| The Lord made him an emulator of St. Anthony of the Caves, also a native of Little Russia. And like St Anthony, who wandered and finally settled on Mt Athos, where he assumed the angelic monastic rank, and, after many years of labor there and earning great spiritual gifts, then returning to his fatherland to sow and multiply monastic life; so did St Paisius, after gaining heavenly treasures, return to his home, to Moldavia, to renew the monastic ranks, to reestablish the fallen common monastic life and plant within it thrice-blessed obedience, illuminating through his teaching the darkness of the ignorant, to grant wisdom through the correction and new translations of the Holy Fathers and theological texts from the Greek into his native tongue. " Hieromonk Tryphon went to the Holy Mountain with Fr. Platon. They arrived on Mt Athos on July 4, on the eve of the feast day of St. Athanasius of Athos, who lived as a hermit on the Holy Mountain, and then established the first coenobitic monastery. Today his monastery on the Holy Mountain is the main one, the first one among twenty other monasteries. Resting for a few days at the lavra of St. Athanasius, the travelers headed for the Monastery of the Pantocrator, near to where the Slavic monks lived. The road to Pantocrator Monastery was long and difficult. The weary travelers sat down to rest, and drank some cold water. From this they caught colds. Hieromonk Tryphon grew delirious, and died soon after arriving at Pantocrator Monastery. Platon remained to live at Pantocrator Monastery. Gradually he came to know the neighboring monasteries, visiting the local monks and hermits, seeking a spiritual father. It was difficult for him, because he lived in poverty for some four years. In 1750, Fr. Platon’s spiritual from Moldavia, Schema-monk Vasilius, came to Mt Athos and tonsured Platon to the mantle with the name Paisius. Soon Paisius was joined by his first students, Vissarion and Cesarius, and eventually their number grew to 12. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Judaism, Orthodoxy and EUGEN J. PENTIUC EARLY JEWISH-CHRISTIAN INTERACTION WITH SCRIPTURE In the last decades of the first century CE nascent Jewish Christianity was gradually outnumbered by the ever-growing Gentile element. From the outset, early Christianity and evolving Judaism experienced a long and intricate process of the “parting of the ways,” although there are an increasing number of scholars today who question this construct’s absolute nature, pointing to many continued interactions between the two communities of faith for many centuries. Christians have always been aware of their links with the Jewish people and interacted with them, not least through the sharing of Scripture and moral and prophetic attitudes. The Old Testament, the first part of the Christian Bible, is essentially the Jewish Scripture. The very title “Old Testament” given by Christians to the Hebrew Scripture is a phrase coined by the Apostle Paul with regard to the writings attributed to Moses ( 2Cor. 3.14–15 ) and popularized by Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century. The title “New Testament,” referring to the new collection put together by the early church, is taken from the Book of Jeremiah announcing that God will make a “new covenant” with Israel ( Jer. 31.31 ). What was the relationship between Jesus and Judaism and its Scripture? Any attempt to define this relationship should keep in mind two factors. On the one hand, Jesus places his sayings on the same level of authority as Moses’ teachings ( Jn. 5.47 ), stating that he came to fulfill the whole entirety of the law ( Mt. 5.17 ). On the other hand, Jesus relativizes several important Old Testament injunctions, among which were the Sabbath observance ( Mt. 12.8, 12 ) and ritual purity laws ( Mt. 15.11 ). This makes one think of the relation of the Old and New Testaments as being a relationship balanced between conformity and disruption: a unity under tension. The Lord Jesus stands at one and the same moment within Judaism and beyond it. Although St. Paul never removed the Jews – the heirs of biblical Israel considered as the people of God – from the salvific framework of his theology of redemption ( Rom. 9–11 ), he certainly moved them away from the center, at which axis point he located submission to Jesus, Lord of the New Covenant. |
| The Lord made him an emulator of St Anthony of the Caves, also a native of Little Russia. And like St Anthony, who wandered and finally settled on Mt Athos, where he assumed the angelic monastic rank, and, after laying down many years of labor there and earning great spiritual gifts, then returning to his fatherland to sow and multiply monastic life; so did St Paisius, gaining heavenly treasures, returned to his home, to Moldavia, to renew the monastic ranks, to reestablish the fallen common monastic life and plant within it thrice-blessed obedience, illuminating through his teaching the darkness of the ignorant, to grant wisdom through the correction and new translations from the Greek into his native tongue of the Holy Fathers and theological texts. " Hieromonk Tryphon went to the Holy Mountain with Fr Platon. They arrived on Mt Athos on July 4, on the eve of the feast day of St Athanasius of Athos, who lived as a hermit on the Holy Mountain, and then established the first coenobitic monastery. Today his monastery on the Holy Mountain is the main one, the first one among twenty other monasteries. Resting for a few days at the lavra of St Athanasius, the travelers headed for the Monastery of the Pantocrator, nearby which Slavic monks lived. The road to Pantocrator Monastery was long and difficult. The travelers, weary, sat down to rest, and drank some cold water. From this they caught colds. Hieromonk Tryphon grew delirious, and died soon after arriving at Pantocrator Monastery. Platon remained to live at Pantocrator Monastery. Gradually he came to know the neighboring monasteries, visiting the local monks and hermit, seeking a spiritual father. It was difficult for him, since he lived in poverty for some four years. In 1750, the spiritual father of Fr Platon from Moldavia, Schema-monk Vasilius, came to Mt Athos, who tonsured Platon to the mantle with the name Paisius. Soon Paisius was joined by his first students, Vissarion and Cesarius; eventually their number grew to 12. |
