Follow me as we head into a most sacred place, one where women aren’t allowed

This isolated headland holds a lot of history, as well some vigilant monks and mystical monasteries.

Building an isolated monastery

So as it turns out, Mount Athos has been described as a Holy Mountain for more than a thousand years and has taken that title very seriously. Some might argue a little too seriously. But you can’t deny that it is an incredibly important cultural and religious spot. Especially for those who follow the ways of the Orthodox Christian.

Mount Athos is thought to be the oldest monastic community still in use today, and that’s because despite historical documents being quite sparse, its believed that a monastery has called this mountain home since as early as the third or even fourth century BC.

Christianity had spread like wildfire, and by the 4th and 5th century AD, monks were looking for a place to settle down where they could worship their God in some peace and quiet, and the space on Mount Athos really fit the bill.

Even Homer mentions Mount Athos in the Iliad. So clearly word was getting around.

As we go through the 7th century, the Islamic conquest of Egypt sees a whole heap of monks flee, trying to find a safe place to continue their worship, and many of them find their way to Athos.

It was in 866 that John Kolovos built the first monastery, consolidating Mount Athos as the place to be if you’re a monk. It was only a couple decades later the ‘Holy Mountain’ was made a spot purely for monks, none of that other riff-raff were allowed in. Thanks to this isolation, frugal monks and monk hermits sought Mount Athos out as a refuge.

Even though we know for certain that monks inhabited Athos well before 850 AD, it was with St. Athanasius the Athonite in 963 that the first monastery, known as the Great Lavra, was built. Understandably, some of the hermit monks weren’t all that pleased with an organised community being forced upon them, but St Athanasius came with the backing of the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes, who was kind enough to grant Athos its very first charter.

And Athanasius didn’t stop there, individual monasteries popped up all over the place. By the time we get to 1054, Mount Athos is an Orthodox spiritual centre, its organised into a monastic state and even enjoyed, and still enjoys to this day, a self-administered status, that means they make up their own rules.

And it might surprise you to learn that Mount Athos has quite the diverse monastic population. Thanks to the spread of the Orthodox faith, monks from all over came to Athos to establish their own monasteries. There’s monasteries founded by the Georgians, the Serbs, the Bulgarians, the Russians.

By the 12th century, there were more than 180 monasteries housing over 20 000 monks. That’s a lot of praying going on. Unfortunately as we move through history, many of these monasteries were destroyed, thanks to the Crusades, those crazy guys, fires, neglect, even Pirates got in on the action looting any religious treasure they could get their hands on.

By 1400 there are only 40 monasteries, of which only about half survive to today. The next couple centuries see quite a few changes for how the whole place is managed.

In the 15th century we start to see some of the monasteries take on a more liberal way of living, moving away from the strict rules of the ultra Orthodox community. And thanks to the Turkish capture of Thessaloniki in 1430, where the monks submitted to Turkish rule, and led to the impoverishment of many of the monasteries, this liberal system was quickly adopted. In reaction to this, the first ascetic communities were found throughout the 16th century.

Then thanks to the War of Greek Independence in the 1800s, the Mount Athos community once again suffers greatly, entire libraries were burned. But thanks to the patronage of the Tsars in the 19th century, things really settle down significantly, with the Russians just pouring money into the expansions of their own monasteries.

By the time the Ottomans disappear in 1912, there are only about 10 000 monks living in Athos. But just a decade later, Mount Athos is officially made a self-governing part of the Greek State in Greece’s constitution. Which means that the area is acknowledged as being an Autonomous Monastic State, but it has its own administration made up of a representative from each of the surviving monasteries, known as the Holy Council. It’s these blokes that make the decisions that affect the Mount Athos community.

Mount Athos is a pretty unique place, some even say that its Byzantium, six centuries after the fall of Byzantium. It’s also seen as a living museum, thanks to the massive volume of sacred vessels, objects and art that aren’t behind glass and on display, but are used in everyday worship.

Even UNESCO acknowledged the impact Mount Athos has made and their unique place in the world when it was added to the World Heritage list in 1988, describing Athos as:

An Orthodox spiritual centre since 1054, Mount Athos … is a recognised artistic site. The layout of the monasteries had an influence as far afield as Russia and its school of painting influenced the history of Orthodox art.

And it continues to be an incredible place with an incredible history, even though these days the population has somewhat dwindled to over 2000.

The monasteries of Mount Athos

Currently Mount Athos is seen as the spiritual centre of the Orthodox Christian Church, and even though there are about 2000 monks living in the monasteries, Mount Athos can actually accommodate up to 20 000 monks. So there appears to be plenty of room atop the mountain.

Probably the thing that dissuades most men of faith to reside at Mount Athos is the traditional way of living that is adopted by all, to differing degrees, and then there’s the difficulty of being accepted to live at Mount Athos altogether, but we’ll talk about that a little later.

So what are the monasteries and actually living quarters like at Mount Athos?

Well there isn’t just monasteries to choose from, there are skētes, which are small communities of hermit monks, cells and kathismata, which are smaller churches under the supervision of a monastery.

Of the 20 active monasteries on the Holy Mountain, 17 of them are Greek, and the other three are Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian. The whole place is basically like a little town, there’s the refectory, a hospital, libraries, communal spaces, and of course chapels.

But thanks to being in a prime European position, the Holy Mountain had to be prepared to defend itself, so there are also fortified towers and harbours of which to seek shelter. And they certainly had treasures to protect, Byzantine art and treasures to be exact, not mention the priceless classical and medieval works of literature housed in the libraries.

