolaos

Αθωνικά Δίπτυχα door Hieromonk Anastasios

Αθωνικες ψηφιδες = Athonite peddies door Monk Gavriel Philotheites

Αθως : κάλλος και χάρις = Athos : beauty and grace door Monk Gavriel Philotheites

Αθως : ουρανος και γη = Athos : heaven and earth door Monk Gavriel Philotheites

Αντίδωρο ή Άθωνος περιδιάβασις : ταξιδιωτικός οδηγός του Αγίου Όρ door Hieronymos Pollatos

Ιερα Μονη Φιλοθεου = Holy Monastery of Philotheou door Monk Gavriel Philotheites

Ματιες στον Αθω = Images of Athos door Monk Chariton

Ο αυτοχρωμικός Αθως : οι πρώτες εγχρωμες φωτογραφίες του αιώνα

Φωτογραφικο οδοιπορικο στο Αγιον Ορος, 1935 = Photographic itinerary on Mount Athos, 1935 door Αλέξιος Σαββάκης

Афон : скит "Новая Фиваида" : фотогарафии door S. Chabutkin

Второе посещение Святой Афонской Горы ... door Vasilīĭ Grigorovich-Barskīĭ

Манастир Хиландар : конаци и утврђење door Vojislav Korać

Манастир Хиландар : конаци и утврђење door Vojislav Korać

Монастыри и скиты Святой Горы Афон ... door Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov

Приближавања Атосу door Pavle Rak

エーゲ海の修道士―聖山アトスに生きる door Kazuhide Kawamata

Thanks to this library.
hv

784 - pictures from The Station by Robert Byron

These pictures are from the book "The Station - Athos: Treasures and Men", published in 1926.

Karyes ("Metropolis") - 1926

The church of the transfiguration on the Top

"David and Mark with the guestmaster of Docheiriou"

"Synedius reading"

"The grape-pickers' lunch"
Wim, 3/5

743 - book in Swedish: Athos: det Heliga berget by Sven H. Gullman

This book is written by a Swedisch professor, who visited Athos 10 times since 1997.

Sven Gullman also has his own website about Athos. I hope to read the book once, because I understand some Danish.

Wim. 19/3

740 book: Journey to Mount Athos, Augieras

Discription:
This haunting book represents a journey of self-discovery for both author and reader. It is perhaps best described as a Buddhist Pilgram's Progress, with the protagonist's wanderings mirroring his journey towards spiritual enlightenment. Augieras himself spoke of a Journey to Mount Athos as 'a sojourn in the land of Spirits, according to the strictest Buddhist Orthodoxy' inspired by the time he spent with monks on Mount Athos, the 'Holy Mountain'.
Journey to Mount Athos: Author: Francois Augerias, ISBN 1901285391
Wim, 18/3

735 - Bookcovers

More books here.
hv

686 - Beauty and grace

Mount Athos - Beauty and Grace
A photographic album of the Monastery state of Mount Athos.
The book is in Greek and English.
184 illustrated pages


hv

680 - Book: French "photographies" about Athos

Front page

"Mont Athos," by Jean-Christophe Ballot, published by Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2001, 50 pages, softcover in thick wraps, 9.5" by 6.5". Text in French. Lovely book of images of Mont Athos and environs in Greece, with 33 full-page plates of poetic landscapes and interiors of ancient churches and buildings.

Wim, 20/1

670 - Greek novel about Athos

Gianni Mari - Peripeteia sto Agion Oros

Does anyone know more about it ?

Wim, 12/1

664 - National Geographic 1916 - 2

After arriving in Dafni in march 1916 mr. Dwight went to Karyes to get his permission to stay, supported by a letter of recommendation of the Patriarch of Constantinople. In those days you got four stamps of different members of the Holy Epistasia, forming an image of the Virgin. After visiting the Protaton and Koutloumousiou the writer goes to Vatopedi, where his story stops. I wonder why he shows pictures of Lavra and Kafsokalivia and does not describe anything about these places............

Vatopedi, march 1916

Vatopedi - courtyard, with on the right the guesthouse

Vatopedi - kitchen of the guesthouse

Vatopedi - hallway

Vatopedi - interiour church

Vatopedi - refectory

Vatopedi - monks, pilgrims and hermits visit Vatopedi because of the Feast of The Annunciation

Outside Vatopedi

Wim, 8/1

661 - National Geographic 1916 - 1

I was lucky to find the september magazine from 1916 with 23 pictures of Athos and one map of Northern Greece (and one picture from Athens). The author W.G. Dwight did also take the pictures. They are black and white and not of very high quality.

Karyes - main street 1916

Fresco showing the temptation of St. Anthony in a church at Kafsokalivia - 1916

Monks and layman - Athos 1916

Arsanas Lavra 1916

Arsanas Simonopetra 1916

Next time more about Vatopedi.
Wim, 7/1

660 - National Geographic and Athos

In september 1916 and december 1983 The National Geographic Magazine published articles about Athos.

From the 1916 magazine I can only show you the cover:

and this picture of father Macarios from Simonopetra taken in 1982 and published in december 1983:

Photograph by James L. Stanfield

Wim, 5/1

654 - more about the book "Dare to be free"

In post nr 574 I described the book of W.B. Thomas and his escape to Mount Athos in 1941 (252 pages).

The first 150 pages of the book are about his escape, after being captured in Crete by the German forces and his life as prisoner of war in camps near Athens and Thessaloniki. He arrives on Athos in the authem of 1941 and crosses the border on foot. He mentions arriving at a ”small monastery on the top of a hill, maintained by monks of Sografou”. He spoke with a Russian monk who couldn’t give him sanctuary, because ” Senior monks would betray him to the Germans”. He fled to a stone cottage near the cost and was welcomed by a monk named Sergos. He gave him something to eat and even washed his feet (full of blisters)! Later on Sergos says the buildings on top of the hill were only an annex to the main monastery and originally were constructed for a hospital, when there were many thousands of monks. In 1941 50 of the Brotherhood remained.
Thomas continues his path in the direction of Karyes, where he hears ”the mournful yowling of wolves in the distance”, ending up on the 24th of december 1941 in the monastery of St. Peter. I think this must be Simonas Petras, because no other name of a monastery resambles to St. Peter on Athos. Here you can see how badly informed the young New Zealander was, which I can understand is his position, but he did not take any trouble to find the right names of the monasteries after returning home and when writing his book. Later on he will vist the monastery of St. Denys for 9 days (this must be Dionysiou), and he took two day boat trip to the St. Lawrance monastery (meaning the Great Lavra). Here he meets the monk-doctor, Dr. Pavlides:

and in this monastery he is almost caught by the Germans. However, the monks of Lavra help him by putting on a monk robe and by showing him some ”walled-up cell-like rooms” in the roof of one of the old buildings that was not in use anymore. If found by ”The Huns”, a monk suggeted ”to act the part, even to putting those manacles on your wrist and ankles. He pointed to some rusty old chains fastened to the walls. I realised that they had been used for centuries for the custody of maniacs”.
Who has ever seen these cells in Lavra and knows more about them ? Do they still exist ?

After the Germans searched the monastery and left without finding him, he moved to a house from a man called Costos, who would help him escape to Turkey. They lived well on fish and ”snails, as big as a patato: stewed in vegetable water with a little olive oil, eaten with bread and wine, they were delicious". Later on he was forced to find a hiding place with the hermit Elisais (early in March, for 14 days), who was living on the mountainside, with a view of Lemnos and Samothrace. Elisais lived from hunting and nothing but meat. He caught wild poultry, sometimes a fox and more rarely a pig or deer. Thomas discribes how he was offered to eat the head of a wild pig, not only the tongue, but also "two eyes were goughed out and put in front of him to eat".
Thomas also mentiones barrels as large as a living-room in the cellars, containing wine, and how he helped Elisais distilling ouzo.

Together with other fugitives he finally steals a boat from a Russian boat-house near Lavra (on Good Friday), but he unwillingly returned to Athos and had to abort the escape because of a heavy storm.
Another hide-out was the lodge of the Monastery of St. Paul, and the old boat they found there did not bring them any further than somewhere near Kavsokalivia (?). Finally a small group of men walked back the mainland of Greece – passing Longos – to Pyrgos and managed to steel a boat that brought them save to Turkey.

My opinion is that it was funny to read the book, but not more. The author wanted to write an escape story and Mount Athos is not more than a beautiful scenery and landscape. After living on the Holy Mountain such a long time he could have given us more background information about the people he met, but he does not show much interest in the monks or their religious way of life.

Wim, 28-12

652 - the pictures from the first article of 1959

This time we will have a closer look at the pictures I already showed in blog 646. As I told before, the (hundreds of) pictures of Athos shot by Cas Oorthuys are still hidden in the archives of the National Photo Museum in Rotterdam and are not easy obtainable, so I am proud that I found a few of them and that I can show them to you.

"Lonelyness, quietness, rocks and monasteries that look like castles, that is what Athos is": picture by A. den Doolaard, 1959

"Two precious, very old icons from the treasury of a monastery" (probably from Vatopediou), picture by Cas Oorthuys 1959

"In the contemplative monasteries the household is done by "the lesser monks", novices and brothers". Here you can see three monks, a layman and young novice (beardless!), who peal beans (?), place on Athos unknown - picture by A. den Doolaard, 1959

"On mountain paths you sometimes can find signs with a hand pointing the right direction on a juncture" - picture Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"The monastery Vatopediou: the courtyard. On the right the main church, the Katholikon". picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"The monastery Vatopediou: the interiour of the main church" - picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"A homeless beggar-monk strawling through the streets of Karyes" - picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"Brother Miron talking to his friend from the Bulgarian monastery Zografou" - in a kellion near Karyes: picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"His favorite animal is a ram. Female creatures are not allowed on the Holy Mountain"- picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"Some monks live outside the society of the monastery on small farms" - Brother Miron attending his garden- picture by Cas Oorthys, 1959

"A fisherman brought us in his little boat to the first monastery and a joyfull monk" - picture by Cas Oorthuys, 1959

"Every day eight hours of prayer, reading texts and meditation" - brother Miron inside his kellion: a "Rembrandt-like" picture of Cas Oorthuys, 1959

Wim, 18/12

649 - Athos in 1959: the second article (in Dutch)

The second article by A. den Doolaard and Cas Oorthuys was published in the magazine Katholieke Illustratie of december 19th 1959: Athos, Island of silence.

In this article they describe, after passing Koutloumousiou, the walk from Karyes to Dafni. On the following boattrip to the south they meet a real Hesychast repeating the same words - the Jezus-prayer - again and again. Den Doolaard describes the similarities between the Athos-hesychast and Budism and how the ideas of Budist religion came to Athos. He says that Sanscrite texts were translated into Arab and how these texts later - about the year 1000 - were translated in Greek by monks from Iviron.

They stop at Dionysiou and especcially the sound of the semantron, a sound dating from very beginning of Christianity, born in the desert, when Jezus found his place to contemplate.

Their next goal was the monastery of Panteleimon. He describes the portraits of the Romanovs in the waiting room and how just 36 very old Russians remained to run this large complex of buildings: one by one they die and no novices are to been seen .......

The writer ends his article with some philosofical words about the (dark) future of Athos: "a place without time in a world with ticking clocks, an island of smooth quietness".

Wim, 16/12

648 - Books: The Monastic Magnet

Book synopsis
Mount Athos has been exercising its magnetic attraction on monks and pilgrims for over a thousand years. As the papers collected in this volume show (many of them delivered at a conference convened in Helsinki in 2006 to mark the opening of an exhibition of treasures of Mount Athos), monks have been drawn to its forests, cliffs, and caves in search of tranquillity and the inspiring teaching of charismatic elders since the ninth century. Through the Hesychastic renewal which began on Athos in the late Middle Ages the Holy Mountain acquired unprecedented importance throughout the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Russia and rapidly extended its spiritual influence from the Mediterranean to the White Sea. Many of the papers are concerned with aspects of pilgrimage to Athos and the effect that a visit to the Mountain has on pilgrims' lives. Today the magnetism has lost none of its force and, despite threats to its environment and its unique way of life, Athos continues to operate as a spiritual powerhouse offering refreshment to all who turn to it.