| In effect, the EU is censoring history to make it more pliable for its own ideological ends. On the matter of the draft constitution, Archbishop Christodoulos warned that events of the 20 th Century showed how an ideology allied with a powerful elite could lead to tragedy: " The peoples of Europe have suffered greatly at the hands of small but powerful groups that have wished to fit history and our will to their hands. " The EU’s call to turn Mt. Athos into just another tourist site was immediately rejected by Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tassos Yiannitsis, who told the Kathimerini newspaper on Sept. 5 that the EU directive " would be in direct confrontation with fundamental, 1,000-year-old traditions, our faith and the monastic spirit of the Mountain. " Mt.Athos is a self-governing district, ultimately subject to the Greek state and, on matters of faith, to the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Athos is situated on a mountainous peninsula, dotted with 20 monasteries that draw a pan-Orthodox population of monks from around the world. (In the Eastern Orthodox world, nuns also live apart in monasteries and are led by an abbess). Some of the greatest Christian art treasures are located on the Holy Mountain. The monks of Mt.Athos spend their days in worship and work, committing their lives to God in a powerful witness to a reality beyond this world. The Eastern Orthodox monastic tradition has always exercised a strong social conscience. St. Basil of Caesarea, who formulated many of the earliest rules of monasticism in the fourth century, set up his famous Basileias, an early welfare organization that functioned as an orphanage, a soup kitchen, and a school for the illiterate. Historian Ernest Barker pointed out that the monasteries acted as a check on Byzantine imperial power at crucial moments. " The monasteries and hermitages of the East, " Barker observed, " were strongholds and rocks of Orthodoxy: they were peculiarly venerated, and often endowed with relics and offerings by the laity; and they counted as a great and independent factor when any grave question divided the Church or pitted the clergy against the emperor. " |
| A question arises: Why can the Patriarch of Moscow write a letter to the president of Greece requesting Fr. Ephraim’s release, but the Patriarch of Constantinople cannot? Why can the hierarchs of the Cypriot and Greek Churches visit Fr. Ephraim in prison, but Patriarch Bartholomew, or in fact any of the hierarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate, cannot? The only thing the Constantinople Patriarchate was able to do was to once again remind everyone of its exclusive rights and honor, which were supposedly threatened by the Moscow Patriarch’s letter. But how could a letter requesting a change in Fr. Ephraim’s punitive status damage the canonical integrity and ecclesiastical/administrative order of the Constantinople Patriarchate? Viewing a gesture to help a specific person as an attempt to take control of the Holy Mountain makes absolutely no sense and borders on the absurd. Especially if we take into consideration that even on January 5, that is, five days before the session of the Synod of Constantinople, an interview by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk was published in Greek, in which he emphasized that the Russian Orthodox Church does not place under any doubt Mt. Athos’s subordination to the Constantinople Patriarchate. In the same interview, Vladyka Hilarion noted that “Our Church always expresses its concern in general for situations where Christians anywhere are subjected to repression or discrimination. I do not consider this to be interference in others’ affairs. When, for example, Coptic Christians are killed in Egypt and the members of the Holy Synod express solidarity with them—is that considered interference? No, it is a perfectly natural expression of solidarity with persecuted Christians. When a respected Mt. Athos abbot, who is known and supported by the monks of the Holy Mountain, the monks of his own monastery, the Holy Kinotita [the governing community of Mt. Athos], and who is known and loved by many people in Russia… it evokes the perplexity and indignation of very many people, who are expressing their solidarity in ways accessible to them.” |
