| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion’s pilgrimage to Holy Mount Athos Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, was on a visit to Holy Mount Athos from March 11 to 13, 2017. During the same days, Bishop Antoniy of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate office for institutions abroad, began his working visit to Mount Athos. Upon his arrival to the Holy Mountain, Metropolitan Hilarion, together with Bishop Antoniy, visited the New Phivaida hermitage, which belongs to the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon, to see the progress of the large-scale restoration work carried out in the skete. Then the pilgrims went to Karyes, where they were received by the Protoepistatis of the Mount Athos Holy Epistasia, Father Barnabas of the Vatopedi monastery. Having venerated the Icon of Our Lady ‘It is Meet and Right’ at the church of the Dormition, the guests went to the Iviron monastery, where Metropolitan Hilarion venerated the Ivirion Icon of Our Lady and read the acathistus in Greek. Having later that day come to the St. Panteleimon monastery, the pilgrims prayed at Small Vespers followed by All-Night Vigil, at the Holy Protomartyr Panteleimon church. On March 12, the 2 nd Sunday of Great Lent, Metropolitan Hilarion celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral church. He was assisted by Bishop Antoniy, Father Superior Archimandrite Yevlogiy, brethren and members of the pilgrims group in holy orders. After the dismissal, Metropolitan Hilarion delivered a sermon: ‘Your Grace, Very Reverend Father Yevlogiy, Dear Fathers and Brothers: I cordially greet you on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who asked me to convey to all of you his Primatial blessing. Every day He prays for Holy Mount Athos, the monastery of the Holy Martyr and Healer Panteleimon and for all the brethren in Christ of this holy monastery. |
| Graham Speake, Kallistos Ware GRAHAM SPEAKE AND KALLISTOS WARE. Introduction Most of the papers collected in this volume were first delivered at a conference entitled ‘Mount Athos: Microcosm of the Christian East’ which was held by the Friends of Mount Athos at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, in February 2009. Both the speakers and the delegates were drawn from all corners of the Orthodox world and, as far as was possible, the presenters were chosen to speak about the traditions which they themselves represented. All the same, there were gaps in the coverage and, in an attempt to fill them, we have commissioned a number of additional papers which are now included in the volume. We are conscious that the collection here presented is still not entirely comprehensive, but we hope that it does at least convey something of the remarkable diversity of traditions that has characterized Mount Athos throughout the 1,200 years or so of its existence as a holy mountain. Holy mountains were a not uncommon phenomenon in the Byzantine world. There were notable examples in various parts of Asia Minor such as Mount Olympos in Bithynia, Mount Latros near ancient Miletus, Mount Auxentios near Chalcedon, and Mount Galesion near Ephesus. But as the Byzantine empire contracted before the advance of the Seljuq Turks, all these monastic centres went into irreversible decline and, after the disastrous Byzantine defeat at Mantzikert in 1071, most of them were overrun and their monks either enslaved or expelled. All this meant that Athos acquired an ever-increasing prominence, since it emerged from the period of the Latin empire (1204–61) as almost the sole survivor. Since that time it has been known throughout the Orthodox world as the Holy Mountain, and so it will be referred to in this book The significance of monasteries in the Byzantine world-view should not be underestimated. Jonathan Shepard has recently described the restoration of the capital in 1261 as signalling ‘the rehabilitation of Constantinople as a locus of God-blessed authority on earth’. He continues: |