Contents
René Gothóni/Graham Speake: Introduction -
Rosemary Morris: Where did the early Athonite monks come from? -
Alice-Mary Talbot: Holy Men of Mount Athos -
Ismo Pellikka: Monasteries as Bridges between Athos, Russia, and Karelia -
Father Symeon: Mount Athos: A Centre of Pilgrimage -
René Gothóni: Pilgrimage as Dialogue -
Marco Toti: The Inner Dimension of Pilgrimage to Mount Athos -
Graham Speake: The Way of a Pilgrim on Mount Athos -
Nicholas Fennell: Parfeny Aggeev and Russian Pilgrimage to Mount Athos -
Kallistos Ware: Two British Pilgrims to the Holy Mountain: Gerald Palmer and Philip Sherrard -
Graham Speake: Angels of Peace: Encountering the Elders of Athos -
Nikolaos Hatzinikolaou: Mount Athos: The Highest Place on Earth.

About the author(s)/editor(s)
The Editors: René Gothóni is Professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Helsinki, a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and life member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. He is also President of the Finnish Society of Friends of Mount Athos. He is the author of Attitudes and Interpretations in Comparative Religion (2000) and The Unknown Pilgrim (2006) and edited How to Do Comparative Religion (2005).
Graham Speake studied classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and wrote a doctoral thesis at Christ Church, Oxford, on the Byzantine transmission of ancient Greek literature. He is the founder and Secretary of the Friends of Mount Athos and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He is author of Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise (2002), which was awarded the 2002 Criticos Prize, and co-editor of Mount Athos the Sacred Bridge: The Spirituality of the Holy Mountain (2005). Text by the publisher.

New book march 2008. I've ordered it directly from the publisher Peter Lang for EUR 36 plus shipping.
hv

646 - Athos in 1959: two articles in Dutch

Almost 50 years ago the Dutch writer A. den Doolaard and his photographer Cas Oorthuys visited Greece in the summer of 1959 for two months. At the end of their journey they visited the Holy Mountain, accompanied by a (expensive) Greek guide named Asterios. This article named "A visit to the Holy Mountain" was published on the 12th of december 1959 in the Dutch magazine "Katholieke Illustratie" (nr 50, page 4 - 8).

The black and white pictures are taken by Cas Oorthuys, the color pictures by A. den Doolaard

In their first article they write about their visit to Vatopediou, Karyes and a hermit in a kellion. He describes the abbot Nicolas of Vatopediou as "someone with eyes, that have seen heaven" .

The writer complaines about the unbearable heat that summer, 45 degrees Celius ! The local policeman in Karyes told him he was not happy to be on Athos: he got a disciplinary punishment and he had to unvoluntary serv on Athos during 6 months.

page 3 with a picture of a begger-monk in Karyes

page 4 with pictures of the hermit Father Miron from Karyes (together with a Bulgarian friend from Sografou and his ram - NOT goat!)

page 5: why does a wealthy banker become a monk on Mount Athos and leave his wife and son? The Bulgarian monk says: The one who wants to understand Athos, has to go there himself !
Wim, 15/12 (next time article number two)

642 - book from Dölger / renovation of the Protaton

Last week we bought the book of Dölger from 1942 (gift from Sinterklaas). We will show you pictures in the coming months, but I'll start with most remarkable photo of the Protaton church in Karyes.

I always wondered when the Protaton was renovated the last time and who plastered this church with the extreme ugly grey concrete-like layer. This picture might give the answer, because you see the church in its original form with a surface of stones. They must have covered these stones afterwards, because the church looks like this in 1980/1997, with a remnant of the old coating:

And on the other side of the building you can see the original stones that were used to build the walls, just as in the first picture from 1942.

I can't wait to see the Protaton in its full glory again and without the ugly roof over it.

By the way: another nice example of renovation work is send to us by Vasilis. Here you see how an arch is renovated in the exonarthex of Stavronikita and how it looked in 1995:

and in 2002:

Wim (who has some problems with a crahed laptop and who can't post that much stories and pictures, sorry for that !), 11-12

636 - pictures of Cas Oorthuys from 1959

Whenever I visit my local Greek traiteur Romios in Amsterdam (the best in town!), I envy the owners, because they posess three big black/white pictures made by one of the most famous Dutch photographers, Cas Oorthuys. I found out that he traveled through Greece in 1959, together with the Dutch writer Aard den Doolaard. Just before they left for Holland they payed a visit to the Holy Mountain and he took hundreds of pictures. The problem is that they are lying in the archive of the Dutch Photo Museum in Rotterdam and no one ever saw them. Yes, with a lot of time (and money) you can dive into these archives (for me not possible). That's why I was very happy to buy the Dutch magazine "Katholieke Illustratie" from december 1959 (nrs 50 and 51), where a few of these pictures were published. Later I will tell more about it, but I'll start with these photographs:

Cas Oorthuys - a monk welcomes the pigrims on a boat Ag. Spirydon - 1959

Cas Oorthuys - A new quai is being built at Rossikon ? - 1959

Cas Oorthuys - Monks eating in the refectory of (?) - 1959
Wim, 27/11

632 - book: Theunissen, De Heilige Berg 1951

Mister Theunissen wrote some interesting books in Dutch about the Holy Mountain. We already reviewed his second book in nr 389.
His first book about Athos was published in 1951. The book is written together with his co-writer dr. J. Hartog.
Cover of the Theunissen book 1951

The book has 256 pages, 35 b/w images and 230 notes. In an appendix there a list of 193 books about Athos over de period 1677-1951. The last note is about the book of Dölger from 1943, which I just ordered in Germany.

Frontpage of the book

To my surprise this is the second book I bought from Theunissen with a handwritten text of the writer himself:

Theunissen: "In highy regards. May the Mother of God, in East and West so venerated, protect you permanently".

The book is written in a time that dark clouds were hanging over the future of the Holy Mountain. But it is very informative and one of the best in the Dutch language. The emphasis in the book is a little bit to much on the Orthodoxy itself and not just the way of life on Athos, but still a good book to read, especially because of his knowledge of history. Most of the pictures are also published in his book of 1965 (in a better quality).

Karyes - 1951
Wim, 24/11

631 - Books: Treasures

Treasures of Mount Athos Athanasios A. Karakatsanis
(ISBN: 9608600901)
Book Description: Ministry of Culture, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki, 1997.
Catalogue of the treasures of Mount Athos exhibited at the Museum of Byzantine Culture at Thessalonike, Greece

hv

629 - Books: Walpole

Walpole’s compilation, confusingly edited, contains extracts from the papers of Dr Philip Hunt and letters from Professor Carlyle recounting their 1801 visit to Athos and investigations of libraries and manuscript holdings. It also includes a few short extracts from the journals of John Sibthorp.


This link will bring you directly to the part where Hunt and Carlyle give an interesting and readable account on their days on the mountain. It still amazes me that you can read this old books on your screen just like that, thanks to Google Books.
hv

622 - dutch magazine 1963/64/65 ?

This article was published in the beginning of the sixties. The unknown author compares Athos with Tibet and is surprized how few people in Western Europe knew of the existance of this monk-republic.
The most interesting is that he tells a story of British and New Sealand soldiers who deserted (!) during the second world war and hid themselves in monastaries dressed as monks. A German soldier did the same and the writer tells that the deserters of both sides lived together in peace in one monastery!!

Thanks to (the father of) Vasilis.
Wim, 15/11

620 - W.M. Leake: Travels in Northern Greece 1835

Starting at page 114 Leake in his travelbook describes Athos. He is looking for remains of ancient Greece on the peninsula. He finds old inscriptions in the church of Vatopedi. He further mentions several metochia (dependencies) of the monasteries. Here you can read the complete book.

hv

611 - Russian souvenir

The Palaio Monasterion higher up the hill?
A similar booklet here.
hv

608 - Long list: an update

Alexander (Golitzin), Hieromonk, The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain: Contemporary Voices from Mount Athos, South Canaan, Pennsylvania: St Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 1996 Anthology of some of the best of modern Athonite spiritual writing.

Amand de Mendieta, Emmanuel, Mount Athos, the Garden of the Panaghia, translated by Michael R. Bruce, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1972

Angelou, Alkis, “J.D. Carlyle’s Journal of Mount Athos (1801)”, Eranistis, 14 (1965): 33[-]75

Augerias, Francios, Journey to Mount Athos, 2009, ISBN 1901285391

Ballot, Jean-Christophe Ballot, "Mont Athos", published by Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2001

Barsky, Vasily Grigorovich, Stranstvovaniia Vasilia Grigorovicha Barskago po sviatym mestam Vostoka s 1723 po 1747 [Travels of Basil Grigorovich Barsky in the holy places of the East from 1723 to 1747], 4 vols, 1885[-]87 Volume 3 of Barsky’s account in Russian of the monasteries of the east is entirely devoted to Athos, with fine line-drawings of the monasteries.

Barsky, Vasily Grigorovich, Vtoroe poseshchenie sviatoi Afonskoi gory Vasilia Grigorovicha-Barskago im samim opisannoe [Basil Grigorovich Barsky’s Second Visit to the Holy Mountain of Athos as Described by Himself], 1887

Belon, Pierre, Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses mémorables, 1553; as Plurimarum Singularium et Memorabilium Rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Iudaea, Arabia, aliisque exteris Provinciis ab ipso conspectarum Observationes, translated into Latin by Carolus Clusius, 1589

Bos, Rolf, met gedichten Peter van den Hazel, Athos, Amstelveen, 1981

Bos, Rolf: Een theocratisch paradijs (1997), de Volkskrant 26 juli 2007

Brekelmans, I. Pelgrimeren naar de Berg Athos, Den Dungen 1995, pp 269 (verslag van twee reizen in de jaren tachtig)

Brenninkmeijer, Paul: Gastvrijheid en spiritualiteit. Bezoek aan de berg Athos, Pokrof 4(2004)4-6

Breukel, Thom: Op de Heilige Berg Athos, Eikonikon 13(1989)10-11, 19(1990)9-10

Brewster, Ralph H., The 6,000 Beards of Athos, 1935

Brockhaus, Heinrich Eduard: Die Kunst in den Athos-Klöstern (German Edition) - May 24, 2002

Bryer, Anthony and Mary Cunningham (editors), Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications, no. 4, Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1996
Lively and scholarly contributions on the history, spirituality, economy, and arts and architecture of the Holy Mountain.

Buondelmonti, Cristoforo, Librum Insularum Archipelagi, 1824; as Description des îles de l’Archipel ... Version grecque par un anonyme, publiée d’après le manuscrit du Sérail avec une traduction française et un commentaire, par Émile Legrand, 1897

Byron, Robert, The Station; Athos: Treasures and Men, 1928; with introduction by Christopher Sykes, 1949
and here.
Photo's by Byron.

Cavarnos, Constantine, The Holy Mountain, Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1973

Cavarnos, Constantine, Anchored in God: An Inside Account of Life, Art and Thought on the Holy Mountain of Athos, 2nd edition, Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1975

Capuani/Paparozzi: Athos - 1999

Chariton, Monk, Maties ston Atho/Images of Athos, Mount Athos, 1997 [text in Greek and English]

Choukas, Michael, Black Angels of Athos, London, 1935

Covel, John, Some Account of the Present Greek Church, with Reflections on their Present Doctrine and Discipline, 1722

Curzon, George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, “Monasteries of the Levant” in his Leaves from a Viceroy’s Note-book and other Papers, 1926; as A Viceroy’s India, edited by Peter King, 1984
The author follows in the footsteps of his relative Robert.

Curzon, Robert, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant, 1849; with an introduction by D.G. Hogarth, 1916; with an introduction by Seton Dearden and a preface by Basil Blackwell, 1955

Dafis, S. e.a., Nature and natural Environment in Mount Athos, Thessaloníki 1997, pp 61 (Treasures of Mount Athos tentoonstelling)

Dahm, Chrysostomus and Ludger Bernhard: Athos: Berg der Verklärung: German vesrion 1959, Engish version: Athos - Mountain of Light. Published by Burda, 1959 228 pages.
Dalrymple, William, “The Monastery of Iviron, Mount Athos, Greece, 29 June 1994: The Feast of SS Peter and Paul” in his From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, 1997; as From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, 1998

Dapontes, Konstantinos, Kepos Chariton [Garden of the Graces], 1880. Dapontes settled as a monk on Mount Athos in the mid-18th century.

Dawkins, R.M., The Monks of Athos, London, 1936

Dölger,F., Mönchland Athos, München, 1943

Doolaard, A. den "Athos: eiland van stilte" in: Katholieke Illustratie, 19 december 1959 (nr. 51), p. 43-47, met foto's van Cas Oorthuys.

