On Greece's Mount Athos, a cliffside monastery transcends country-based branches of Orthodoxy

MOUNT ATHOS, Greece — The medieval monastery clings almost impossibly to sheer cliffs high above the shimmering turquoise of the Aegean Sea. Rising from the rugged granite rock, its walls enclose a diverse Christian Orthodox community.

The Monastery of Simonos Petra, also known as Simonopetra — or Simon's Rock — transcends country-based branches of the Christian faith, embracing monks from across the world, including converts from nations where Orthodox Christianity is not the prevailing religion.

The monastery is one of 20 in the autonomous all-male monastic community of Mount Athos, known in Greek as Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain. The peninsula in northern Greece is no stranger to non-Greeks: of the 20 monasteries, one is Russian, one is Bulgarian and one is Serbian, and the presence of monks from other nations is not unusual. But Simonos Petra has the greatest range of nationalities.

Spirituality transcends borders

''Spiritually, there are no borders, because the Holy Mountain has an ecumenical nature'' seeking to embrace all, said Archimandrite Eliseos, the abbot of Simonos Petra. This links back to the Byzantine Empire, Eliseos explained. ''We say that Byzantium was a commonwealth ... in which (different) peoples lived together in the same faith.''

The monastery welcomes anyone who would like to visit — provided they are male. In a more than 1,000-year-old tradition, women are banned from the entire peninsula, which is deemed the Virgin Mary's domain. While men from other faiths can spend a few days at Mount Athos as visitors, only Orthodox men can become monks.

Most of Simonos Petra's 65 monks hail from European countries where Orthodoxy is the predominant religion, such as Romania, Serbia, Russia, Moldova, Cyprus and Greece. But there are others from China, Germany, Hungary, the United States, Australia, France, Lebanon and Syria.

Founded in the 13th century by Saint Simon the Myrrh-bearer, the seven-story Simonos Petra is considered an audacious marvel of Byzantine architecture. Renowned for its ecclesiastical choir, the monastery has become a symbol of resilience during its long history, recovering from three destructive fires — the most recent in the late 1800s — to embrace global Orthodoxy.

A lifelong quest

It was within these walls nearly 20 years ago that Father Isaiah — who like other monks goes by one name — found the answer to a lifelong spiritual quest that had spanned half the globe.

Born in Vietnam to Chinese parents, the now 50-year-old monk grew up in Switzerland, where his family moved when he was a child.

''In this Swiss environment, I was trying to understand what I'm doing, where I'm going, what is the meaning of life,'' he explained on a recent morning, standing on a fifth-floor balcony next to a winch used to bring supplies up from the monastery's storerooms in wicker baskets.

''While searching I found some answers through virtue, and this virtue was connected to the image of Orthodoxy,'' he said, his fluent Greek bearing a hint of a foreign accent.

Delving into this new faith, he found relationships based on love and a search for God, he said. His quest led him to an Orthodox monastery in France affiliated with Simonos Petra. That, in turn, led him to Mount Athos in 2006.

''It was in essence a deep searching of spiritual life, which is the answer for the meaning of life,'' he said.

Within the monastery, he found a brotherhood of monks from 14 countries. He decided to stay.

''We gather together with some principles, which are those of love towards our neighbor and the love for God,'' Isaiah said. In the human and spiritual connections he experienced in Simonos Petras, ''I found a deep answer to everything I had been seeking in my youth.''

Monastery life

Life in the monastery — and across Mount Athos — has changed little in the more than 1,000 years of religious presence there. Days begin long before dawn and are punctuated by prayer services followed by daily tasks, which can include farming, carpentry, winemaking, cooking, art, clerical and ecclesiastical work.

Set among forested slopes, nearly every inch of Simonos Petra's land is cultivated, with the monks tending to herbs, fruit and vegetables used in the monastery's kitchen. Electricity comes from sustainable sources such as solar panels.

Embracing foreigners

Father Serafeim, a Lebanese-Syrian who has lived in the monastery since 2010, said Eliseos and his predecessor as abbot, the Elder Emilianos, had always embraced foreigners.

''You don't feel that you're a stranger, you feel from the start that you're an equal member of the brotherhood,'' said Serafeim, who joined the monastic community seven years after he first arrived in Greece to study theology in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

''This spirit, this open spirit of the elder attracted many souls who were searching for a genuine, emphatic meaning of life,'' he said.

One of the oldest non-Greek monks in the monastery is Father Makarios. The Frenchman's spiritual quest began in May 1968, when as a young man he experienced first-hand the social uprising sparked by student demonstrations in Paris.

His search led him to Mount Athos for the first time in 1975.

''I found this monastery and an embrace,'' he said. ''I found people who understood and accepted me. They didn't judge me. It was very easy for me to decide that in the end, after I finish my studies, I will come to Mount Athos, I will try to see if I can become a monk.''

Converting from Catholicism to Orthodoxy in Mount Athos, Makarios is now the monastery's librarian. He has been living in Simonos Petra for 46 years.

All (men) are welcome

Eliseos, the abbot, stresses his monastery is open to all visitors.

''We say we are open to people with love,'' he says. ''Someone comes along and wants to visit Mount Athos, he visits it. … Does he want to take it further? We say: ‘Let's discuss it, with your will'. What does he want? Does he want to participate in this life, does he want to enter into our spirit, embrace our values and our faith? We will accept that. We will not discriminate.''

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