| Новости Пасха. Воскресение Христово. Осталось 17 дней С 5 по 7 октября в конференц-зале Российской академии художеств пройдет международная конференция " Mount Athos – the Light of the Orthodox Christianity " . 1 С 5 по 7 октября в конференц-зале Российской академии художеств пройдет международная конференция " Mount Athos – the Light of the Orthodox Christianity " . 5 октября Среда October 5 Wednesday 10.00 – 10.30 – регистрация участников/reception 10.30 – 11.00 – Открытие конференции. Приветствия/Opening&Greetings Утренняя сессия/Morning session 11.00 -11.20 –Олег Ульянов. Профессор, Центральный музей древнерусской культуры и искусства имени прп. Андрея Рублева (Москва), Полномочный представитель Русского на Святой горе Афон Свято-Пантелеимонова монастыря в 2000-2004 гг. Афонский извод «Живоначальной Троицы» преподобного Андрея Рублева. Oleg Ulianov. Professor, Central museum of Old Russian Culture and Art named by Andrej Rublev, Moscow. Official representative of the Russian Saint-Panteleimon monastery at the Holy Mount Athos in 2000-2004. The Athos παραδεγματα of the world-famous icon “Life-GivingTrinity” by St. Andrei Rublev. 11.30-11.50 - Архимандрит Августин (Никитин). С.-Петербургская Православная Духовная Академия. Афонская икона Божией Матери «Млекопитательница»: от катакомбных фресок до эпохи Возрождения. Arhimadrite Aurustin (Nikitin). Saint-Petersburg Ecclesiastic Academy. The Mount Athos Icon of the Virgin Mary Galaktotropousa: from catacomb frescoes to the Renaissance time. 12.00-12.20 – Д-р Георгиос Тсимпукис. Археолог, Министерство культуры Греции. Влияние Ерминии Дионисия из Фурны на технику настенной живописи Афона. Dr. Georgios D. Tsimpoukis. Archaeologist, Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The influence of the Hermneia of Dionysius from the village of Phournas on the Revelation wall-paintings of Mount Athos. 12.30-13.30 – обед/lunch time 13.40-14.00 – Д-р Герольд Вздорнов.. Государственный институт реставрации (ГосНИИР), Москва Память о Хиландаре: древние рукописи и genius loci. |
| Graham Speake, Kallistos Ware GRAHAM SPEAKE. ‘The Ark of Hellenism’:Mount Athos and the Greeks under Turkish Rule Averil Cameron has already pointed out that when Constantinople eventually and inevitably fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Mountain was able to represent a symbol of the continuity of Orthodox culture – not exclusively, but none more so than, to the Greeks. 321 Most of the Greek-speaking Byzantines had in fact been subjects of the sultan for decades, if not centuries, before the fall of the City. For them the year 1453 was of little significance in practical terms. Even on the Athonites the dissolution of the empire made little impact. Since 1312 the monks had been under the jurisdiction not of the emperor but of the ecumenical patriarch, and the patriarchate was to become a key plank in the structure of the Ottoman administration. While Macedonia as a whole was overrun by the Ottomans in the late fourteenth century and again, after a brief Byzantine interlude, in the early fifteenth century, the monasteries of Athos and their estates remained inviolate. The monks in their wisdom had already come to an arrangement with the sultan whereby in return for their submission to him they would receive his protection; and in 1430 a delegation of Athonites paid homage to Sultan Murat II in Adrianople. In this way they were able to secure their survival under the infidel. Other holy mountains had been less fortunate, or less perspicacious. As Elizabeth Zachariadou has written, holy mountains were a characteristic feature of Byzantine monasticism. Most of them were located in Asia Minor (for example, Mount Olympos in Bithynia, Mount Latros near the ancient city of Miletus, and Mount Galesion near Ephesus). After the defeat of the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuq Turks ravaged the newly won territory of Anatolia and, ignoring the rules of Islam, to which they had only recently and superficially been converted, saw no reason to spare the monasteries. Very few of them survived. |
| Spiritual Guidance in Mount Athos and Russia and the Theological Notion of Person Скачать epub pdf Содержание The Theological Perspective The Purposes of Spiritual Guidance Eldership as an Ideal of Spiritual Leadership The Historical Overview: Kievο-Pechersky Monastery The Hesychasm Movement, St. Serge of Radonezh and His Disciples St. Paisios of Moldova and a Wave of Spiritual Revival in Russia The revival of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos Distinctive Characteristics of the patterns of Orthodox Spiritual Guidance Personal Relationship and its Dynamics in Spiritual Guidance Catholicity and the Person’s Embracing of other Persons Freedom in Spiritual Guidance Creativity and Uniqueness in Spiritual Guidance Humility and Morality in Spiritual Counselling Love, Integrity and Discernment in Spiritual Fatherhood We will consider the great importance in spiritual guidance of the theological notion of the divine and human person. Our main thesis is that it is only through the person and personal communion