Eller, K., Der Heilige Berg Athos, München, 1954

Epifanios Mylopotaminos: The Cook Book of Yper Ygias Monastiriakes Syntages of Agiou Orous (Healthy Monastery Recipes of Mount Athos.

Fallmerayer, Jakob Philipp, Hagion Oros, oder Der Heilige Berg Athos [The Agion Oros, or the Holy Mountain Athos], edited by Franz Hieronymus Riedl, 1978

Feigl, Erich, Athos Vorhölle zum Paradies, Wien/Hamburg, 1982

Fennel, Nicholas, The Russians on Athos, Peter Lang, 2001

Friedlander, Richard John: Paradise Besieged: A Journey to Medieval Mount Athos at the Dawn of the Information Age, August 6, 2007, Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.

I.M. Filothéou (ed), Athonikes Stigmes (Moments of Athos), Agion Oros 1994, pp 205 (bijzonder fotoboek in groot formaat)

Gabriel (Gavriil) Filotheïtis, monachos, Athos, Beauty and Grace (Kállos ke Cháris), Thessaloníki 2004, pp 190 (tekst Grieks en Engels, zeer mooi kijkboek)

Gedeon, Manouel Ioannes, O Athos: Anamniseis -- Eggrapha -- Simeioseis [Athos: Memories -- Documents -- Notes], Constantinople, 1885; reprinted, Athens, 1990

Geldermans, Raymond: Athos, ark der orthodoxie, Pokrof 49(2002)10-12

Georgirenes, Joseph, A Description of the Present State of Samos, Nicaria, Patmos, and Mount Athos, translated by Henry Denton, 1678

Gothóni, René, Paradise within Reach: Monasticism and Pilgrimage on Mt Athos, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1993

Gothóni, René, The Monastic Magnet: Roads to and from Mount Athos/ Graham Speake (Editor), march 2008

Gothóni, René, Tales and Truth: Pilgrimage on Mount Athos Past and Present, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1994

Greeve, H. de, Athos, een inleiding, Amsterdam, 1967

Gullman, Sven H., Athos: det Heliga berget (Skellefteå, 2004)

Hasluck, F.W. (editor), “The First English Traveller’s Account of Athos (1677)”, Annual of the British School at Athens, 17 (1910[-]11): 103[-]31

Hagioritis, Andreas, Guide du Mont Athos, ???

Hasluck, F.W., Athos and its Monasteries, 1924

Hellier, Ch., Athos, The Holy Mountain, in: Monasteries of Greece, London 1996, pp 95-171 (groot formaat, prachtige foto’s)

Hokwerda, Hero: Athos, van verval tot nieuwe bloei, Lychnari 3(1993)23-24

Huber, P. Athos - Lebe, Glaube, Kunst, Zurich, 1969

Huber, P, Athos. Wundertätige Ikonen, Stuttgart ca 1980, pp 50

Hunink, Vincent: Nieuwe tijden op Athos, Streven 65(1998)597-609

Hyman, Susan (editor), Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848[-]1849, London: John Murray, 1988

Kadas, Sotiris, Mount Athos: An Illustrated Guide to the Monasteries and their History, translated by Louise Turner, Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1979

Karakatsanis, Athanasios (editor), Treasures of Mount Athos, Thessaloniki: Museum of Byzantine Culture and Holy Community of Mount Athos, 1997 [exhibition catalogue]
A massive and scholarly treasury of all aspects of the arts of Mount Athos, with historical introduction and bibliography.

Kästner, Erhart, Die Stundentrommel vom Heiligen Berg Athos, Wiesbaden, 1956
[The Beating of the Hours on the Holy Mountain Athos], 1956; as Mount Athos: The Call from Sleep, translated by Barry Sullivan, 1961

Kazantzakis, Nikos, Anaphora ston Gkreko: Myth istorema, 1961; as Report to Greco, translated by P.A. Bien, 1965

Kinnet, Alex: Verslag verblijf op de Agion Oros/Heilige Berg Athos (september 2000), Eikonikon 71(2001)15-18

Köppen, W. Wo die Welt vergessen wird, Mainz, 1981

Khitrovo, Sofiya, Itinéraires russes en Orient, 1889
Accounts by Russian travellers from the 14th to the 16th century, starting with Ignatius of Smolensk.

Koutoumános, I., Athos…wie der Himmel es sieht (opos to vlepi …o ouranos), Athen 1994, pp 51 (mooie luchtfoto’s van alle kloosters, tekst Grieks en Duits/Engels)

Langlois, Victor, Le Mont Athos et ses monastères, Paris: Didot, 1867. The complete book is online.

Leake, William Martin, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 3, 1835

Lecq, J.B. van der: Athos herbeleefd, Sjofar 31(2003)9-11, 32(2003)9-10

Loch, Joyce Nankivell, A Fringe of Blue: An Autobiography, 1968

Loch, Sydney, Athos: The Holy Mountain, 1957

Loon, Wim van: Bezoek aan de Heilige Berg Athos, Op weg 49(1995)3, Bezoek aan de Heilige Berg Athos: een impressie, Eikonikon 77(2002)16-17, Katastrofale brand op Athos, Eikonikon 84(2004)5-6, Weerzien met Athos en de ikoon Axion Estí, Eikonikon 85 (2004)3, Een cel op de Heilige Berg Athos: Vader Efthímios en de Heilige Artemios, Eikonikon 93(2006)10-11

Loving, G.G.: Mt. Athos Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - 1982)

Masmeijer, Pieter: Athos en de wereld, een impressie, Eikonikon 38(1994)11

Lyttle, Douglas Demetrios: Miracle on the Monastery Mountain, 2004

Martin, Michael E., “Some Western Images of Athos in Early Modern Times, c. 1554[-]1678”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 22 (1998): 51[-]74

Merrill, Christopher, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain April 19, 2004)

Millet, Gabriel, Monuments de l’Athos, vol. 1: Les Peintures, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1927

Morritt, John B.S., The Letters of John B.S. Morritt of Rokeby, Descriptive of Journeys in Europe and Asia Minor in the Years 1794[-]6, edited by G.E. Marindin, 1914

Mylonas, Paul M.: Atlas of Mount Athos / Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos (2000) publisher Wasmuth.

Mylonas, Paul M.: Athos and its Monastic Institutions through old engravings and other work of art - 1963

Mylonas, Paul M.: Le catholicon of Kutlumus Athos - 1994

Mylonas, Paul M.: Pictorial Dictionary of the Holy Mountain Athos - 2000

M. le Comte. B. DE NADAILLAC, LE MONT ATHOS

Nicephore, Hieromonk, The holy Mountain Athos, Skiti Mikra Anna, 2003

Noakes, Vivien (editor), Edward Lear: Selected Letters, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988

Norwich John Julius and Reresby Sitwell: Mount Athos Photographs by the authors and A. Costa. New York: Harper & Row, 1966

Papantoniou, Zacharias, Hagion Oros [The Holy Mountain], 1934

Pennington, M. Basil: The Monks of Mount Athos, 1978

Perk, Nico van der: Christoforos. Een diaconale ikoon op Athos, Eikonikon 91(2006)8-9

Proust, M.A., Voyage au Mont Athos, 1858

Provatakis, Theocharis, Mount Athos, History - Tradition - Tourism, Thessaloniki, ?

Riley, Athelstan, Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks, 1887 the complete text here!

Rocha, Luis: Mount Athos, A Journey of Self-Discovery, February 26, 2009

Roos, Henk: Athos. Wandelingen door de tuin van de Heilige Maagd, Eikonikon 66(2000)11-16, 67(2000)3-8, 68(2000)10-14

Rycaut, Sir Paul, The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi 1678, 1679; reprinted, 1970

Sandys, George, A Relation of a Journey begun An. Dom. 1610, 1615

Sherrard, Philip, Athos, the Mountain of Silence, with colour photos by Paul du Marchie van Voorthuysen, 1960

Sherrard, Philip, Athos: The Holy Mountain, photos by Takis Zervoulakos, 1982
The most penetrating of recent interpreters according to an unknown reader.

Sibthorp, John, J.E. Smith, and John Lindley, Flora Graeca, 10 vols, 1806[-]40
This is one of the rarest Flora in existence. Vols 2 (1813) and 8 (1832) contain coloured engravings of Mount Athos as frontispieces. See also nrs. 332 + 338 on this log.

Smyrnakis, Gerasimos, To Agion Oros [The Holy Mountain], Athens, 1903; reprinted, Karyes: Panselinos, 1988

Speake, Graham: ~Renewal in Paradise, 2002, Yale University Press

Spencer, Matthew, Athos, Travels on the Holy Mountain 2000

Spunda, Franz: Legenden und Fresken vom Berg Athos. Stuttgart: J.F. Steinkopf, 1962.
Stockiner/Strippelmann, Die Mönche vom Heilgen Berg - 2001

Talbot Rice, David, “The Monasteries of Mount Athos”, Antiquity, 2/4 (December 1928): 443[-]51

Theunissen, W.P.,
Monnikenrepubliek van den Berg Athos, Den Haag, 1944

Theunissen, W.P, Op de heilige Berg Athos, 1965

Theunissen, W.P. en J. Hartog, De Heilige Berg, Rotterdam 1951, pp 256

Theotokas, Yorgas, Een reisverslag van Athos, 1961, trans. in Dutch 1990

Thomas, W.B. - Dare to be free - 1955
Tozer, Henry Fanshawe, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1, 1869

The Treasures of Mount Athos - Illuminated Manuscripts - Ekdotike Athenon S. A. Volume 1 published in 1974 and volume 2 in 1975.

Trumler, G., Athos. The Holy Mountain, Athens 1994, pp 195 (prachtig fotoboek in groot formaat)

Valentin, Jacques: The Monks of Mount Athos, 1960

Various authors: Le Tour du Monde; Athos, Journal des voyages et des voyageurs; 2. sem. 1860

Veen, ter Koert, Athos, monnikeneiland, 2001

Verheijen, Ton: Athos, waar de de tijd al tien eeuwen stil staat, Griekenland Magazine, herfst(2004)18-25

Walpole, Robert (editor), Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited from manuscript journals, 1817 (full text on Google books)
Walpole’s compilation, confusingly edited, contains extracts from the papers of Dr Philip Hunt and letters from Professor Carlyle recounting their 1801 visit to Athos and investigations of libraries and manuscript holdings. It also includes a few short extracts from the journals of John Sibthorp.

Ware, Timothy,(Kallistos): The Orthodox Church, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963; 2nd revised edition, 1993
The standard work for English speakers.

Wittig, M.A., Athos. Der Heilige Berg von Byzanz, Würzburg 1990, pp 135

XYNGOPOULOS, Andrea: MANUEL PANSELINOS /ILLUSTRATIONS : COPIES DESSINS ET MOTIFS DECORATIFS par PHOTIS ZACHARIOU /PUBLISHER : EDITIONS D'ATHENES, ATHENS, 1956
Zimbardo, Xavier, Monks of Dust: The Holy Men of Mount Athos, 2001

Zwerger, Rheinhold, Wege am Athos, 2005.

599 - Books: Mönchsland Athos 1942

A quote from an article I found concerning this German expedition during the second World war:
Furthermore, a German expedition of 1942 enabled F. Dölger and his associates to record on film the great collection of monastic charters, property deeds and chrysobuls which completed a task initiated as early as 1857 when Russian scholar, P. I. Sevastianov, did the first photographing of manuscripts at Athos.
Another picture of Hitler on Athos here in Panteleimonos.

hv

Dölger also got the rare opportunity to study the "Tragos" in the library in Karyes !
wv

594 - Andrew Agioritis: Guide to Mont Athos 1971

1971: a road to Simonas Petras, to Karyes and further to Iviron but thats it. For reaching the other monasteries you had to walk.

Guide to Mount Athos by Monk Andrew Agioritis
Printed by Eptalofos Co. Ltd.
182 pages of text and photo illustrations (some drawings as well)
hv

578 - a Dutch book about Athos from 1967

In 1967 mr H. de Greeve from the Netherlands wrote a book tittled "Athos, een inleiding". Most of the 49 pitures are taken by the author himself.

A monk from the Lavra-monastery holding a large key- 1965

Mr. de Greeve's book is well documented and has a lot of annotations. During his 15 day visit to the Holy Mountain he was able to visit many places on the Holy Mountain, for exampel the ruling Athos Governement from 1962, the Holy Epistasia, at that time delegates from Dionysiou, Sografou, Roussikon and Konstamonitou.

