Dining Monastery Style

Gregoriou Trapeza One of the unexpected surprises of the trip was the food served at the monasteries. Don’t get me wrong, this was not gourmet fare, just simple wholesome food.  There were two meals a day, each following services.  In the evening the meal was served after Vespers so we ate between 5-6 pm.  The morning meal would be served after Liturgy anywhere from 5-7 am. depending on when the services started.  At several places services started at 1 am so breakfast was early.

Meals are eaten in the refectory or trapeza, a separate building usually close to the church.  The walls of the dining room are covered with murals depicting saints and biblical themes.  Most of the murals showed the ravages of time.  However, at Gregoriou Monastery the refectory had recently been repainted as part of the major reconstruction effort there, it was beautiful.

Vatopedi Click For Larger Image Orthodox view the meal, particularly one after Liturgy as an extension of the service.  The meal after Liturgy is called the Agape Meal (meaning love feast).  The refectories varied in size depending on the monastery but most sat everyone with room to spare.  Vatopedi’s refectory can seat at least 250 people with small marble tables that seat six.  At most one sits at long tables with benches, guests sitting apart from the monks.  There is no talking during the meal; everyone gets right down to the business of eating since the meal only lasts about 15 minutes.  While everyone eats a monk reads, usually from a pulpit above everyone, from the lives of the saints. 

Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days in the Orthodox Church.  On these days no meat, dairy, eggs and sometimes olive oil can be eaten.  Monks never eat meat.  On big feasts of the Church they can eat fish.  We had fish on the morning of the Feast of Theophany ( Epiphany) our first full day on Athos.  On fasting days we would have a pasta dish of some type in the morning.  On non-fast days we might have a fresh egg hardboiled, feta cheese, olives, a piece of fruit and bread.  Wine was also available; at 5 am I passed on it. 

Gregoriou Trapeza Much of what we ate was raised at the monasteries.  At Vatopedi they grow their own wheat and mill it.  The breads served at each meal were the heartiest I’ve ever eaten.  Not very sweet, they were incredibly dense and had to be eaten in small bites in order to muster enough saliva to swallow.  No butter or jam to ease it down, just break off a piece and work it over.  Very filling! At Vatopedi they also have hothouse tomatoes.  A fresh tomato at each meal was a real treat.  Feta and olives were also products of the monasteries.  Feta and olives for breakfast is fabulous.  As you can gather, I was impressed with the fare at Vatopedi.  The morning meal we had there has to rank up there with the most satisfying meals I’ve ever had.  The main course was a spatzel-like dish with a hardboiled egg, feta, olives and of course tomatoes.  They also served a coffee cake that was almost as dense as the bread.  No coffee or tea is served at any meal only water.

Evening meals often included beans in some type of stew.  Cabbage and onions was also a favorite.  At Xeropotamou we were served pickled cauliflower.  At Gregoriou they served fresh oranges from their terraced orchards.  Karrakallou served us kiwis.  Generally speaking the meals were very well balanced.  In fact, I’d say that the morning meal was more balanced than the typical American breakfast, certainly better than mine.

The meal ends when the abbot rings the bell.  A closing blessing is said and the monks file out followed by the guests.  As you leave the building the abbot is outside the door blessing all who leave.  A number of monks are outside prostrating in deference to the guests.  Post meal is a time for conversation and catching up.  For us it was time to debrief after the long service and plan our day’s move.  If it was early enough in the morning we would catch some sleep before setting off for our next destination.

The Services

Monk Reading In the Cliros A number of people have asked me “how can you be in services for that long?”. Long services are certainly not easy but they are never boring.  An Orthodox service of any type is not a passive endeavor. Most people tend to associate church services with a Protestant type of worship: sermons, congregational singing, preaching, etc. Monastic services, like those in every Orthodox Church, are liturgical in nature.  That is, they have a proscribed ritual and ceremony. Most of the services are comprised entirely of singing and chanting. In the case of the services we took part in, there were either readings chanted or "singing" in the Byzantine chant style at all times with very little silence.  Examples of Byzantine Chant in English

View During A Service A typical service would start in the exo-narthex (the area just inside the entrance) of the church in almost total darkness with only a few oil lamps lit. Services such as Compline, the Hours, or Midnight Office were done in this way.  Once that service was finished everyone would move into the main church for Matins and the Divine Liturgy.  In every church there are two areas on opposite sides near front where the chanters stand called the "cliros". Most services are chanted antiphonally, one group of monks chants a part then the other chants going back and forth. There is never congregational or “choral” singing with western type harmony.

