THE FALL OF ATHON CONTINUES... Russian monks will be driven from the Holy Mountain!

“Athos is a target for attack by anti-Christians”

Russian Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos. Photo: isihazm.ru

Afanasy Zoitakis is a historian, editor-in-chief of the website Agionoros.ru (Holy Mountain) and an employee of the publishing house of the same name, which publishes books by the Athonite elders in Russian. In the year of the 1000th anniversary of the Russian presence on Athos, Zoitakis told Russian Planet how the Holy Mountain lives today, how it opposes the European Union and believes the prophecies of its elders.

Mount Athos and the European Union

— The Greek press is again writing that the European Union wants to abolish avaton, an ancient rule that prohibits women’s access to Mount Athos. How possible is it to remove an avatar today, in your opinion?

— There was no news reason for the news about the cancellation of Avaton. Speaking about this once again, the press did not provide any specific information - neither statements by officials, nor any decisions of the European Parliament, PACE or other organizations. The conversation was in the spirit that after the adoption of the law on the legalization of same-sex unions, further gradual de-Christianization will be carried out in Greece - and, perhaps, in the future, one of its stages will be the abolition of avaton.

The latest story related to an attempt to abolish this ancient rule dates back to the beginning of the 2000s. Then, in the European Parliament, 274 deputies spoke in favor of the abolition, 269 were against it, and another 14 people abstained. And about a year ago there were rumors that the World Council of Churches allegedly voted to remove the avaton, but this turned out to be unreliable information.

There are currently no facts indicating that the abolition of Avaton is being prepared in the near future. Moreover, this is now impossible, since it will lead to a very large resonance and protests within Greece. The status of Mount Athos is protected by Article 105 of the Greek Constitution and a number of agreements between Greece and the EU. Legally, the land of Athos belongs to twenty monasteries - the monks have the right to limit the right of entry to the Holy Mountain to those for whom they deem it necessary. The question of removing your avatar can be compared to the following situation: you have a 3-room apartment, and then the city hall comes up with a decree that you need to move three more people into your apartment.

— And if we talk about the long term, what is it?

— Of course, the question of removing the avaton will sooner or later be brought up for discussion. But before that, many other things in Greece need to be dismantled - for example, icons hang in hospitals and courthouses in Greece. Gradually, they are already beginning to be removed: just the other day, at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki, the icon of Christ was removed from the entrance and taken away from view, to the fourth floor, despite the protests of a number of teachers and students. The process of secularization is underway in Europe, and Mount Athos will certainly be the target of attack. But not now—later.

— A number of Athonite monasteries receive financial assistance from the European Union in restoration matters. How dependent do they become on the EU through this?

— At the moment, there have been no attempts at direct pressure, no attempts to impose anything on the monasteries. But I do not rule out that something similar could happen in the future.

On Mount Athos itself there are different opinions on this matter. For example, the Kostamonit monastery fundamentally refused financial assistance from the EU. They openly declared: we are afraid, we are afraid of the abolition of Avaton, and we do not want to receive a single cent from the EU, so as not to become dependent. Other monasteries did not see this as a threat or considered it to be irrelevant at the moment.

This question is closely related to the question of attitude towards modern technologies on Mount Athos. A technological revolution took place before our eyes - the Internet, transport, and infrastructure appeared. On Athos there are different points of view on how to relate to the progress of technology, how compatible it is with monasticism, and how much it is possible to recreate monasteries - in that majestic form and at that technological level, as often happens now.

At the moment, Kinot artificially limits the development of transport infrastructure, asphalting, and the use of transport. In many monasteries, monks do not use the Internet or mobile phones at all - and, for example, the same disciples of Elder Paisius today are limited to a minimum of resources: they do not even have a pump to pump water: they get it by hand, as has been done in all centuries. The attitude towards technology is cautious. And the same applies to the issue of EU financial assistance.