He managed to get in libraries and ancient books were shown to him:

A 12th century copy of the 'De materia Medica' from Diocurides (60 AD) - from the Larva Library
He also met some of the "Siromahki" as mentioned in 559.

A "Siromahki" in Karyes - 1965

A monk from Skiti Prodromou - 1965

and finally this rare picture of the skeleton of Alexander the Great from a chapel in Dionysiou. The legend goes that St. Sisoïs the ascetic found the skeleton of Alexander the in the Egyptian desert and said the words: "O, Death, who can escape from it "?

A mural from the Varlaam monastery in Meteora depicting St. Sisoïs finding the grave of Alexander
Wim, 28/9

575 - WW II and Athos part two

Here are two pictures:

hv

574 - a novel about WW II and Athos

Dare to be free by W.B. Thomas, PAN-Books LTD : London. 1955 and Walter Babington Thomas (Paperback - 9 Mar 2006) 252 pages.
"One of the greatest escape stories of World War Two".

DARE TO BE FREE is outstanding even among the most famous of War books, because it is exceptionally well written, and the story is told with humour and modesty as well as gusto. It begind with the German airborne invasion of Crete, when the author, a young New Zealander ('a lion-hearted man,' wrote Noel Coward in his Middle East Diary, 'who persistently deprecated his own exploits'), was severely wounded and was captured. He was taken to hospital in Greece and tried to escape by 'dying' and being carried out in a coffin, but his uncontrollable laughter revealed the ruse. He made two other daring but unsuccessful attemps to achieve freedom, and his nuisance value was then so great that he was removed to a specially guarded camp at Salonica, as a stage on the way to Germany. It was from here that he made the fantastic escape which is the chief theme of this book. Its most extraordinary feature is his sojourn, for almost a year, among the rocky eyries of the Mount Athos monasteries (where no female, human or animal, is allowed). In this strange self-contained community to monastery as the Germans came and went, meeting with alternating good-will and irascibility from the long-bearded-black-robed inmates. Finally, after three desperate attempts to cross the stormy Aegean Sea, he reached Turkey in a stolen boat, with two Englishmen whom the monks had also sheltered.

In 2006 a documentary/film was made about this book.

Wim, 25-9

570 - Vasily Barsky

The russian pilgim Vasily Barsky visited Athos twice (1725 and 1744). Barsky 's drawings are valued especially for the accuracy of their architectural detail in an age before photography. (quote from Graham Speake in his famous book Mount Athos Renewal in Paradise). The artist Doug Pattersson was inspired by Barsky 's drawings.


Konstamonitou (photo from the Kellion website)


Dochiariou (photo from the Kellion website)
hv

564 - Book: Paul Mylonas

Athos: Und Seine Klosteranglagen in Alten Stichen und Kunstwerken

by Dr. Paul M. Mylonas

issued Athens, 1963. pp. 210
Includes gray original slip cover. In dj, publisher's red cloth with gilt spine and front cover lettering.
Collection of old prints featuring the landscape and region surrounding the Greek / Macedonian penninsula. Includes black and white as well as color reprints of centuries-old prints and map views depicting the town and its historical significance.

hv

563 - The Russians on Athos part II (also see 559)

I just finished reading this book. I would reccommend it to everybody, because it gives objective information about the history of the Russians on the Holy Mountain and especially about the Skete of Prophet Elijah. It showes the difficulties when different etnic groups have to live together and the book discribes not only the problems between the Russians and the Greek inhabitants of Athos, but also between Russians themselves (so-called Great Russians (living in Russikon and St. Andrew), Georgians (Iviron until recently) and Kosacs (Prophet Elijah).
The problems after the Russian revolution in 1917 were immense and got greater and greater with the aging of the monks. At the beginning of the First World War 220 monks left to fight with the Russian army, and since then the Skete counted 180 monks. In 1933 only 83 aging old men remained, from which half of them were to old to work.
Finally Skete of Prophet Elijah was taken over by the Greeks in may 1992 after a visit of a exechate of the ecumenical patriarchate and after expelling the last small-Russians with force.

"Great Russians" from Panteleimon in 1917, from Plaatwerk 1986, Paul Robert en Rolf Bos
Nicolas Fennell studied a lot of documents, microfilms and books.
From the accounts we know that the average annual turnover of Skete of Prophet Elijah was a half a million Roubles. The amount spent on food was 5.800 Roubles: but on alcohol the monks spend 7.429 a year! Drinking half a liter wine every day was normal.
When I visited Mount Athos in 1986 I found this banknote in a pile of rubble in a deserted large Russian kellion near Lakou, named "Stavros". (see 192).

10-Rouble note from 1909

The Skete got a lot of money from donations (46.500 in 1914). In the library of the kellion we found thousends of the forms to donate money. You could pay an amount to the monks and the more you paid, the more they would pray for you.


A Russian "Kwitantia" from the deserted kellion "Stavros"

A new picture of the deserted Russian kellion taken by Pieter Voorn, recently scanned - 1986.

Wim Voogd, 19/9

561 - new books and articles (in Dutch)

Thanks to Vasilis I have added some new titels to our long list of books (and articles), which you can find here.

From a few of his newly found articles I will show some pictures:

from: Brenninkmeijer, Paul: Gastvrijheid en spiritualiteit. Bezoek aan de berg Athos, Pokrof 4(2004)4-6

from: Geldermans, Raymond: Athos, ark der orthodoxie, Pokrof 49(2002)10-12

from: Loon, Wim van: Bezoek aan de Heilige Berg Athos: een impressie, Eikonikon 77(2002)16-17

from: Loon, Wim van: Katastrofale brand op Athos, Eikonikon 84(2004)5-6 (also see 447)

from: Loon, Wim van: Weerzien met Athos en de ikoon Axion Estí, Eikonikon 85 (2004)3 Also see 236)

From: Loon, Wim van: Een cel op de Heilige Berg Athos: Vader Efthímios en de Heilige Artemios, Eikonikon 93(2006)10-11

From: Roos, Henk: Athos. Wandelingen door de tuin van de Heilige Maagd, Eikonikon 66(2000)11-16, 67(2000)3-8, 68(2000)10-14(also see page 2 with the picture from the mural from the Protaton).

From: Perk, Nico van der: Christoforos. Een diaconale ikoon op Athos, Eikonikon 91(2006)8-9
Wim, 15/9

559 - The Russians on Athos: "Siromahki"

From the book "The Russians on Athos" from Fennell I took over this interesting text:

"Today measures have been taken to restrict the numbers of pilgrims on the Holy Mountain: Greeks and foreigners alike are discouraged from staying more than four days and permission is given to very few non-Greeks to set foot on the peninsula each day. There were no such restrictions a century ago. History has taught the authorities today that too many people, particularly laymen, destroy the peace for which Athos is famous.
The population of the Holy Mountain in the first decade of the 20th century was just under ten thousand monks. This was greater than at any time in Athonite history. The figure does not account for laymen – pilgrims, officials, tradesmen and hired workers; nor does it account for those on the margin of Athonite society, the “siromakhi”, and other wandering mendicants. Monks Dorotheos calls them “kaviotes” and defines them as unattached “rasophors” or laymen in monk’s clothing.

People could consider the monk on the photo above as a "Siromahki" from the book by Sidney Loch. But Loch says that this is a "Hermit kissed by God". Our reader J.C. Grenier has let us know that this man is named P. Georges. J.C. Grenier continues:
"The monk in rags and on top of that there is a raven is not a "kaviote." He enjoyed on Athos a reputation as a saint despite its attempts to hide in infringing madness".

The Kaviotes lived some of the time in huts, known as “kavia”, but generally had no fixed abode, went from place to place doing odd jobs and received charitable donations of food and money.
The three Russian houses, particularly the monastery, were famous for the help they gave the “siromakhi”. On Thursdays, Sundays and feast days up to seven hundred would gather at the gates of St Panteleimon to receive small change and bread which was distributed from great wooden bowls.

Skiti Andreou 1905: hundreds of Russian monks (no siromahki !?) gather for a feast (from Erich Feigl's book)

The St Panteleimon guide-book to the Holy Mountain described the “siromakhi” as blessed non-possessors akin to the stranniki in Russia. At the beginning of the century, however, there was a significant criminal element among them. A Russian visitor wrote:
“The ‘siromakhi’ and wandering monks sometimes behave themselves in such a way that the St Panteleimon brethren did not advise to go without a guide far from the monastery into the woods where we might come across these monks”.

Book of Theunissen: Siromahki (?) 1965

Pavlovski spoke of the need to defend the Athonite houses from bands of brigands that committed robbery with violence. In 1908 Priest-schemamonk Moisey, the founder of the Kellion of St Ignatius the Godbearer, was murdered on Athos by bandits. The “siromakhi” continued to behave do disreputably in the following decades that they were banned from the Holy Mountain by official decree of the Koinotis on 16 april 1931."

Even in 1979, when Rolf Gross visited the Holy Mountain, there were still rumors of violent monks, that you might encounter on the path between Lavra and Skiti Anni.

"I had repeatedly inquired after the path across the steep southern escarpment of the mountain, but nobody I met had ever walked there. I was strongly warned of going there, just last year an Austrian had fallen to his death attempting the traverse, the path was dangerously exposed - besides the area was inhabited by wild monks who would roll stones into your way and try to rob you. When I heard this tale I firmly made up my mind to dare it; too obviously these were horror stories. Yet still next morning a Greek from a surveying party seriously tried to talk me out of my plan. "Alone, all by yourself, you are crazy!". It turned out to be the most beautiful walk on the whole mountain.”

I walked this trail in 1986 for the first time and did not meet any dangerous people, nor did I see any real “siromakhi” in 1980: I only saw one drunk monk in the old restaurant in Karyes.
Wim, 8/9

542 - Colour Autochromes by Cuville

Chilandariou
hv

530 - Sibthorp: Flora Graeca

f.68: Cineraria anomala Athos sketch Mt. Athos Journ. Cacalia sancta Sibth. Tourn 91 ut Cineraria est

The complete botanical work here.
hv

525 - F.W Hasluck: Athos and its monasteries 1924

F W Hasluck, an archaeologist who worked at the British School at Athens and published a book about Athos and its Monasteries in the 1920s, confronted this question of prejudice. ³I came to Athos first, he wrote, ³with a strong prejudice against monasticism in general and Greek monasticism, as contemplative and non-productive, even parasitic, in particular; this prejudice was considerably modified before I left the Mountain. My quarrel with the individual monk was disarmed by the extreme simplicity and obvious honesty of the Athonite point of view.1 I suspect that most prejudices are similarly modified by the actual experience of the Holy Mountain.
Text by Michael Llewellyn Smith.
hv

507 - Freire and Lacarriere: Le Mont Athos, 2002

Here the website of the authors.
hv

506 - more about the book of Brewster

In 1999 the book of Brewster was republished by Clocktower Paperbacks (ISBN 0 8 5955 251 9).

Front of the book from 1999

He visited the Holy Mountain in the thirties of the last century, together with Iorgos, his Greek friend who translated for him and helped him with his luguage and photo equipment.

"Students at the Hierarchical College at Karyes"

Brewster thought it was important to add this appendix about the quality of the food, how clean the toilets and rooms were, and how many bugs you could find (millions!), as a warning to new visitors !

A lot has changed in the past years, but I remember a visit to Sografou in 1980, were the wooden toilet still was attached to the wall outside the monastery and were you could look down through a hole to the rocks some 30 meters below !

"Russian monk fishing for his supper": it looks like he fishing in a lake and not in the sea (maybe the lake near the old Russian monastery ?)

Brewster had some interesting information about women on Mount Athos (M. Choisy and Miss Europe 1930: Aliki Diplarakou), that recently (1920/30?) had occured:

Wim, 13/6

505 - Brewster: The 6000 beards of Athos

A very strange book (1935) which give you the impression that almost every monk has homosexual tendencies. I read a comment here: " If its true it is shocking, if its not true its even more shocking".

map with the old route from Paulou to Morfonou on the other coast (not on the Zwerger map)

Brewsters greek companion (or boyfriend) talking with a monk

fragment!?!
hv

471 - M. Basil Pennington: The Monks of Mount Athos

Part of a review on Amazon May 17, 2006 by Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA)
Twenty-five years ago, Cistercian monk Basil Pennington, who recently died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, spent a sabbatical on Mount Athos, the holy mountain of Eastern Orthodoxy. This was and remains an unusual feat: pilgrims are generally not allowed to spend more than a night or two at any one of the monasteries and sketes on Athos. Moreover, members of the Latin Church are generally not all that welcome on Athos anyway.