that the guidance patterns found in the Bible and in the Holy Tradition of asceticism can be understood. Various examples of the influence of the ascetic tradition of Mount Athos on Russian and European religious revivals are highlighted in the framework of personal guidance. St. Paisios Velichkovskiy, the Optina elders, St. Silouan and Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), all of whom derived a rich experience from the Athonite treasuries, are vivid exemplars of personal spiritual guidance in the Orthodox Tradition. Due to its personal character this guidance possesses unique characteristics which distinguish it from other guidance experiences and techniques used in various human activities. ‘Send me a man, who would know Thee’ Symeon the New Theologian. In this paper we aim to show that Mount Athos, as a living, natural part of the Orthodox Tradition, has given us an abundant experience of the importance of the personal character of the relationship between the one who aspires to certain spiritual achievements and the one who guides him on this way. |
| Graham Speake, Kallistos Ware MARCUS PLESTED. Latin Monasticism on Mount Athos Evocations of the universality of the monastic witness of Mount Athos tend, naturally, to focus on its pan-Orthodox character within the world of the Christian East, as the other contributions to this volume amply and ably illustrate. But it comes as a surprise to many to discover the existence for some centuries of a flourishing Latin and Benedictine monastery on the Holy Mountain. St Benedict himself remains deeply reverenced on the Mountain: his icon adorns many a katholikon and monks bearing his name are not unusual. It has even been suggested that the well-known Athonite greeting and response – ‘Eulogeite! ho Kurios’ (Bless! The Lord [bless]) – is closely related to an almost identical Benedictine usage. 238 But while Benedict’s name remains blessed on the Mountain, and few houses lack a monk of western provenance, the idea of a house celebrating the Latin rite and following the Benedictine rule can be contemplated today only with a very great imaginative leap. Indeed, the very existence of a Latin Athonite house is something some monks would prefer to forget. I have some personal experience of this: on a visit in 1993 I recall being hurried past the site of this monastery by an Athonite companion unwilling to linger at or dwell upon what is certainly one of most intriguing spots on the Mountain. It is one of the tragedies of the schism between Greek East and Latin West that genuine and profound theological and ecclesiastical differences have, on both sides, led too often to a blanket rejection of the whole tradition of the opposing party. Such a blanket rejection is, I fear, explicit in the recent declaration of the Holy Community in response to the papal visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch in November 2006 and the visit of the Archbishop of Athens to the Vatican in December of the same year. In this important statement, the Holy Community speaks of Athonite monasticism as the ‘non-negotiable guardian of Sacred Tradition’. From that standpoint, the declaration criticizes various aspects of these visits that would seem to imply some sort of recognition of the legitimacy of the papacy and acceptance of common ground between Orthodoxy and the West. The declaration indeed asserts a fundamental incompatibility between the West and Orthodoxy. 239 Relations between Athos and the West have rarely, if ever, conformed to this black-and-white, dichotomous framework. There have been severe strains and great difficulties but, from the historical point of view, the situation that emerges is more complex and nuanced than the Holy Community appears to allow. The story of Latin Athonite monasticism is a shining and salutary reminder that East and West have met on the Mountain, and that both have been enriched in that encounter. |