| Mt. Athos in the eighteenth century was the cultural and social center of Greece, and the school at Vatopedi Monastery was in its glory—the famous Athoniada. That is where Constas went to continue his education in 1749. The Athoniada was in its height, and was a leading educational institution, which specialized in the teaching of logic, grammar, and theology. The foremost scholars of Mt. Athos were Cosmas’ instructors. One of them was notably the teacher of philosophy, “the most learned Eugenios”—Eugenios Voulgaris. Possessing a magnificent education, he was famous not only in Greece, but also beyond her borders (for example, he conducted a lengthy correspondence with Voltaire). At first interested in the ideas of Western enlightenment, he later rejected them as contradictory to the Orthodox tradition, which he had always defended. He also upheld the Great Idea—the rebirth of the Byzantine Empire and the unification within it of all Orthodox peoples. Pain for the fate of Orthodoxy and fatherland induced the disciples of Voulgaris to band together in a secret society. Its main goal was the struggle with illiteracy. “In that period, a group of Eugenios’ students, including Cosmas, seeing the threat to Orthodoxy and their nation, unanimously agreed in the name of the Holy Trinity to help the nation in the spread of literacy.” On Mt. Athos, Cosmas not only received the necessary knowledge, but was also strengthened in his resolve to dedicate himself to the work of enlightening the people. Cosmas was there not just due to circumstances—he considered foreign study inacceptable, and Athos was the only place in Greece where he could receive a fundamental education. There he not only became firmer in his faithfulness to the Orthodox tradition, but also found people of like mind with him, who strengthened his faith and resolve to facilitate a national renaissance. Cosmas gradually prepared himself to carry out his intentions: he studied patristic literature and the Holy Scriptures. He was also aided by lessons in rhetoric which he later received in Constantinople. |
| Giorgi Mtatsmideli also wrote a remarkable original work «The Lives of loanne and Euthymius»; the book is not only a detailed biography of these men, but is also a first-rate source of information on the history of Georgia and of Byzantium. A feature of these «Lives» is that most of the numerous facts mentioned by the author go back to documentary sources; «The Lives» –trustworthy, comprehensive, revealing a depth of thought, are permeated with a high social and national spirit «Written in classical Georgian with appealing sincerity, the book is the best monument of ancient Georgian historical literature » (I. Djavakhishvili). When writing this book, the author had yet another aim in mind: the matter was that ever since the monastery was founded, the fraternity of Iviron had to contend with the Greek clergy who laid claim to the monastery, which not infrequently caused great difficulties. In his book, Giorgi Mtatsmideli proved the monastery to be the property of Georgians, at the same time showing the services its founders had rendered both to the government of Byzantium and to other fraternities on Mt. Athos. Generally speaking, Giorgi Mtatsmideli did not limit his activities to monastic – affairs, to translation and other literary work. He took a keen interest in the pressing problems the Georgian public had to face. Even before he moved to Mt. Athos, while still in the Lauraof St. Simeon on the Black Mount, Giorgi Mtasmideli polemized with Theodosius, Patriarch of Antioch, concerning the autocephaly of the Georgian church; his profound and broad education enabled him to assert the rights of the Georgian church. Subsequently, after he had resigned from the office of prior, he accepted the invitation of King Bagrat IV and arrived in Georgia in 1060 where he directed the measures taken to purify the Georgian church, thus helping the King to consolidate the Georgian statehood. It should be stressed that the outstanding personalities from the fraternity of Mt. Athos never lost touch with their homeland; they regularly sent to Georgia works they had translated and copied; they involved monks from other Georgian monasteries in literary work; they responded readily to the problems facing the public in Georgia. All this accounts for the great authority of Iviron both in Georgia and in Georgian monastic centres abroad. The latter tried to equal Iviron, followed instructions from there, recognizing it as an authority on monastic life and literary work. |
| The imperial court decided to appeal to David Kuropalates for assistance; Ioanne-Tornike was prevailed upon to act as envoy. David sent twelve thousand picked warriors, commanded by Tornike himself, as reinforcements for the imperial army. In 979, in Asia Minor, a battle was fought by the river Halys, and Bardas Skleros was defeated. It was the Georgian troops that decided the outcome, therefore the Empress Theophano left Tornike all the booty that had been taken from the insurgents and also richly rewarded him. As a result, the Georgian monks on Mt. Athosobtained sufficient funds for erecting a large, wellbuilt monastery. loanne and Tornike selected the site and bought land which was secured to the monastery by an imperial chrysobull. Construction began in 980 and was completed in 983, Ioanne being elected the first prior. Before long the Iberian monastery («Iviron», as the Byzantines called it) became one of the leading monastic centres in Byzantium. Owing to the grants and purchases of land, it came to be a considerable feudal demense. It should be mentioned here that its first prior was a highly authoritative figure on Mt. Athos; Athanasius appointed him epitropos of his Laura, and in one of the charters granted to Ioanne (charter dated to 984), Athanasius made special mention of his great services to the fraternity of the monastery; in particular, Athanasius stressed the fact that Ioanne several times successfully defended the interests of the monasteries on Mt. Athos against the imperial gevernment, not only before the Iberian monastery was founded, but after that too. This fact shows that the imperial courts of Byzantium also recognized loanne’s merits. However, the principal thing is that from the very moment of its inception the Iberian monastery became a