But Pennington, who although a Latinist was also a member of a contemplative monastic tradition, managed to spend four months on Athos. Most of his time was spent at the monastery of Simonos Petras, but he also visited quite a few others. He was welcomed at Simonos warmly and generously. At some of the other monasteries he visited, the hospitality was decidedly more wary. Throughout the entire experience, Pennington entered as deeply as an outsider can into the Orthodox spiritual tradition, attending services (when permitted), praying the Jesus Prayer, and absorbing the holy atmosphere and history of Athos. His journey of the experience, in which he recounts both the everyday and the spiritual, was originally published in 1978.
hv

466 - Michael Choukas: Black Angels of Athos

Black Angels of Athos: Medieval Men in a Modern World by Michael Choukas. Foreword by Robert M. MacIver.

Publisher: Stephen Daye Press

Year: 1934

Pages: 327

Description: From the New York Times Book Review in 1935: For more than 1,000 years, bearded, black-robed Greek Orthodox monks have lived in theocratic communities on that marble crag, Mount Athos, which rises 6,000 ft. out of the Aegean Sea. Accessible to male visitors, the monks are used to being asked: "What is the purpose of your life?" They invariably reply: "What is the purpose of your life outside?" Few years ago Mount Athos had a visitor who did more than ask about purposes. A Dartmouth sociologist named Michael Choukas, he viewed the "holy mountain" as a medieval hangover, a laboratory for pure sociological research. He lived among the monks, studied their life, wrote a book.

See also our long list of books here.
hv

460 - Easter on Athos

Vasilis mailed us this poem by Hubert van Herreweghen (1920 - in Dutch):

Pasen

Ik wilde wel ik kon
een versje maken dat
ik aan uw oor zou hangen
en gij hoort dan gezangen
in een abdij vol zon
en reuk van 't wierookvat,

'T is Pasen en misschien
als ik Goddank voordien
de dagen van dat feest
in Hellas ben geweest
hoort gij in uw oorringen
Athos' monniken zingen
't orthodox horologion.

Ik wilde dat ik het kon

Dionysiou - the day before easter 1986
wv

432 - Map by Blaeu

Here is a new database on the web with the a complete atlas (map) of the 17th century by the famous brothers Blaeu from Amsterdam.

The names are not familiar. Acroto could be Akrathos but lies on the Lavra spot. Stelar is on the map where you would expect Vatopedi. Oliforio is maybe Dafni. Who can identify the places on the map?

Hometown of webmaster wv.

Hometown of webmaster hv
hv

422 - books: L'Hieromoine Etienne Kelliotes

See also this post.
hv

408 - more pictures from the book by Theunissen

Here are the pictures of some hermits from the book mentioned in 389:

The hermit Matthias - picture by Paul C. Pet, Amsterdam

Hermit: "I am on my way to God" - picture by K. Eller

Hermit not far from Ag. Pavlou - picture by Paul C. Pet, Amsterdam

Hermit from Kavsokalivia - picture by Paul C. Pet, Amsterdam
wv

401 - Photobook 1912

Poor quality photobook 1912 on Youtube but "every" building is to be seen.
hv

389 - book: Op de heilige berg Athos: W.P. Theunissen 1965

The last book I bought about Athos is from a Dutch writer, Dr. W.P. Theunissen.

Dr. W.P. Theunissen (picture in the inner cover) - 1965

He visited the Holy Mountain in 1934 for the first time and his first book about Athos was published during WW2 in 1944. His second book “Op de Heilige Berg Athos - in de tuin van de Moeder Gods” was published in 1965. This book containes a lot of black and white pictures from different photografers:

Soft cover of the book: Op de Heilige Berg Athos - 1965

In the copy I bought the author wrote this text (in Dutch):

I tried to translate the poem in English:

On all my study trips and wanderings I understood
That the problems of mankind got an answer
In The Light of Eternity
As pilgrims we are on the road to this light
The monks of Athos see in the icons: Theia Pragmata:
Divine things, messengers on the roads to God,
That’s why He is being worshiped on The Holy Mountain, more than any place.
W. Theunissen

As I said, there are al lot of black and white pictures in the book, of which I will show you some here. As a follow up of nr 387, first some pictures of monks:

The young monk Theophilos from Ag. Pavlou - picture from Paul C. Pet - Amsterdam

Monk from Skiti Annis - picture from Paul C. Pet

Monk gets fresh water - Ag. Stavronikita - picture from Paul C. Pet

Old monk with strong glasses from Vatopediou - picture from Paul C. Pet

Next time more about this book - wv 10/3

382 - German titles

Here are some more or less recent German titles. Reviews (in German) of this books you will find here
Rudolf Billetta: Athos, [Europa erlesen], Klagenfurt (Wieser) 2000, 330 S., 15 cm, ISBN 3-85129-337-1, 12,95 EUR.

Folker Reichert / Gerrit J. Schenk: Athos. Reisen zum Heiligen Berg 1347-1841 [Fremde Kulturen in alten Berichten], Stuttgart (Thorbecke) 2001, 368 S., 23 cm, ISBN 3-7995-0611-X, 24,00 EUR.

Helmut Starrach: Der Ruf des Athos. Erfahrungen und Begegnungen auf dem Heiligen Berg, Freiburg (Herder) 2002, 143 S., 21 cm, ISBN 3-451-27733-6, 19,90 EUR.

Hans Steinacker: Athos. Weisheit aus der Stille. Mit Fotos von Harald Löw, Gießen (Brunnen) 2002, 48 S., 24 cm, ISBN 3-7655-6373-0, 13,90 EUR

Paul M. Mylonas: Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos, Tübingen (Wasmuth) 2000, I (Einführende Texte, deutsch) 193 S., 28 cm, II (Photographische Dokumentation der Landschaft und der Klöster, viersprachig) 343 S., 28 cm, III (Karten und Tafeln, viersprachig) 34 Pläne, 52×80 cm, ISBN 3-8030-1047-0 (Gesamtausgabe deutsch), 126,80 EUR.

Massimo Capuani / Maurizio Paparozzi, Athos. Die Klostergründungen. Ein Jahrtausend Spiritualität und orthodoxe Kunst, 248 S., 210 teils farbige Abb., Leinen, ISBN 3-7704-3409-3, DM 98,-

Thomas Steppan, Die Athos-Lavra und der trikonchale Kuppelnaos in der byzantinischen Architektur, München 1995, 272 S., 169 Abb., fest geb., ISBN 3-925801-14-6, DM 168,–
hv

381 - Atlas of Athos

Yesterday I found this on the internet: Atlas of Mount Athos / Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos (2000), written by a historian Paul M. Mylonas, published by Wasmuth.

It contains 3 books with maps of 30.000:1 (Zwerger = 50.000:1) and plans of monasteries. The prize is € 126,80. More information is difficult to find, but the book was mentioned on this site (in German, but with interesting and recent information!).

New is that the top is NOT 2033, but only 2026 meters high (and according to the map from appr. the year 1900(see nr 379), the top only reached to 1935 meters!!).
Wim, 5/3

378 - Reinhold Zwerger

Rheinhold Zwerger, born in 1924, visited the holy Mountain for the first time in 1956. He was always on his way and stayed sometimes a month or so on the holy mountain. He also made drawing, paintings and made "Linolschnitts" in english linocuts (in dutch linoleumsnedes).
For pilgrims and people who love Athos he is very important because he made (in 15 years) his famous Athos map 1:50.000 1982. Without it many people on the peninsula would still be lost. There is no other map with so many detailed footpaths and roads and , very impotant for orientation, altitude lines (hoogtelijnen!).
He made diaries during his visits which he transformed into a book in German called " Wege am Athos". About his adventures and about the changes he saw from 1956 to 2005 on the holy mountain.
You can order his book here.

Detail of the Zwerger map. You can order the map by the man himself: Reinhold Zwerger, A-1020 Wien, Wohlmutstrasse 8, Austria.
hv with many thanks to Vasilis.

353 - Books: John Athelstan Riley 1887

Athelstan Riley, Athos or the mountain of the monks published 1887.
The whole text of the book is online. Here follows his interesting account of the ascent to the summit in 1883:

So away we rode, the Archbishop, O (= his friend Rev. Arthur Edward Brisco Owen, hv) and myself, the faithful Pantele in front with his master's stick, and two muleteers to show us the way.

Up we went, past the region of forest trees, over the rocks and loose stones, which afforded but trea cherous foothold for the mules ; but these wonderful beasts never once came down. Our prelate was in merrypin. The keen mountain air seemed to have raised his spirits to the highest pitch. He had provided himself with a long and thick stick, and as he rode behind O 's mule he devoted himself to accelerating its pace by the most vicious prods and blows, ' Thwack, thwack,' went the stick, ' Hi ! hi ! ' shouted the Arch bishop, and the unfortunate animal would bound up the mountain side with sudden jerks which momently threatened to shake its rider from his seat.

' I wish the Archbishop would lose that stick,' said O ; and presently he did, and a pretty fuss there was until it was recovered !

At last we reached a rocky platform overhanging a precipice, on which stands the little Church of the Panaghia, 1,000 feet below the summit of the mountain. Attached to this chapel is a hut, in which the pilgrims rest on the night before the festival of the Transfiguration. Nobody lives here, and the place is only used on this one night of the year.

Beyond this point the mules could not go ; so we dismounted, and having looked into the little church went inside the hut. A wooden sleeping-bench formed its only furniture, upon which I lay down to rest for a few minutes before we recommenced our ascent. Meanwhile O had converted another part of the bench into a temporary observatory, and was engaged in taking the readings of the aneroid and the thermo meter, so as to calculate the height of the mountain. We had not been more than two minutes in the hut when I saw O hastily investigate his dress. ' Why, here's a flea !' said he, ' and another ! and another ! and another !' He caught a dozen straight off, and then snatching up his scientific apparatus dashed out of the room. I was not slow to follow him, before the fleas had time to turn their attention to me. They had evidently been left behind by the pilgrims five days before, and were naturally exceedingly hungry. After a few minutes' rest on the grass outside we started for the summit, to the Archbishop's great disgust, for he wanted to take an hour's nap. We were soon past the pine trees, climbing up the steep side of the white marble peak by a zigzag path. Very soon the Arch bishop became exhausted, and, as we feared he would never reach the top, whilst we were determined to finish our climb, we left him sitting on a rock, and gained the summit of the mountain in exactly one hour after leaving the Panaghia. We found ourselves in a cloud, and it being very chilly we took refuge in the little Chapel of the Transfiguration, lighted the lamps of the iconostasis (with great difficulty), for the wicks, like everything else in the chapel, were as wet as they could be and sang Magnificat.

This chapel is of the most primitive construction. It has no windows, and a dome built of loose stones forms the roof, through the holes in which a few rays of light penetrate into the church. It measures nine feet from the west wall to the iconostasis, and five beyond to the east wall. At the west there is a shed, which might be called a narthex, containing a little well scooped out of the rock to hold the rain water from the roof. On the iconostasis are four icons of brass, those next the holy doors representing the Transfigu ration and the Blessed Virgin, the others St. Atha nasius and St. John the Baptist. On coming out we found that the clouds were no longer round the peak, but were floating beneath us. The rocky platform at the top of the mountain is very small ; there is only just room for the chapel and a small path round its south and west sides. On the north the mountain de scends abruptly in a tremendous precipice ; on the remaining sides the platform slopes a little before breaking away. Just as we had sat down to rest and O had lighted a pipe, the clouds cleared off and dis closed the land and sea below us. To the north the promontory stretched away to the mainland, twisting itself into little bays and gulfs, looking like some snaky monster floating on the sea. We could distinguish several of the monasteries on the east side of the pro montory, lying peacefully by the sea shore. On the west of us was the Gulf of the Holy Mountain spark ling in the sunshine, and, beyond, the peninsula of Longos, or Sithonia ; on the north-east the blue waters of the Strymonic Gulf, with the island of Thasos in the distance ; on the south the open sea, with Lemnos on the horizon. It was indeed a glorious sight.

Whilst we wem thus enjoying ourselves a cheery voice broke the stillness of the air, and round the corner of the chapel wall appeared the Archbishop, with the faithful Pantele bringing up the rear. The prelate threw himself down beside us, exhausted by his unwonted exertions but yet immensely pleased with himself. ' We are all hadjis now,' said he, using the Turkish word for a pilgrim. And, indeed, a visit to the Holy Mountain, including the ascent of the peak, is looked upon by the orthodox world as a pilgrimage second only to that of a visit to the Holy Land. When he had recovered his breath he bethought himself of the perpetual cigarette, but the papers had been left behind.