Now while as a monk you can live life within a monastery and as part of a church, there are some who do not enjoy the monastic life, they seek a more isolated existence, one in which Mount Athos can accommodate.

This is where the small skete community comes in. Although calling them a community is a bit of a stretch. More like neighbours who have no wish to know each other.

These hermit monks choose to live in complete isolation and incredibly simply, this way of life allows them to feel closer to God, away from the many many many distractions of modern life.

Their little huts, or cells, are so remote that they are quite inaccessible, which means that supplies like firewood and food need to be brought in on rope.

In some of the most inaccessible cells, the only time a hermit would have visitors would be if they raised a flag signalling they needed help, usually medical in some manner, and it would only be then that someone would visit them.

Some days I think they’ve got the right idea, but then others I just couldn’t imagine living without the creature comforts of modern life, like flushing toilets for instance.

Now the monks day-to-day is fairly simple, there’s some study, some prayer, some work, and some rest. It’s all pretty laid back.

The rules of the monastery

If you wish to visit the monasteries on Mount Athos, there’s a fair few rules and paperwork to go through before you’re given permission, and even then, only people who meet certain requirements are even allowed to apply in the first place.

Each day they allow 100 Orthodox pilgrims to enter Mount Athos for a three night stay, but only 10 permits are available for those who are not Orthodox. So space is limited.

You have to be male and you have to be over 18, unless accompanied by your father and most interesting of all women are not allowed on the sacred ground of Mount Athos.

Mount Athos author Graham Speake has this explanation around the strict rules around young boys:

The rule is and always has been that men should be capable of growing a beard if they were going to go to Athos, and there was a prohibition against eunuchs and boys in the Byzantine period.

Most likely the fear was that women would pretend to be a boy or even a eunuch to sneak in. Though what for, no one could ever say.

And the rules don’t stop there. You must be covered appropriately, which means no shorts. You can’t take any videos, you can’t remove any religious items, your freedom to move around the monasteries is limited, among many others.

Most likely these rules are in place to limit the disruption to dedicated prayer that the monks are undertaking, while still allowing those faithful to make the pilgrimage.

Women at the monastery

Now this no women business has been quite the contested declaration for a while now. Let’s dive into the why, first off, and then have a look at the few exceptions that have been made and those that dared to break the ‘no girls allowed’ rule.

Some do think the reason that women are banned from Mount Athos is to do with protecting the celibate lifestyle of the monks. But there’s a more religious theory. Let’s take a listen as Speake tells us all about it:

One of the traditions is that the Virgin Mary was blown off course when she was trying to sail to Cyprus and landed on Mount Athos. And she liked it so much that she prayed to her son that she should be given it as her own and he agreed. It’s called ‘the garden of the mother of god’, dedicated to her glory, and she alone represents her sex on Mount Athos.

I’m all for claiming your spot, but banning all other women from your special hill, that seems a bit excessive. And yet, here we are.

Interestingly the ban doesn’t only apply to human women, it also applies to all animals, except, oddly enough, cats. Supposedly this is because of their excellent ability to keep the vermin numbers under control so a very special blind eye is turned to them.

What this also means is that all dairy products, like milk and eggs, which traditionally come the female species all have to be shipped in because god forbid a chicken is caught walking around the sacred mountain.

Although, despite this quite well policed ban, women have been known to have find themselves on Mount Athos throughout history. Quite a few women have found their way to Mount Athos, but I’m only going to touch on a few here.

In 1345, Jelena, the wife of the Serbian Emperor at the time was quite a big donator to the monasteries, and so was allowed to visit Athos, the only condition was that she wasn’t allowed to make contact with the sacred soil, so everywhere she went had to be lined with blankets, or where that wasn’t feasible she was carried.

Then in 1929, Aliki Diplarakou, the first Greek to win Miss Europe, shocked everyone when she dressed up as a man in order to sneak into Mount Athos. And she’s not the only one, just a couple years later in 1931, the French journalist Maryse Choisy also disguised herself to enter the monasteries, choosing to tell her experience in the book One Month with Men. There were rumours she even had a double mastectomy in order to pass as a servant boy. Now that’s commitment.

Then in 1953, Maria Poimenidou, who also dressed as a man to sneak into Athos, though she was caught only three days into her stay, prompted Greece to pass a law which would give a 12 month jail sentence for any more women attempting the same thing. A hilarious line from a Greek newspaper reported Poimenidou’s actions as driven by her

…flaming desire to see in person what manner of life the monks led.

By all accounts she would have been quite disappointed. Seems like the monks live a pretty laid back and simple life.

Since then, several women have attempted to enter Mount Athos in the 70s and most recently in the 90s.

But there are accounts of some women being welcomed to Mount Athos, most notably refugees.

Throughout history, there have been several groups of women and girls who have sought protection from uprisings and revolts. And during the Greek Civil War, the monks openly harboured women and children.

Quite recently, in 2003, in this very modern world of equality, the European Parliament thought it a little medieval to have parts of the land where women were banned, and so they requested that the ban be lifted, especially since it

…violates the universally recognised principle of gender equality.

Interestingly, nothing has happened, and the ban remains some 20 years later to the present day.

What’s quite fascinating is that lately Mount Athos has become quite the tourist hotspot, especially since it’s been on the UNESCO World Heritage list. And while walking around Mount Athos is out of the question for many. Boat tours are doing a roaring trade. They’re able to come to within 500 metres of the shore, which is close enough to get a decent look as the monasteries visible along the coast.

So if you’re ever in Greece, maybe look up a boat tour.

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