THE MONKS OF ATHOS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5345, 31 October 1928, Page 4

THE MONKS OF ATHOS.

THEIR SECLUDED LIFE. ALL FEMALES BANNEDIn the Greek mountain of Athosn where 5000 monks live in an independent republic, all the years have stoppedl. No female being, human or Animal, is allowed to s.et foot epi the sacred soil. This “fragment: Of a life which once- held sway over all the Greek seaboard endures unaltered since its foundation, the most netaiarkable estimojny Co Europe’s evolution on the fac.e of. a Edropeanjsed globe.” And this society, which in its; life, its religion, its art, and its ;a,rchiecture is unique throughout the w,qrld, is described in vivid and' entertaining s-tyle by Robert Byron, the injuthor <>f that sparkling volume, “Europe in the Looking-glass,” in a book, “The Station, Athojs ; Treasures’ and Men.” For centuries the -Mountain was the chosen, of the hermits. Here StEuthymius, of Salonica, who, having forsworn the world at 18 (leaving a daughter, Euphrosyne, to c.arry on his family), at first moved on a,U fours and, ate grass, and then toc ; k up a position on a pillar. Peter the Athohite„ a substantial person, even after .fifty years’ battling with wild beasts, both of mind and forest, was discovered by a hunter.

Giiiidually.thc number increased. A monastery was founded. Others followed. Towards the end of the eleventh century “Vleph shepherds, who ha,d obtained leave to supply the monks with milk and) wool, were discovered to be purveying their wives and daughters in addition- Uproar, followed. Half the monks left the monasteries and went off with the shepherds:.

SUPPRESSING FEMALES. ' The stricter fathers then demanded the suppression of the beardless, as well as all the female element. And to preserve the mountitin. from total desertion, the Emperor Alexius the Cqmneuuti, asking if he were Herod that he should murder children stifled the enthusiasm of the reformers by threatening to cut Off their Hoses.

The rule of life, peculiar to the Athcmite monks, dates back to the first years qf the ninth century. “Have no, animal,” Theodore;, Abbott of St. John of Stadium in Constantinople;, wrote, “of the female spx in domestic use, seeing hat you have; rejnounced the female sex altogether, wheiher in. hquse or field, since aiofte of the holy fathers had such nor dees Nature require them.” It is on record that Stepheni iDusfta,n, King of Serbia. ‘!br<3jught his Queen on) a pilgrimage to Atihos.” But the rule was scrupulously -observed by the. Turkish -Governor .of later, days, whose ihareftn remained forlornly in Constantinople till the two years’ tenure of his office were Over. It remained for an Englishwoman. Lady Stratford: de Redeliffe, to achieve the first historical' infringement. As ap. official of hej’Constantinople. Embassy wrote later, she qught to have known better.

THE MONKS. The actual Government of the Mountain, which has functioned! ’Uninterrupted over a longer course of years than any in existence;, isi diverted into the legislature, •or Holy Synod, and the Executive. Twenty members constitutue the Hoily Synod., What sort of men are the nxonjks ‘1 What is their religion ? “La/ thq humanist realise, atheist though he be, that the religious? seeks after all only the samq a§ himstelf by other roadip,.. Arid let the rejligious whq is agnostic realise fo himself another Chxistianifcy, fan different from that wb.ich has, beeri extended and distorted through four centuries o.f uffcon-genial logic ; sj, Christianity not yet "coulded by Latin materialism to th© cQtiveniepice of an institution; not; wrung by civil wars, combed with tjie burro wings of sectarians, and balanced like a boulder cm a .needle ; but a isingle; pa,th of explo ratfoitv .unclouded b'- doubtful ethics, and' hieratic blackmail, toward the) eternal El Dorado. Such was the obiristiaiuty that conquered, and such, on the H°h Mountain, it has rem ained.”

On. At'ho,s the mystiic has left !his impirn and has invest ted the very air. ■with Ihis otetcivings, a nd it is. the fetree of the m.ysitic-With vfhich the visitor to Ath'os finds himself in contact. UNPLEASANT ? REALITIES. R ut there are man y unpleasant realUi'cies. With dismay did the “raw h ideousnejss c<f the t rue Athonjte meal burst upon the Tpiiniitiated. They “paled before the rgrimo of cloth and napkins; spoons, knives) apd fqr.ks, slimed with greasie; the inevitable hors d’oevre;; soup of haricot beans, thise unmentionable vegetables resembling large ent «|a.ils and filled with pips testing 'of pharmaceutical peppermint; and ain cjmelette of whipped oil-” And then the retirement for the P|i gi ht! On approaching the beds “flocks of red bugs might be seen frolicking over the striped holland) of cement mattreSss. Fountains, of blood —we wondered whose— -squirted from their bodies as we pressed them , flat ike gooseberry skins,” The habits of the frivolous visitors from another world were powerless aga.inst -the traditions o.f hajf the Christian era, an,d the- days l assumed a complexion of monastic regularity both in the ordering of hou. rs apd the sobriety with which each ?set to his avocations. Photography and the sketching of frescoes manuscripts in ecpnectioji with researches in Byzantine ar t were the maip object of the visitors, and they moved from monastery tq monastery in their quest.

THE FRESCOES., And the wonderful frejsQOesl “Let him who. still conceives of Byzantine painting as a hieratic dtegradsation imagine a Giotto unsweetened, as. Giotto really was, by Italjanate naturalisnh painting in) the luminous colours of El Greco—those c,O|ldi blues an.dl claret?, olive-shadowed yellows, and pure, clear greens off under the sea; lit with angry ’brilliance; geometric in form; yet ip austerity

sympathetic, in power gentle. It is thesO, itjie very flower of the Byzantine Renaissance —nc;t only the link between European art and. the East, final explication of El Grep.o, but iu, themselves divorced from history, masterpieces for the world—tihat are tlireatejned. . . . For the want of a few hundreds, paintings- which historically an entirely novel light on the origins: of European paintings since the Renaissance, and aesthetically exhibit an astonishing and moving affinity, with the-goals of modern art. must perish.”

With Simopetr,a. Monastery, high up on its rocky pedestal, the) author much impressed. “None but the most inspired genius could have produced the twq buildings, which each stand out above all others —the monastery of Simc<petra on Athos- a.nd Potala at Lhassa. And none but the same genius could havq produced buildings So similar. Though offe isj Christian an,d the other Buddhist, it is plain that tlie contemplative life, untrammelled by the Western doctrine of justification by works, is pro-duc.tive, no matter what its religion, of grand conception and grand execution when its deivoteeg are engaged) on material creation.”

And the mo.n,ks I They were of many types. “Mark was sittinjg in the ccjuntyard when a voice behind him suddenly said. ‘Come and have a glass of grog.’ Looking up he beheld a monk of 85 years leaning from a window. He was an 'old sailor, who assured 'him on entry that he) ‘b'rewed' it’ himself. ‘lt proved extremely strong —another tribute tq, British methods. The. great event of hiis life; had been when he was 18, and his ship had put • in, to Portsmouth. Walking alonjg the quay, he and a friend came- across: two boys in a bqat, to whom they gave s,ome Turkish delight. The boys 'handed them cards in return, which revealed tha,t they were; none other than ‘the King’s two sonst’ • Perhaps he meant the Queen’s”