Donnez-moi votre tchibouque,' said he to O , who thereupon handed to him his pipe, and the Arch bishop began to console himself with the fragrant weed.

No wonder he was tired ; in addition to his ordinary grey cloak lined with ermine he had put over all another enormous cloak, also lined with fur, from which his head alone appeared. Fancy climbing a mountain in two long fur cloaks and a cassock !

We left the summit at a quarter to four o'clock, after having picked up some loose pieces of marble as memorials of our pilgrimage. When we had de scended a short distance, O , finding his stone heavy, handed it to the Archbishop to be passed on to Pan tele, for him to carry ; but the prelate in his excess of good spirits tried to throw it to his cavass, which of course resulted in its flying wide of its mark and roll ing down the slope until it was lost at the bottom. Whilst the Archbishop was giving vent to his merri ment at the catastrophe, his foot slipped and he very nearly met with the same fate, and there was something extremely comical in the sight of the Arch bishop lying flat on his back with his high hat bounding down the side of the mountain and taking a short cut of its own to the bottom. However, we all reached the Panaghia in safety at 4.45. We instantly mounted our mules, for we observed to our dismay that the blackest of clouds was descending from the top of the mountain, and that a great storm was evidently brewing. We rode down as fast as we could, and reached Kerasia at six o'clock.

More on this book at nr. 220. If your not tired reading then here is more or less the same climb but now 124 years later.
hv

350 - Books: Maryse Choicy

Text on the book:
Original book price was 50 cents
Published by Pyramid Books, 1962, 127 pages.
"Revealed! The strange ways and secret lives of an all male society, by the only woman ever to enter this foribidden world. "
There are 8, 000 men in the monastic community of Mount Athos-and for more than 1, 000 years not one female has been allowed to set foot there. To Ace Reporter Maryse Choicy, the challenge was irresistable.
Wikipedia:
Maryse Choisy (1903–1979) was a French philosophical writer.
Choisy followed an atypical path in life. Fascinated by psychoanalysis, she had the idea of introducing its concepts into her novels to better develop their characters; she then undertook to see what else could be brought to literature from other disciplines, a strategy that Michel Houellebecq, who shares her cynical, disillusioned side, would later discover as well.
This is what I found on other sites:
The book was first pubished in 1928 or 1929. (Un mois chez les hommes) She wrote, incidentally, that she had to elude the advances of a monk from Mount Athos. There are some doubts about the authenticity of her story, but Choisy's aim was a standard one: "I wanted to get out of myself, be another. No matter who, no matter what. But no longer myself, what a pleasure. To be in another skin."

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336 - Books: Monks of dust

Book Description
"In the room next door to Father Pavlos's restoration workshop, I discovered a treasure of very old photographs. The pictures were roughly the same size as those that figure on passports. They looked fairly normal to the naked eye, simply damaged and covered with microscopic cracks. I was able to scrutinize them more closely using the magnifying glass I take with me wherever I go, which allows me to open a wider eye onto the world and discover many an unsuspected, stunning universe. I looked at these small pictures through my magnifying glass, and I suddenly discovered that the faces of these monks were made of...dust! The slightest breath could have blown them to smithereens."--Xavier Zimbardo

During a rarely granted artistic residency on the holy Greek peninsula of Mount Athos, Xavier Zimbardo discovered in an abandoned monastery hundreds of deteriorating photographs of Russian monks who were in residence there prior to returning to their home country to fight against the Bolsheviks in 1917. Zimbardo photographed a selection of these images on site, never moving them from where he found them; the result is a visually arresting collection of seventy-five portraits that evoke the chasm between absence and presence, physicality and spirituality, sensuality and disintegration.

With a compelling introduction by world-renowned and Booker Prize-winning novelist Barry Unsworth, Monks of Dust: The Holy Men of Mount Athos is a sublime and moving work.

Fascinating stuff! Read about a similar story here.
This book, as many others, is for sale on Amazon
hv

333 - books in Dutch and English

This is the Dutch book I bought last week, published 1981.

Athos - foto's en gedichten - 1981

The brief prologue was written by Rolf Bos
(also see 290) and he also took the pictures.

Father John, a Greek who lived many years in the USA. After his wifes death he went to Athos "to die there".

A monk of the Bulgarian Skiti Bogoroditsa prepares the meals - 1979/1980

The 21 poems were written by Peter van den Hazel.

Much more interesting to read is this book:

William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, 1998
As the title mentions, the book starts at Iviron on The Holy Mountain, but the writer travels all over the Middle East the visit the (remnances) of the old Christian world. The book is allready 10 years old and I wonder how things are nowadays, because 10 years ago a lot of monasteries and churches started to faid away........
Wim, 29/1

331 - Books: Spencer, Travels on the Holy Mountain

Fragment on Curzon:

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330 - Books: Lyttle, Miracle on the Monastery Mountain

Order here.
hv

329 - Byron: The Station

60 photos by the author.
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328 - Athos books: long list

Alexander (Golitzin), Hieromonk, The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain: Contemporary Voices from Mount Athos, South Canaan, Pennsylvania: St Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 1996
Anthology of some of the best of modern Athonite spiritual writing.

Amand de Mendieta, Emmanuel, Mount Athos, the Garden of the Panaghia, translated by Michael R. Bruce, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1972

Angelou, Alkis, “J.D. Carlyle’s Journal of Mount Athos (1801)”, Eranistis, 14 (1965): 33[-]75

Barsky, Vasily Grigorovich, Stranstvovaniia Vasilia Grigorovicha Barskago po sviatym mestam Vostoka s 1723 po 1747 [Travels of Basil Grigorovich Barsky in the holy places of the East from 1723 to 1747], 4 vols, 1885[-]87
Volume 3 of Barsky’s account in Russian of the monasteries of the east is entirely devoted to Athos, with fine line-drawings of the monasteries.

Bos, Rolf, met gedichten Peter van den Hazel, Athos, Amstelveen, 1981

Barsky, Vasily Grigorovich, Vtoroe poseshchenie sviatoi Afonskoi gory Vasilia Grigorovicha-Barskago im samim opisannoe [Basil Grigorovich Barsky’s Second Visit to the Holy Mountain of Athos as Described by Himself], 1887

Belon, Pierre, Les Observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses mémorables, 1553; as Plurimarum Singularium et Memorabilium Rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Iudaea, Arabia, aliisque exteris Provinciis ab ipso conspectarum Observationes, translated into Latin by Carolus Clusius, 1589

Bos, Rolf: Een theocratisch paradijs (1997), de Volkskrant 26 juli 2007

Brewster, Ralph H., The 6,000 Beards of Athos, 1935

Brekelmans, I. Pelgrimeren naar de Berg Athos, Den Dungen 1995, pp 269 (verslag van twee reizen in de jaren tachtig)

Brenninkmeijer, Paul: Gastvrijheid en spiritualiteit. Bezoek aan de berg Athos, Pokrof 4(2004)4-6

Breukel, Thom: Op de Heilige Berg Athos, Eikonikon 13(1989)10-11, 19(1990)9-10

Bryer, Anthony and Mary Cunningham (editors), Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Publications, no. 4, Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1996
Lively and scholarly contributions on the history, spirituality, economy, and arts and architecture of the Holy Mountain.

Buondelmonti, Cristoforo, Librum Insularum Archipelagi, 1824; as Description des îles de l’Archipel ... Version grecque par un anonyme, publiée d’après le manuscrit du Sérail avec une traduction française et un commentaire, par Émile Legrand, 1897

Byron, Robert, The Station; Athos: Treasures and Men, 1928; with introduction by Christopher Sykes, 1949
and here.
Photo's by Byron.

Cavarnos, Constantine, The Holy Mountain, Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1973

Cavarnos, Constantine, Anchored in God: An Inside Account of Life, Art and Thought on the Holy Mountain of Athos, 2nd edition, Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1975

Capuani/Paparozzi: Athos - 1999

Chariton, Monk, Maties ston Atho/Images of Athos, Mount Athos, 1997 [text in Greek and English]

Choukas, Michael, Black Angels of Athos, London, 1935

Covel, John, Some Account of the Present Greek Church, with Reflections on their Present Doctrine and Discipline, 1722

Curzon, George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, “Monasteries of the Levant” in his Leaves from a Viceroy’s Note-book and other Papers, 1926; as A Viceroy’s India, edited by Peter King, 1984
The author follows in the footsteps of his relative Robert.

Curzon, Robert, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant, 1849; with an introduction by D.G. Hogarth, 1916; with an introduction by Seton Dearden and a preface by Basil Blackwell, 1955

Dafis, S. e.a., Nature and natural Environment in Mount Athos, Thessaloníki 1997, pp 61 (Treasures of Mount Athos tentoonstelling)

Dalrymple, William, “The Monastery of Iviron, Mount Athos, Greece, 29 June 1994: The Feast of SS Peter and Paul” in his From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium, 1997; as From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, 1998

Dapontes, Konstantinos, Kepos Chariton [Garden of the Graces], 1880
Dapontes settled as a monk on Mount Athos in the mid-18th century.

Dawkins, R.M., The Monks of Athos, London, 1936

Dölger,F., Mönchland Athos, München, 1943

Eller, K., Der Heilige Berg Athos, München, 1954

Epifanios Mylopotaminos: The Cook Book of Yper Ygias Monastiriakes Syntages of Agiou Orous (Healthy Monastery Recipes of Mount Athos.

Fallmerayer, Jakob Philipp, Hagion Oros, oder Der Heilige Berg Athos [The Agion Oros, or the Holy Mountain Athos], edited by Franz Hieronymus Riedl, 1978

Feigl, Erich, Athos Vorhölle zum Paradies, Wien/Hamburg, 1982

Fennel, Nicholas, The Russians on Athos, Peter Lang, 2001

I.M. Filothéou (ed), Athonikes Stigmes (Moments of Athos), Agion Oros 1994, pp 205 (bijzonder fotoboek in groot formaat)

Gabriel (Gavriil) Filotheïtis, monachos, Athos, Beauty and Grace (Kállos ke Cháris), Thessaloníki 2004, pp 190 (tekst Grieks en Engels, zeer mooi kijkboek)

Gedeon, Manouel Ioannes, O Athos: Anamniseis -- Eggrapha -- Simeioseis [Athos: Memories -- Documents -- Notes], Constantinople, 1885; reprinted, Athens, 1990

Geldermans, Raymond: Athos, ark der orthodoxie, Pokrof 49(2002)10-12

Georgirenes, Joseph, A Description of the Present State of Samos, Nicaria, Patmos, and Mount Athos, translated by Henry Denton, 1678

Gothóni, René, Paradise within Reach: Monasticism and Pilgrimage on Mt Athos, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1993

Gothóni, René, Tales and Truth: Pilgrimage on Mount Athos Past and Present, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1994

Greeve, H. de, Athos, een inleiding, Amsterdam, 1967

Hasluck, F.W. (editor), “The First English Traveller’s Account of Athos (1677)”, Annual of the British School at Athens, 17 (1910[-]11): 103[-]31

Hagioritis, Andreas, Guide du Mont Athos, ???

Hasluck, F.W., Athos and its Monasteries, 1924

Hellier, Ch., Athos, The Holy Mountain, in: Monasteries of Greece, London 1996, pp 95-171 (groot formaat, prachtige foto’s)

Hokwerda, Hero: Athos, van verval tot nieuwe bloei, Lychnari 3(1993)23-24

Huber, P. Athos - Lebe, Glaube, Kunst, Zurich, 1969

Huber, P, Athos. Wundertätige Ikonen, Stuttgart ca 1980, pp 50

Hunink, Vincent: Nieuwe tijden op Athos, Streven 65(1998)597-609

Hyman, Susan (editor), Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848[-]1849, London: John Murray, 1988

Kadas, Sotiris, Mount Athos: An Illustrated Guide to the Monasteries and their History, translated by Louise Turner, Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1979

Karakatsanis, Athanasios (editor), Treasures of Mount Athos, Thessaloniki: Museum of Byzantine Culture and Holy Community of Mount Athos, 1997 [exhibition catalogue]
A massive and scholarly treasury of all aspects of the arts of Mount Athos, with historical introduction and bibliography.