During these services there is an ebb and flow of activity.  Censing (with incense) of the church and people is done numerous times.  The priest or deacon is contributing their respective parts as well. Candles and lamps are being lit and extinguished according to the rubrics of services. At certain high points the church can be ablaze with candle light and the next minute dark again. Everything that is done from censing of the faithful, to lighting of candles, to chanting has meaning and is purposeful, nothing is ad-libbed.  Orthodox worship is governed by cycles that determine the nature of services for every day of the year.  One cycle is based on Pascha or Easter, these are often thought of as “movable” since the services are effected by their

Monk Tending the Candlesrelationship to the date of Easter ( Pentecost always comes 40 days after Easter for example). The other is the day of the week. The third is the day of the year. Services celebrated on each day take into account these three variables, it is very complex.  Here is a good explanation

The “congregation” (pilgrims and monks) of course listen to what is being chanted but also engage in their own private prayers. I had a mental list that I would go through numerous times during the long services: family, my God parents, my God children, friends, co-workers, fellow parishoners , people who are ill I know, and so on. In addition, I would work my prayer rope. A prayer rope is a circular rope with varying number of knots tied in (usually 100 or 33). The rope is used to say the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ Have Mercy On Me A Sinner”. This is said internally repeatedly with the idea that at some point when one is spiritually advanced it becomes part of one’s consciousness.  Part of a monk’s prayer rule is to say the prayer a certain number of cycles of the rope a day. Layman can say the prayer as well. During the services you can see everyone praying their rope. I’m not very good at it, a few knots then I’m thinking about something else.  I’ve got a long way to go!  More info on the Jesus Prayer

Note: The images used here are not from my trip but taken from the Decani Monastery in Serbia website.  No photos are allowed of the services on Mt Athos without permission. 
Decani Monastery. Decani Monastery. 02 Feb. 2005 (http://www.kosovo.com/main.html).

Gregory Meets His Match

St. Gregory The Theologian Gregory, one of my companions on the trip, is a veritable font of knowledge when it comes to church  and secular history. It was common for him to add valuable commentary and detail to questions that came up during our travels. There seemed to be nothing that he couldn’t make an intelligent comment on; it was quite impressive really. A memorable event  occurred during our stay at Vatopodi Monastery that was the one time he was left speechless. 

Fr. Peter had left us to return home the day we went to Vatopedi so we had no translator.  We were fortunate to meet a monk at Vatopedi who was an American, Fr Mathew.  It turns out the Fr Mathew was from outside of Bellevue.  Fr. Mathew, about 45ish and a monk there for 12 years, was a soft, yet well spoken man who spent about an hour with us telling us the history of the monastery and other facts.

The Incorrupt Hand of
St John Chrysostom After Vespers and the evening meal it is the practice at each monastery to bring out relics of various saints in the main church for visitors like us to venerate. For the non-orthodox reader this may seem like a very odd practice. A thorough explanation is beyond the scope of this site but you can read about it here. Elsewhere we had already venerated a number of important relics including pieces of the "True Cross" ( including one piece that had a spike hole), John the Baptist, St Basil the Great, Lazarus, the Belt or Sash of the Mother of God ( Virgin Mary), the incorrupt hand of St John Chrysostom, the skull of the same saint with an incorrupt left ear, among many others.   At Vatopedi the priest brought each relic out one at a time. After bringing out several relics, he comes out holding a reliquary (usually an ornate silver box) with a skull fragment of St Gregory the Theologian. Gregory is named after the saint and was so shaken by the relic that was before him that I had to steady him a bit and actually push him forward. He was in total shock and remained so for quite some time.

A Piece of The True Cross of Christ Mt Athos is full of unexpected surprises like this. In our travels we have seen many church treasures including ancient hand written liturgical texts, liturgical clothing embroidered with gold, hand carved crosses with detail so small and refined that it is hard to see with the naked eye, and of course ancient icons to name but a few. At a number of monasteries these treasures have in recent years been professionally organized and are now displayed in small museums under controlled conditions in order to insure they remain for future generations to learn from and enjoy.