| Graham Speake, Kallistos Ware CONSTANTIN COMAN. Moldavians, Wallachians, and Romanians on Mount Athos My presentation is structured on three levels: personal, historical, and an attempt to understand theologically the history of the relationship between Romanians and the Holy Mountain. I am not a historian. For this reason I have paid more attention to the other two components: personal testimony and the theological reading of history. For me, history makes sense only if assumed personally and evaluated theologically. For the historical part I have used two recent works. 278 I have long and rich experience of Mount Athos (this year makes three decades). Somehow it is indicative of a certain kind of approach Romanians have towards the Holy Mountain. I am attached to Athonite monasticism. I love the Holy Mountain. I find support in the Athonite monks’ prayers for me, my family, and my work in teaching theology and in the Church. I find great comfort in the fact that certain Athonite monasteries and monks remember me, my family, and my community in their daily prayers. One of them is a young Romanian hermit whom I met last summer. Then we started a beautiful, intense spiritual relationship. I find support in the Athonite monastic experience in my theology too. I praise God for being alive during a strong renewal of Athonite monasticism. 279 I would identify two specific characteristics of Athonite monasticism: (1) the exclusive monastic character of the population of this region, which makes it a monastic republic, and (2) its multi-ethnic character. The special sanctity of the place is the result of its first specific trait, and Orthodox peoples’ consequent approach to it. The second specific trait reveals the challenge addressed by God to the Orthodox peoples for leading the monastic life together. From this perspective, I would describe the Holy Mountain as a multinational rather than a supranational structure, due to the fact that the former faithfully expresses the right perspective on the unification or unity that preserves the identity of those in union. Unity does not mean creating a superstructure, but fulfils the vocation of being together, of accepting each other the way we are. The beauty of the Holy Mountain lies in the fact that monks of all Orthodox nationalities should live there loving each other. Togetherness is a sort of marriage and it involves overcoming the borders that separate one from the other. As in the case of a mixed marriage, so in Athonite monasticism, there is one more border to cross without eliminating it, that of belonging to different nations. |
| Because if it’s in the mind it’s also in the heart. An interview on prayer Standing in the doorway before the Great Lent, we search for some guidance, for some way to start this thorny and blessed journey with Christ. A way to seek him and words to show us the way. Elder Dionysius (Ignat) of the St. George Kellion (Mt. Athos, Greece) answers questions of the most important kind (about prayer) during Lent. Humble-Mindedness : The Doorway to Pure Prayer Over the past ten years it has become a common occurrence for pilgrims on Mount Athos to make the one-hour trek from Vatopedi Monastery to the Kellion of St. George. The long and dusty uphill trail passes by monastery fields and within sight of the place where St. Gregory Palamas labored. After several steep ascents, the trail branches off onto a winding path that cuts across the verdant mountainside. In springtime, the thick foliage threatens to choke the passageway, while a myriad of wildflowers paints a dazzling landscape—a fitting offering to the mountain’s protectress, the Theotokos. Proceeding past the ruins of centuries-old monastic dwellings, the pilgrim arrives at a terraced plot of land overlooking the Aegean Sea. There, amidst well-tended gardens and enclosed by a rustic, tree-limb railing, stand a few whitewashed stone buildings adorned with blue trim: the Kellion of St. George. Outside, sitting on benches, one would find a few pilgrims waiting in hope of receiving a few profitable words from the humble Elder, Hieroschemamonk Dionysius (Ignat). Four years ago in these pages we presented the life story of Elder Dionysius in a three-part article on the Elders of Kolitsou Skete, a Romanian dependency of Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece. On April 28/May 11, 2004, this righteous Romanian Elder reposed in the Lord after a long, God-pleasing life of ninety-five years. Elder Dionysius had been a monk for eighty-two years, seventy-seven of which were spent on Mount Athos, and sixty-six of which were spent in the same kellion. He was a wonderful, loving monk and spiritual father, well known by his fellow Athonite monks but largely unknown to those outside the Holy Mountain until the last fifteen years or so. |