Kästner, Erhart, Die Stundentrommel vom Heiligen Berg Athos, Wiesbaden, 1956
[The Beating of the Hours on the Holy Mountain Athos], 1956; as Mount Athos: The Call from Sleep, translated by Barry Sullivan, 1961

Kazantzakis, Nikos, Anaphora ston Gkreko: Myth istorema, 1961; as Report to Greco, translated by P.A. Bien, 1965

Kinnet, Alex: Verslag verblijf op de Agion Oros/Heilige Berg Athos (september 2000), Eikonikon 71(2001)15-18

Köppen, W. Wo die Welt vergessen wird, Mainz, 1981

Khitrovo, Sofiya, Itinéraires russes en Orient, 1889
Accounts by Russian travellers from the 14th to the 16th century, starting with Ignatius of Smolensk.

Koutoumános, I., Athos…wie der Himmel es sieht (opos to vlepi …o ouranos), Athen 1994, pp 51 (mooie luchtfoto’s van alle kloosters, tekst Grieks en Duits/Engels)

Langlois, Victor, Le Mont Athos et ses monastères, Paris: Didot, 1867

Leake, William Martin, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 3, 1835

Lecq, J.B. van der: Athos herbeleefd, Sjofar 31(2003)9-11, 32(2003)9-10

Loch, Joyce Nankivell, A Fringe of Blue: An Autobiography, 1968

Loch, Sydney, Athos: The Holy Mountain, 1957

Loon, Wim van: Bezoek aan de Heilige Berg Athos, Op weg 49(1995)3, Bezoek aan de Heilige Berg Athos: een impressie, Eikonikon 77(2002)16-17, Katastrofale brand op Athos, Eikonikon 84(2004)5-6, Weerzien met Athos en de ikoon Axion Estí, Eikonikon 85 (2004)3, Een cel op de Heilige Berg Athos: Vader Efthímios en de Heilige Artemios, Eikonikon 93(2006)10-11

Masmeijer, Pieter: Athos en de wereld, een impressie, Eikonikon 38(1994)11

Lyttle, Douglas Demetrios: Miracle on the Monastery Mountain, 2004

Martin, Michael E., “Some Western Images of Athos in Early Modern Times, c. 1554[-]1678”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 22 (1998): 51[-]74

Merrill, Christopher, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain

Millet, Gabriel, Monuments de l’Athos, vol. 1: Les Peintures, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1927

Morritt, John B.S., The Letters of John B.S. Morritt of Rokeby, Descriptive of Journeys in Europe and Asia Minor in the Years 1794[-]6, edited by G.E. Marindin, 1914

Mylonas, Paul M.: Atlas of Mount Athos / Bildlexikon des Heiligen Berges Athos (2000) publisher Wasmuth.

Mylonas, Paul M.: Athos and its Monastic Institutions through old engravings and other work of art - 1963

Mylonas, Paul M.: Le catholicon of Kutlumus Athos - 1994

Mylonas, Paul M.: Pictorial Dictionary of the Holy Mountain Athos - 2000

M. le Comte. B. DE NADAILLAC, LE MONT ATHOS

Noakes, Vivien (editor), Edward Lear: Selected Letters, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988

Norwich, John Julius and Reresby Sitwell, Mount Athos, with photos by the authors and A. Costa, 1966

Nicephore, Hieromonk, The holy Mountain Athos, Skiti Mikra Anna, 2003

Papantoniou, Zacharias, Hagion Oros [The Holy Mountain], 1934

Pennington, M. Basil: The Monks of Mount Athos, 1978

Perk, Nico van der: Christoforos. Een diaconale ikoon op Athos, Eikonikon 91(2006)8-9

Perilla, F.: Le Mont Athos, 1927. Paris, J. Danquin, with 12 colors plates/aquarelles

Proust, M.A., Voyage au Mont Athos, 1858

Provatakis, Theocharis, Mount Athos, History - Tradition - Tourism, Thessaloniki, ?

Riley, Athelstan, Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks, 1887 the complete text here!

Rycaut, Sir Paul, The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi 1678, 1679; reprinted, 1970

Roos, Henk: Athos. Wandelingen door de tuin van de Heilige Maagd, Eikonikon 66(2000)11-16, 67(2000)3-8, 68(2000)10-14

Sandys, George, A Relation of a Journey begun An. Dom. 1610, 1615

Sherrard, Philip, Athos, the Mountain of Silence, with colour photos by Paul du Marchie van Voorthuysen, 1960

Sherrard, Philip, Athos: The Holy Mountain, photos by Takis Zervoulakos, 1982
The most penetrating of recent interpreters according to an unknown reader.

Sibthorp, John, J.E. Smith, and John Lindley, Flora Graeca, 10 vols, 1806[-]40
This is one of the rarest Flora in existence. Vols 2 (1813) and 8 (1832) contain coloured engravings of Mount Athos as frontispieces. See also nrs. 332 + 338 on this log.

Smyrnakis, Gerasimos, To Agion Oros [The Holy Mountain], Athens, 1903; reprinted, Karyes: Panselinos, 1988

Speake, Graham: ~Renewal in Paradise, 2002, Yale University Press

Spencer, Matthew, Athos, Travels on the Holy Mountain 2000

Stockiner/Strippelmann, Die Mönche vom Heiligen Berg - 2001

Talbot Rice, David, “The Monasteries of Mount Athos”, Antiquity, 2/4 (December 1928): 443[-]51

Theunissen, W.P.,
Monnikenrepubliek van den Berg Athos, Den Haag, 1944

Theunissen, W.P, Op de heilige Berg Athos, 1965

Theunissen, W.P. en J. Hartog, De Heilige Berg, Rotterdam 1951, pp 295 (bundel artikelen)

Theotokas, Yorgas, Een reisverslag van Athos, 1961, trans. in Dutch 1990

Thomas, W.B. - Dare to be free - 1955
Tozer, Henry Fanshawe, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1, 1869

The Treasures of Mount Athos - Illuminated Manuscripts - Ekdotike Athenon S. A. Volume 1 published in 1974 and volume 2 in 1975.

Trumler, G., Athos. The Holy Mountain, Athens 1994, pp 195 (prachtig fotoboek in groot formaat)

Valentin, Jacques: The Monks of Mount Athos, 1960

Various authors: Le Tour du Monde; Athos, Journal des voyages et des voyageurs; 2. sem. 1860

Veen, ter Koert, Athos, monnikeneiland, 2001

Verheijen, Ton: Athos, waar de de tijd al tien eeuwen stil staat, Griekenland Magazine, herfst(2004)18-25

Walpole, Robert (editor), Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited from manuscript journals, 1817

Walpole’s compilation, confusingly edited, contains extracts from the papers of Dr Philip Hunt and letters from Professor Carlyle recounting their 1801 visit to Athos and investigations of libraries and manuscript holdings. It also includes a few short extracts from the journals of John Sibthorp.

Ware, Timothy,(Kallistos): The Orthodox Church, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963; 2nd revised edition, 1993
The standard work for English speakers.

Wittig, M.A., Athos. Der Heilige Berg von Byzanz, Würzburg 1990, pp 135

Zimbardo, Xavier, Monks of Dust: The Holy Men of Mount Athos, 2001

Zwerger, Rheinhold, Wege am Athos, 2005.

327 - Book: Athos Yórgos Theotokas II / stolen pictures in Dionysiou

I just finished reading this book (57 pages). What I didn't know was this:
If you visit the monastery of Dionysiou, you won't miss the special "Apocalypse" fresco's, painted 1603 and they are situated in the passage between the Katholikon and the Trapeza. One of the wall-paintings shows what we nowadays recognize as the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb. It is actually a picture of the bible text of the Book of Revelation (9:1-3):

1 And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet: and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth. And there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit.
3 And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

There also a painting of falling stars and an earthquake, showing the Book of Revelation 6:12-15 (in the middle):

(left: Rev 6:9-11 "Souls under Altar" and right: Rev 7:4 "marking of the 12 tribes of Israel with the seal of God")

12 And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal: and behold there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood.
13 And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a book folded up. And every mountain, and the islands, were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth and the princes and tribunes and the rich and the strong and every bondman and every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of mountains.

And there is the wall-paintng showing Apocalypse-horseman (Revelation 9:1-8): notice how there eyes are scatched out !

1 And I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals: and I heard one of the four living creatures, as it were the voice of thunder, saying: Come and see.
2 And I saw: and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and there was a crown given him, and he went forth conquering that he might conquer.
3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying: Come and see.
4 And there went out another horse that was red. And to him that sat thereon, it was given that he should take peace from the earth: and that they should kill one another. And a great sword was given to him.
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come and see. And behold a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard, as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying: Two pounds of wheat for a penny, and thrice two pounds of barley for a penny: and see thou hurt not the wine and the oil.
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying: Come and see.
8 And behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death. And hell followed him. And power was given to him over the four parts of the earth, to kill with sword, with famine and with death and with the beasts of the earth.

The big problem is: THESE PICTURES ARE COPIES !! Some 70 years earlier a German artist Hans Holbein the Younger made these drawings in 1531 for the Zwingli-bible:

The anonimous Greek painter did not only "steal" the picture of the "atombomb-cloud", but also other images !

So, there is nothing new in this world. Nowadays we use eachothers pictures that we find on the internet, 400 years ago they "borrowed" pictures in the same way!
NB. It it doesn't make the wall-paintings less beautifull, they still are very worth seeing!
Next time some about the book itself.
Wim 27/1

325 - Athos, a book from Yórgos Theotokás

This week I bought a dutch translation (1990) of the book of the Greek writer Yórgos Theotokas (1905-1966) "The story of a journey to Athos", written in 1961 (Odoiporicho tou Agion Oros in Greek). This book is part of a larger essay "A journey to the Middle East and the Holy Mountain", also written by Theotokas. He visited The Holy Mountain in the summer of 1960, when Athos probably had the lowest number of monks ever and when the buildings were in a very bad condition.

More about this book in next blogs (more about books in 61).
Wim, 24/1

324 - Books: Silouan

More.
When I look on the Zwerger map and search for Old Rossikon (one hour walk east on 250 m.) I read: Palaio Monastirion. Is that the location of Old Rossikon?
HV

322 - Books: Curzon 2

The complete book (1849 edition) you can read here. In the fragment below you get an impression how he negotiated with the ignorant monks of Xenofontos.

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321 - Robert Curzon

Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche (16 March 1810-2 August 1873), was a notable Victorian English traveler, travel writer, and diplomat, active mainly in the Near East. He is perhaps best known as being responsible for the "purchase" of some of the most important early Bible manuscripts from Eastern Orthodox monasteries.
In his Visits to Monasteries in the Levant [1849], he described and justified his takings. He visited Mount Athos in 1837, and at the Monastery of St Paul, he recounts how the abbot said 'We make no use of the old books, and should be glad if you would accept one,' upon which he took two, including a fourteenth-century illuminated Bulgarian gospel, now in the British Library.(wikipedia)

How did this manuscript come to the British Library?
In 1837, the manuscript was held at the Monastery of St Paul on Mount Athos in Greece, and a young English collector of antiquities called Robert Curzon was astonished to be given it as a gift following his visit there. It was bequeathed to the British Library (then the British Museum) in 1917. (text website BL)

hv (did the copy/pasting to get this story about this shamefull event)

320 - Travelbook from 1854

A Handbook for Travellers in Greece: Describing the Ionian Islands ... Door John Murray (Firm)

In 1854 they started the climb to the summit at Lavra (Laura) returning at night at the same monastery as you can read below (click to enlarge). The whole text is available at Google Books.

hv

319 - Sydney Loch's book about Athos

I visited the Holy Mountain the first time in 1980.

Ouranopolis - 1980 : Although I didn’t realize at that moment, his wife was still living in the old tower of Ouranopolis. She died only a couple of years later, in 1983
At that time I did not have a lot of information about mount Athos, I had to satisfy myself with minimal information in tourist guides and books with old information, found in bookstores. It was told that one the most important books about a visit to the Hoy Mountain should be the book written by the man who lived in tower of Ouranopolis, Sydney Loch (Athos, The Holy Mountain). From that time on I have been looking for a copy of this book, but I did not find one.

