A stay at Mt. Athos

Our day started at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. In the early darkness, with the starry skies above, my second godson, Vasilli (almost 80 years old), and I joined pilgrims from Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Poland to sit, stand, make the sign of the cross and kiss icons while monks chanted age-old Byzantine hymns and prayers that have remained unchanged since the birth of Christianity.

It was August ’11 and we were guests in Pantokratoros, one of the 20 monasteries on Mt. Athos (Agion Oros), the spiritual center of Greece, the birthplace of my parents. The pilgrims were young and old — grandfathers, fathers and sons (no women are allowed on Mt. Athos). I marveled to see the pilgrimage being shared by three generations of a family.

Visitors to Mt. Athos must obtain a visitation permit, called a diamoneterion*, and only 100 Greek Orthodox and 10 non-Orthodox visitors are allowed per day. A typical stay is four days and three nights long. There is no charge to stay in the monasteries, but donations are accepted.

There are no newspapers, no televisions and no radios on Mt. Athos. For our sleeping arrangements, we were provided with cots in our dormitory rooms. Meals, served twice a day, consisted of faki (lentil soup), brown bread, tomatoes, fruit and water — enough calories to live on, nothing more, and sometimes less, especially during the periodic fasting sessions. All the meals were eaten in silence and restricted to several minutes.

The only backdrop sounds were the symphony of the roaring Mediterranean waters crashing against the rocky shores; the cooing of the morning doves, and the odd creaking of the cicadas. These memories will be embedded with me, now and forever.

The monks and priests were dressed in black, resembling the comic character Batman except for their bushy beards and uncut hair. The monks filled the day doing household chores, maintaining the premises and having marathon church services.

I asked one man how long he had been a monk. He smiled and said, “You can tell how long one has been a monk by the length of his beard.”

I relished the conversations in Greek and English with my fellow pilgrims. One young man was an Olympic hopeful for the 2012 Games in London. He requested photos of the two of us and my autograph. (I was on the US Olympic boxing team that went to the Games in Rome in 1960.)

On my penultimate day at Pantokratoros, the gift shop was unexpectedly opened, prompting the pilgrims to rush in like football players going for the touchdown. Upon examining the handmade artifacts, I jokingly inquired if the products were made in China, just like everything in America. To my surprise, the monk said that, yes, many of his goods were actually made in China!

After four exhausting days, Vasilli and I departed for Thessaloniki’s Hotel Metropolitan. Arriving at our air-conditioned room with real mattresses on the beds, we dropped our bags and raced to a local taverna. Quickly, we devoured a variety of Greek mezedes and finished it off with cold Greek beer!

Did I exit “civilization” on Mt. Athos? Was I reentering it in Thessaloniki?

NIKOS MICHALIS
SPANAKOS, Aventura, FL

*Travelers (men only; boys under 18 must be accompanied by their fathers, and no groups larger than five people are allowed) who would like to visit for the day or stay overnight on Mt. Athos should apply for a permit as far in advance as possible, as entry is very limited. Permits cost €18 (near $24) for members of the Greek Orthodox Church or €35 for nonmembers. Permits are issued by the Holy Executive Bureau of the Holy Mount Athos (109 Egnatia St., Agioritiki Estia Building, Thessaloniki, Greece; phone 011 30 2310 252578, fax 2310 222424 or e-mail pilgrimsbureau@c-lab.gr. Good websites for more info are http://athens.usembassy.gov/mount_athos.html and www.athosfriends.org.