considerable centre of Georgian learning and enlightenment. Its founders, Ioanne and Tornike, began organizing work in translation and copying ecclesiastic books: at their own cost. they commissioned some of the fraternity to translate books from the Greek and to copy ecclesiastic works. At the same time, it is greatly to loanne’s credit that he brought up his son Euthymius as a scholar, a lover of books encouraged him to gain a perfect command of Greek and to make scholarly and literary work his vocation. Euthymius the Athonite (of the Holy Mount, Euthymius Iviros), Ioanne " s successor as prior of Iviron (1005–1019) became the founder of a brilliant literary school which made such a tremendous contribution to the development of Georgian literature, scientific thought and culture in general. His contemporaries and co-workers, monks of the Iviron fraternity, attached such tremendous importance to Euthymius " s literary work and to his translations that they begged him to leave the time-consuming office of prior and to devote himself wholly to literary work. |
| Since then the name of Iviron remains on Mt. Athos only as the memory of those scholarly monks who had done so much for the monasteries on the Holy Mount, a memory which could not be effaced even among the Greek clergy. As material evidence of this remarkable centre of enlightenment, there remains a splendid library possessing a great many unique manuscripts, a library created by the labours of loanne, Tornike, Euthymius, Giorgi the Athonite and many other devoted champions of Georgian culture. Such is, very shortly, the history of the Georgian literary and educational centre on Mt. Athos, «...which was always the bearer of the Georgian national idea in Greece..., which became a source from which there flowed to Georgia an abundant stream of advanced culture. In the 11th and 12th centuries Georgian literature achieved a high level of development. This was largely due to the Iberian monastery where the best cultural forces of the Georgian had assembled, men who set themselves the task of acquainting their compatriots with the literary wealth and heritage of the West. It was in this monastery that most of the treasures of which ancient Georgian literature has every right to be proud, were translated and copied. It was here, on Mt. Athos, that an original literary, grammatical and calligraphic school took shape and left an indelible mark on the past of the Georgian people». (K. Kekelidze). Грузинский научнопросветительский очаг на Афоне К востоку от Балканского полуострова в Эгейское море с его северного побережья в виде огромного трезубца выступает полуостров Халкидика. Его восточным зубцом является узкий и удлиненный полуостров Афон (древний Акте), именуемый также Айон-орос, т. е «Святая гора». Удобное расположение, замечательный климат, богатый растительный покров (оливковые сады, буковые, дубовые и сосновые леса), гористый рельеф Афона издревле привлекали верующих и уже с VII–VIII вв. здесь стали поселяться отшельники, а затем и монахи. Первые монахи селились в небольших разрозненных келиях, а в 963 г. известный монастырский деятель Афанасий основал у юго-восточного побережья полуострова, на Афонской горе, первый крупный монастырь. Основание Афанасием «Великой Лавры» положило начало оживленному монастырскому строительству на Афоне и его превращению в «Святую гору» уιος рος. В том же X в. здесь появились и другие монастыри и в их числе грузинский монастырь, или «Ивирон», превратившийся с момента основания в один из мощных очагов грузинского просвещения и литературы. |
| 4. The Stance of the Holy Mountain All of this can, to a certain degree, explain the contemporary position of Athonite abbots, but it surely does not exonerate the Holy Community of Mt. Athos for its refusal to speak and its deafening silence which it continues to maintain on issues of faith - a stance which is diametrically opposed to the confessional mindset [phronema] and witness which the Holy Mountain has held throughout the centuries. We are all waiting to hear what stance Mount Athos will take on the “Council” of Crete, which it has already provided legitimacy to by the participation of its own representative, the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita. We await the reaction of the Holy Community to the fact that so many of its proposals for changes in the pre-Synodal texts were completely rejected by the “Council.” What will be the final position of the Holy Community of Mount Athos regarding the heterodox? Will they recognize them as Churches, in accordance with the decisions of the “Council” or will they recognize them as “Christian teachings and confessions” as they did in their epistle-commentary of the 12 th /25 th of March 2016 to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew? We will quote some characteristic passages from older treatments of this particular question by the Holy Community of Mt. Athos, which express in a clear and authoritative manner the Orthodox ecclesiology and self-understanding which was contravened by the “Council” of Crete. We await the reconfirmation of these positions from the contemporary Holy Community of Mt. Athos. Announcements of the Holy Community: 1980: “…the departure from Orthodox Ecclesiology and the adoption of heterodoxy, that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church does not alone constitute the Church but that there are branches of the Church, namely Orthodoxy and Papism/Catholicism… convinces us that the situation has gotten much worse and that a de facto union as the Second Vatican Council designed and planned is already at the gates.” |
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