Finally in 2007 I got a copy of the book published in 1957, when I celebrated my 50th birthday. Sydney Loch died in the winter of 1953 and his wife used his manuscripts the finish the book. He wrote the first 6 chapters himself on this typewriter:

The typewriter, glasses and manuscript of Sydney Loch in the Tower of Ouranopolis (now a Museum) - may 2007

I just finished reading the book this week and, although most things get better if you have to wait a long time, the book disappointed me a little bit. First of all the English language was difficult to read: I had trouble understanding the old fashioned (?) style of writing and I had to re-read sentences often. Is this because I am Dutch and not used to this kind of English, or do Englishman have the same problem reading his writing ?
Secondly I was not really impressed by the conversations he chose to write about. He had a lot encounters with “normal” visitors and laborers, but the talks he had with these guys were not really interesting to read. On the other hand, he gives a lot of background information about the history and the stories about legends and holy events.

map of Athos from the Sydney Loch book

Ouranopolis - 1986

Interiour of Sydney Loch's home - may 2007

Sydney Loch's bookshelf - may 2007

The Tower and museum - 2007

Door inside the Tower - 2007

The double headed eagle: detail inside the Tower - 2007

Wim 18/1

315 - Koert ter Veen (1949 - 2008)

The writer of this Dutch book about Athos died last saturday.

Athos monnikeneiland 2001 - uitgeverij Aspekt ISBN 90-5911-024-2

I was quite critical about his book in 2007 (nr 61), but I read it eagerly and he did manage to write 319 pages about The Holy Mountain! He had the same attraction to The Holy Mountain as I do and his religious background was the same as mine ! He died relatively young at the age of 58.
gr
Wim

309 - Books: Balkans by bicycle

A scarce account of a tour, by bicycle, through the Balkans before the Second World War.
Starting in Vienna, the author travelled to Fiume, along the coast to Split and Dubrovnik with a side-excursion to Sarajevo, then through Albania to Greece and Turkey including Salonica, thence Mt Athos and finally to Istanbul. The author stayed 40 days on Athos en climbed the peak.The book is published in 1937 and is now for sale on Ebay.




hv

304 - Books: Norwich

MOUNT ATHOS BY JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
AND RERESBY SITWELL.

WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE
AUTHORS AND A. COSTA.
HUTCHINSON OF LONDON 1966.
hv

231 - Athos album 1928

With a rare image of the Athonite school. This could be the ruins of the Athonite Academy near Vatopedi. The school started roundabout 1750 and had in the early years students from the neigbouring countries, Italy and Russia. It counted up till 200 students. The decline came fast (1759) because monks who regarded the teaching in the academy 'as novel, dangerous and incompatible with their own monastic traditions' (G. Speak page 137). After that there were several attempts to start again but not very succesfull and the school closed for the last time in 1809.

hv

228 - manuscript 2

Same manuscript as in 227 but this photograph is taken in 1919 (Le Baron)! Apparently there were no whales near the peninsula in the 9th century to use as an example for this drawing but I guess there were a lot of wild boars or dogs on the mountain?
hv

227 - Manuscripts

7/221 [Medieval manuscripts]. Pelekanidis, S.M. (a.o.). The Treasures of Mount Athos. Illuminated Manuscripts. Athens, Ekdotike Athenon, 1974-1979, 3 vols., 496; 399; 327p., num. (full-p.) col. ills., orig. unif. gilt and dec. rexine w. dustwr., 3 orig. slipcases, folio.
€(400-500)
Will be auctioned at the november 2007 auction Bubb Kuyper, Haarlem, Holland.

Example of a page of an illuminated manuscript (not from the title above):
Jonah in the belly of the whale
Miniature representation of Jonah in the belly of the whale, in codex no. 61, 9th century, Pantokrator monastery, Mount Athos.
hv

220 - Books: Athelstan Riley 1887

4to (242 x 190mm.), 47 original photographs by Athelstan Riley (185 x 120mm., or the reverse), each mounted on thick card, contemporary half calf, upper cover lettered in gilt, gilt edges, some spotting, the final photograph damaged with some loss, upper cover detached

with:

[Ibid.] Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1887, first edition, 8vo, half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece, 7 plates, other woodcuts in text, many after riley's photographs, coloured map of Mount Athos, 24pp. of publisher's advertisements at end, publisher's red cloth, ink stamp of P.B. Mourant, Jersey, ownership stamp on several leaves and plates, a little light spotting, spine slightly faded

PROVENANCE
Photograph Album: Rev. Arthur Edwin Brisco Owen (d.1925) the gift of his friend Athelstan Riley; given back to Riley by Owen's sister in 1936 (manuscript note by Riley in front of album); acquired by the present owner from a bookseller in London in the early 1970s

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Photograph Album: cf. Blackmer 1424*, recording riley's own photograph album of mount athos only; Riley's album was acquired by the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos from John Leatham, whose grandfather was a first cousin of Riley; Athos, or the Mountain of the Monks: Blackmer 1424; Weber I, 896

CATALOGUE NOTE
brisco owen's set of riley's very rare photographs of the people, views and monasteries on and around mount athos, taken in 1883. one of only two known albums produced and the only one in private hands. at least one image in this album does not appear in riley's own album (a view of Esphigmenou from the South-West). In a number of cases the photographs provide a record of the architecture of monasteries that suffered subsequent major damage by fire, e.g. Simonopetra was almost totally burnt down in May, 1891, but Riley's photographs prove that the main portion was re-built to almost exactly the same external form.

Athelstan Riley (1858-1945), a devout Anglo-Catholic layman, spent six weeks on Mount Athos, while in his mid-twenties, accompanied by his friend the Rev. Arthur Edward Brisco Owen. "They visited all twenty monasteries, the Protaton at Karyes, and the sketes of the Prophet Elias, the Prodomos, St Anne, St Andrew, St Demetrius and the ascent of the peak." (Weber)

A manuscript note in ink by Riley at the beginning of this photograph album states: "In 1883 accompanied by my dear friend Arthur E. Brisco Owen, who was an undergraduate with me at Oxford and then a young priest, I went to Mount Athos and took these photographs: many of them furnished the illustrations for my book, Athos or the Mountain of the Monks, (published 1887). He [Owen] died in 1925 and this book was given me by his sister in 1936. Athelstan Riley."

In Riley's published account of his travels, a copy of which accompanies this lot, Riley often notes where and when the photographs were taken (see pp.90-91, 94, 107, 148, 158-159, 188, 219-220, 258, 282, 296-297, 309, 314, 327, 336, 352-353, 358-359), and there are often anecdotes associated with them; for example, taking the photograph of a street in Karyes: "we attempted to take a photograph of the one street which forms the bazaar. This naturally caused a prodigious commotion, and a crowd immediately collected in front of the camera. Of course when they discovered what our machine was, and it was noised abroad that in some vague way they were going to have their portrait taken, everybody within eyesight rushed to the scene of the action..."

It is also recorded in Riley's book that he and Owen developed the negatives during their travels, for example, while staying at the monastery of Iviron (or Iveron) Riley writes: "This evening [15 August 1883], we developed some of our photographic negatives. There was a tap with a sink conveniently situated in a passage outside our room, which we used until some enormous slugs, attracted by the unusual flow of water, walked out of the drain and took possession of the developing trays, to our great disgust." (pp.132-133); also: "after supper we took a short walk... then developed several negatives and prepared slides for our journey to the east side of Athos" (p.256), and again: "at Russico we dined by ourselves... and afterwards developed our last negatives" (p.389).
The whole text of the book is available here.

For sale Sotheby's auction 15 november GBP 8.000 - 12.000. Wees zuinig op uw Athos foto's en heb geduld.

214 - Booklet late 19th century

24 prints of the monasteries plus Morfonu, Andreou, Prof.Eliou and Chromitsa. The last print is of the "Ermitage de la Sainte Vierge" = Skete Bogoroditsa.

202 - le mont athos 1896

LE MONT ATHOS
PAR M. le Comte. B. DE NADAILLAC
GARDE ANNAUTE DU "PROTATON". (Dessin d'Oulevay).
361
DIACRE À L'HEURE DE L'OFFERTOIRE. (D'après une photographie).
361
MOINES DE KARYÈS. - LES ÉPISTATES D'IVIRON ET DE VATOPÉDI. (Dessin d'Oulevay).
363
SAINT-ANDREWSKI, SKITE RUSSE. (Dessin de Taylor).
364
PRÊTRE RUSSE ET SON DIACRE À L'OFFICE. (Dessin d'Oulevay).
365
DIACRE GREC. (Dessin de Gotorbe).
366
PRÊTRE. (Dessin de Gotorbe).
366
ARCHIPRÊTRE. (Dessin de Gotorbe).;
366
SIMONOPETRA. (Dessin de Taylor).
367
SIMONOPETRA. (Dessin de Boudier).
368
MONASTÈRES DE ZOGRAPHOS ET D'ESPHIGMENON. (Dessin de Berteault).
369
MOINES ET RUINES DU MONASTÈRE DE SIMONOPETRA. (Dessin d'Oulevay).
371
UN ERMITAGE À KARYÈS. (Dessin de Berteault).
372
MONASTÈRE DE VATOPÉDI. (Dessin de Berteault).
373
ÉLÈVE PEINTRE DU DIACRE PROCOPIOS. (Dessin d'Oulevay).
373
VATOPÉDI. ORNEMENTS DE MANUSCRITS. (Dessin de Faucher-Gudin).
374
VATOPÉDI: ORNEMENTS DE MANUSCRITS. (Dessin de Faucher-Gudin).
374
NOUVEAU SKITE DE SAINT-PAUL. (Dessin de Boudier).
375
CHILANDARI. (Dessin de Berteault).
376
XÉROPOTAMOS. (Dessin de Faucher-Gudin).
377
MONASTÈRE DE LAVRA. (Dessin de Boudier).
377
MILOPOTAMOS, PANTOCRATOR, STAVRONIKITA. (Dessins de Taylor).
378
MONASTÈRES D'IVIRON ET DE SAINT-PAUL.
379
ÉGLISE DE XÉNOPHON. (Dessin de Faucher-Gudin).
380
PANTÉLÉMON OU ROSSICON. (Dessin de Berteault).
381
LE DIACRE PROCOPIOS. (D'après une photographie).
383
SAINT-BASILE DE CHILANDARI. (Dessin de Boudier).

196 - Treasures 1974/1975

This is a set of two volumes titled "The Treasures of Mount Athos - Illuminated Manuscripts". Volume 1 contains the Protaton and the Monasteries of Dionysiou, Koutloumousiou, Xeropotamou and Gregoriou. Volume 2 contains the Monasteries of Iveron, St. Panteleimon, Esphigmenou, and Chilandari.

The publisher is Ekdotike Athenon S. A. Volume 1 was published in 1974 and volume 2 - 1975.

The two volumes are in full sand-colored leather board with gold, red, blue and green design to the front cover and spine. There are a total of 941 color plates. Each volume is divided by monastery and has an introduction and color picture followed by plates from the manuscripts housed there. Descriptions of the illuminated manuscripts and miniature paintings at the end of each volume are printed on colored paper in burgendy ink.

Each volume measures approximately 13 3/4" long x 10" wide x 2" thick.

171 - Some Athos titles in German

170 - The monk of Mount Athos

Many books have been written about Mount Athos, that monastic peninsula which juts out of the coastline of Northern Greece. But most of these books give a picture of this revered place as a tourist attraction. This volume---THE MONK OF MOUNT ATHOS: STARETZ SILOUAN, 1866--1938, by Archimandrite Sophrony---does something quite different---it provides an intimate view of of the life of a Russian monk on Mount Athos, the only one of its kind available in English. It is the work of Father Sophrony, the Abbot of the Orthodox Monastery at Tolleshunt Knights in Essex, England, who was, himself, for many years a monk on Mount Athos and a disciple of the Staretz (a term which simply means "elder" or "old man"). This book was first published in 1958 under the title THE UNDISTORTED IMAGE. This edition is an expanded version of the first part of that book which contains the author's account of the life of Staretz Silouan and his interpretation of Silouan's teachings and message. You will also find this life expounded against the background of the theological and spiritual teachings of the Orthodox Church. Father Sophrony seeks to show the depths which lie behind the simplicity of the Staretz's words---the profound message of a truly holy man. Translated from the Russian.

154 - Book by Jacques Valentin 1960

120 - Athos Book

Last week I received a new book about the Holy Mountain: Mount Athos Renewal in Paradise by Graham Speake. I feel a bit ashamed that I didn't buy this book earlier, because it one of the best books I ever read about Athos (allthough I only read till page 70 until now).

The book is written by Graham Speake, the man behind the website that you will find in our LINKS on the left side of this Blog. The book is first published in 2002 and I bought it this bookshop in Amsterdam (ISBN 0-300-10323-9).
Wim 29/6