Orthodox monks on Mount Athos. Photo: simvol-veri.ru

Russians on Mount Athos

— One of the first news about the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Russian presence on Athos said that the governor of Athos was dissatisfied with this holiday and instructed the Holy Cinema of Athos to deal with it. Does the secular governor on the Holy Mountain have the right to interfere in monastic affairs?

— The question is complex. On the one hand, the laws of the Greek Republic apply on Mount Athos - regarding criminal and administrative law. This was manifested, for example, in the case of the abbot of the Vatopedi monastery Ephraim, who was arrested in 2011 for allegedly illegal real estate transactions.

On the other hand, usually in such cases the state requests permission from the Holy Kinot - it is not ready to take drastic action against the monks. An example is the Esphigmen monastery, which is now controlled by monks who have broken away from church communion with other monasteries of Athos and other churches. A number of court decisions were made that they were obliged to vacate the monastery. But the police are not ready to forcibly invade the monastery. Moreover, the state - despite the fact that it carries out customs functions - does not prevent Esphigmen from communicating with the outside world, including receiving pilgrims.

Regarding the situation that you are talking about, it must be said that at the first stage there were some tensions regarding the celebration. In particular, claims were made that Russia itself decided to carry out something on Athos, without coordinating it with the Greek authorities and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction Athos is located. Now these issues have been settled - the Greek government has given its consent and the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The governor of Athos not long ago gave an interview to the local press, where he noted that during his administration there were no conflicts or friction between the secular authorities and Kinot.

— What is Athos like today in terms of the ratio of nationalities?

— Most of the monks are Greek and Cypriot. Second in number are Romania, Serbia and Russia. Then, probably, Bulgaria, and there are also quite a large number of monks from European countries - Finland, Italy, France. There are only a few representatives of Africa and Asia; they can be called exotic.

Hegumen Ephraim of Vatopedi. Photo: pontos-news.gr

— Last year, at a forum of a famous church figure, a discussion arose that there was an unspoken policy on Mount Athos to limit the presence of Russians. In your opinion, is this true?

“There was information that the Patriarch of Constantinople is cautious about increasing the number of Russian monks and generally wants to limit the number of monks on Mount Athos,” the Greek portal “Romthea” wrote about this. In general, the abbots on Athos, according to my observations, are very willing to accept monks from Russia - in every monastery there are Russian monks and novices, and they often occupy prominent roles in their monasteries.

The issue of restricting Russians on Mount Athos today is primarily related to visa obstacles. If you take monastic vows on Mount Athos, you automatically receive Greek citizenship. But until this moment you still need to be a novice, and sometimes novitiate lasts for years. To do this, you need to obtain a multiple-entry, non-tourist visa - sometimes a work or student visa, and this is not always easy.

For people who took monastic vows in Russia and then went to Mount Athos, the situation is even more complicated. There are a lot of documents that need to be completed - for Europeans this is not an issue.

— In 2011, when Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi was arrested, this event was associated, among other things, with his pro-Russian sympathies...

— The pressure on Vatopedi itself was due to the fact that this monastery played a significant public role, and not everyone liked it. Vatopedi tried to play a consolidating role among the Orthodox, tried to promote the significance of the Orthodox tradition and its protection - at the cultural, political, social level. This is a very active monastery, and the reasons for the pressure on it are dissatisfaction with the position of Vatopedi, including, possibly, dissatisfaction with its connections with Russia.

It is also necessary to understand that the sovereignty of Greece is largely limited by external control, and power is in the hands of people who are quite anti-church.

Athanasius Zoitakis. Photo: Alexey Sovertkov / “Russian Planet”

Pilgrimage

— Today, as part of the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Russian presence on the Holy Mountain, is there any fear that Athos will become a fashionable trend to the detriment of domestic monasteries? Even Seraphim of Sarov reluctantly blessed the flow of donations and pilgrimages to Athos - saying that in Russia there is still a lot of room for doing.