The images you see in this post are not taken by me but are from cards we were given at the monasteries. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the churches ( quite understandably) and were very limited in what we could take within the grounds of the monasteries . Our general rule was to take a few photos inside the grounds until we were told not to (is that cheating?). We never used flash. The only monastery that allowed us to liberally take photos was Gregoriou.  I do have a number of photos of church interiors from our visits to churches in Thessalonki , there we were allowed to do so. In fact, at one church a man came up to me when I was shooting and spoke to me in Greek. I assumed that he waschastizing me for taking pictures, it turns out he was asking me if I wanted the lights turned on for better lighting.

Meteora

Monastery of Varlaam After spending Wednesday night at The Monastery of St Dionysisus of Olympus in the foothills around Mt Olympus we headed south to visit an area called Meteora, home to six monasteries set on the tops of huge rock formations overlooking a river valley.  The weather was mixed with some clear skies but also occasional clouds.  As we approached the Meteora area low clouds and light rain moved in.  Unfortunately it made visibility quite limited.  However, we were definitely not disappointed.  After driving up a winding narrow road the Monastery of the Great Meteora emerged from the clouds just above us.  Established at the end of the 14th century this monastery was only accessible by rope ladder or a basket and pulley system until the early 1900s when steps were carved into
View Looking Norththe rocks.

We crossed a wooden bridge and entered via a narrow tunnel cut into the rock which connected to a well engineered stone stair case.  After an 8 story climb we were at the gate.  In the 1970s a massive restoration effort by the Greek government was undertaken to save the deteriorating monasteries.  Many structures were restored and now are in excellent condition yet they preserve the look and feel of the original structures.  The monastery church is made entirely of a unique looking porous stone that took twenty years to get all the blocks to the top ( hauled by rope and pulley) and complete the church.  Our guide tells us that the porous nature of the material has helped preserve the church and its treasures over the centuries.  We have seen many churches over the last two weeks and this was among the most beautiful, the frescoes were stunning. Cleaned twenty years ago they show vibrant color and detail.  All of the ancient monastery churches we have seen in our travels have soot darkened interiors which makes it impossible to determine the original color and detail.

The view from the Great Meteora was spectacular.  Again, it was too bad that the weather didn’t cooperate.  Much of our time there was in cloud cover, although it did tend to make the place all the more surreal.  I did snap a few nice shots as you can see.  I’ll have more in the gallery when I return home. 

Looking Into The Church We left the Great Meteora and drove a mile to the Monastery of St. Stephen, a women’s monastery.  At St. Stephen’s you drive to the top and must walk down slightly to the monastery.  It too has been restored and has several lovely gardens.  The main church is smaller than the one at Great Meteora and was never frescoed when it was built.  After 14 years of work one iconographer has it about two thirds complete.  The iconography is amazing.  Good iconography is not simply beautiful as art but is has a spiritual dimension that transcends the artwork.  Orthodox iconography has a very proscribe form and structure that differs greatly from western art forms.

During our visit to the bookstore the nun, Mother Paraschive, who was working the checkout engaged us in friendly conversation.  We have discovered during our visit that Greeks are really fascinated by American Orthodox.  As Greeks seem to be inclined to do with many things; they think of Orthodoxy as “theirs” and are proud that we Americans would adopt their religion.  Since we are traveling around with a highly visible
View From St Stephen’s Orthodox priest, Fr Peter, it is obvious we are Orthodox.  Just the other day while dining in a small café and young Greek man came over to our table as he was leaving to talk with us and congratulate us.  Mother Paraschive was fascinated in the same way.  When we got ready to leave she insisted we stay and took us to the questhouse where we had Greek coffee ( it is growing on me!) and a light snack.  There we met another nun who was also curious about us.  It was very cute.

Before we left they took us to a small stone chapel where they hold most of the winter services.  Although it was dark inside we immediately noticed how all of the main icons on the iconostasis were damaged with most of the faces destroyed.  Mother Paraschive told us that during the Greek Civil, just after WWII,  communist rebels seized the monastery and lived there for many months.  While there they defiled the icons.  The wall frescoes where all but destroyed.  The ones that remained had bullet holes in the faces.  We have seen evidence and read of many other similar tales in our travels.  This kind of thing was common during the Turkish occupation when many churches were either destroyed or turned into mosques.