| Graham Speake, Kallistos Ware VLADETA JANKOVIC. The Serbian Tradition on Mount Athos ‘The Holy Mountain has, from its earliest emergence as a monastic community in the ninth and tenth centuries, played an important role not only as a place where Byzantine asceticism was cherished but also as the centre of a cultural mission’, wrote the late Dimitrije Bogdanovi, Serbian literary historian, scholar, and authority on the Athonite tradition. 210 In his view, the Christianization of the Slav peoples was accomplished with the active involvement and participation of the Holy Mountain’s monastics who were steeped in authentic Byzantine spirituality. These monks of the Slav peoples – Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs – were adopting the traditions of one state culture and transporting them back to their own countries of origin. It proved in subsequent ages to have been, in one form or another, a two-way process: the debt which the Slavs owed to the Byzantine and Athonite traditions was variously repaid and reciprocated. The monastery of Hilandar is a good example to support this theory. The existence of the Serbian tradition on the Holy Mountain is inseparably linked to that of the monastery of Hilandar. There are no data regarding the presence of any Serbian monks on the Holy Mountain before the middle of the twelfth century, although there were probably a small number of individuals such as hermits or members of already established brotherhoods similar to those in Lavra, Vatopedi, Esphigmenou, or Iviron, and certainly some travelling pilgrims. Even so, one can say that Serbian history on the Holy Mountain begins properly in 1191 with the arrival of Prince Rastko Nemanji (the future St Sava), while the official date can be taken to be 1198 when the main church of the restored Hilandar was completed and consecrated. The original, pre-Serbian Hilandar was situated in the same location as the present one and was founded almost certainly by the monk Grigorios Hilandaris, who by all accounts was a well-known and much-respected personality on the Holy Mountain. |
| Photo: eadiocese.org Over the course of nine days – November 21-30 – the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most ancient holy icons of the Russian Orthodox Church (1295 A.D.) visited St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC. Parishioners diligently prepared for the arrival of the wonderworking image. News of the icon’s impending arrival quickly spread, in order to alert as many of the faithful as possible of their opportunity to pray before this sacred 13th century icon. Several years ago, the Primate of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, appointed the holiday of Thanksgiving and the week following to be the period in which the Kursk Root Icon would pay its annual visit to Washington. His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan, since 2010 the guardian of the wonderworking icon, arrived on Wednesday evening, November 21, on the feast of the Holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven. The moment of the icon’s arrival coincided with the conclusion of the baptism of the infant Michael, who was blessed with the icon, much to his parents’ untold joy. The following day, on the American civil holiday of Thanksgiving, the people of God began to gather at 11 o’clock for the triumphal greeting and first moleben and akathist before the Kursk Root Icon. After the service, worshippers gathered in the parish hall for the traditional festal luncheon. Friday, November 23, was dedicated to visitation by the Kursk Root Icon of sick and elderly parishioners who were not able to personally attend the church services and venerate the holy image. That same evening, Bishop Nicholas took the Kursk Icon to the parish of the Holy Apostles in Beltsville, MD, where a moleben and akathist were served to the Most Holy Theotokos. The following day, November 24, the feast of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, the Kursk Icon was brought to St. John the Baptist Cathedral for Divine Liturgy, and placed in the center of the church, next to an exact copy of the Montreal Icon, which had been painted on Mount Athos to mark the first anniversary of the murder of its faithful guardian, Jose Muñoz-Cortes. It was endearing to see both images placed together, these primary holy of the icons of the Russian Church Abroad. That same day, cathedral rector Archpriest Victor Potapov was celebrating his namesday (Holy Martyr Victor of Damascus). Praying at Liturgy were His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah former primate of the Orthodox Church in America; retired) and His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan. Upon conclusion of Liturgy, Fr. Victor delivered a sermon dedicated to the significant of these two highly venerated icons for Russia and the Russian Diaspora. |
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