— There is, of course, such a tendency - many people go to the Holy Mountain out of idle curiosity, viewing it as fashion, as a type of spiritual tourism. However, Athos is not the place where all human plans work out. I know many cases when a person was traveling for some light entertainment, but on Athos fate brought him together with such people that he completely reconsidered his life: atheists became believers, and some even decided to stay on Athos.

Advice that can be given to pilgrims: if you are going to Athos, then you need to live a life there that is as close as possible to a monastic life - go to services, follow the accepted daily routine.

— How friendly are the monks themselves to pilgrims?

— Monasteries are different. There are monasteries with a more prayerful attitude - this does not mean that they shun people, but the atmosphere there is different: they are more focused on the rule of prayer, on silence and hesychia. And there are monasteries like the Dokhiar monastery, where you immediately become part of the brethren: they completely let you into their lives - to the point that the abbot discusses some issues of monastic life at a meal in front of everyone, and is not afraid of prying ears. There is a deep feeling that you are one of the brethren.

—- The Russian Orthodox Church has raised the question of the possible canonization of the Russian Athonite ascetics Innocent (Sibiryakov) and Tikhon (Golenkov). How welcomed is this initiative on Mount Athos?

— The attitude towards Russian saints on the Holy Mountain is very reverent. Everyone on Athos knows and reveres Seraphim of Sarov and Luke of Voino-Yasenetsky - the veneration of the latter in Greece has acquired some unprecedented scope: Saint Luke appeared to many, people received miracles of healing from him. Along with these ascetics, every Athonite monk knows the names of Sergius of Radonezh and John of Kronstadt; veneration of the royal family is strong on Mount Athos.

The veneration of Saint Silouan of Athos, who was also Russian, can be called truly pan-Athos. At the same time, the Holy Mountain residents also honor his student Sophrony (Sakharov) - he has not yet been canonized as a saint, but there is information that Constantinople is preparing documents for his canonization. Therefore, the attitude towards the glorification of Russian Afonites is the most positive.

— How can the world learn about new Athonite ascetics? After all, if it were not for Father Sophrony (Sakharov), the biographer of Saint Silouan, perhaps the world would not have known about him?

- This is an interesting problem. I would say that this always happens according to God's will: if God pleases, then people will know about it. Because the elders themselves do not want to be known about them, they do not want this veneration - to the point that some will bury themselves in a place where there will be no opportunities for pilgrimage.

In a number of cases, the elders revealed themselves - after the Lord appeared to them, calling them to some task. Sometimes they were “revealed” by students. But now is a time when it’s hard to hide information - there is the Internet. It happens that a person ends up with some elder, and almost always the elder asks not to talk about him - but then this person will tell his relatives, then someone will publish it on the Internet, and now the flow of pilgrims is growing.

Prophecies of Athos

— A Pan-Orthodox Council will be held in June 2021. It is known that in Russia many believers, including monks, have a negative attitude towards this event - fearing that it will distort the purity of Orthodoxy. What does this have to do with the cathedral on Mount Athos?

— The attitude is cautious: people are waiting for him enough. In addition to open resisters, like the brethren of the Esphigmen monastery, many people have concerns about this event, but they have not yet been expressed in the form of open opposition.

By the way, the same attitude towards contacts between the primates of Orthodox Churches and Catholics—it can be called cautious. There is no doubt that if the Ecumenical Patriarch takes any steps that seem to the Athosites to be contrary to tradition, then the response to this will be a conciliar pan-Athos document, the reaction of the entire Athos.

— The prophecies of Saint Cosmas of Aetolia and Elder Paisius about the future liberation of Constantinople are known. What significance does Athos give to them - how much are prophecies woven into the life of the Holy Mountain?

- These words are given the most serious meaning - of course, they are authoritative for monks, monks often refer to them. Another question is that they do not make this the main content of life, do not panic, are not in nervous confusion or anticipation. Everything depends on God, so prophecies and knowledge of future trials on Mount Athos are perceived primarily as a reason to intensify prayers.

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