Pilgrim’s Progress
I am the Jew in the Vatican. The black man at the Klan rally. The capitalist in Red Square. I am a Roman Catholic living for four days with the monks of Mt. Athos, and the monks of Mt. Athos don’t particularly like Roman Catholics.
I am in the holiest of Holy Lands for the Orthodox Church. The true church. The original church from which Roman Catholicism split when it got too big for its britches. The “Holy Mountain” is an idyllic, relatively untouched mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, somewhere on the upside of 130 square miles. Twenty monasteries carry on the traditions of the Orthodox Church, defending it against the changes that so corrupted Catholicism and denying modernization with…well…religious zeal
Read the complete story here.. An account of a “catholic”, unexperienced, sceptical American journalist who is using the F** word to much, in my opinion , but a good writer.
hv
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Athos – Agion Oros
That must be an old article as he mentioned drachmas. In any case, this guy sounds like a typical american as far as the stereotypes go… He accused of arrogance, but in my eyes he displayed plenty of arrogance himself.. And I will try not to comment about him taking two hours to reach Stavronikita from Karyes, or managing to get lost on the straightforward path to Iveron..
Yes, Dimitri, this american visited Agion Oros in 2000: http://trueslant.com/jeffkoyen/2009/03/05/the-battle-for-athos/ . It is better, I think, not to pay him much attention. A waste of time….
Here, I should note that I have nothing against americans or catholics, in fact I had the chance to converse with many such pilgrims during my numerous visits to Athos. I had very interesting and pleasant conversations with them, regardless if they were orthodox or not. This particular american in the article annoyed me as it is quite obvious that people like him feed the various stereotypes. I think that he belongs in a certain type of “tourist” who thinks that anywhere he goes he should be treated like royalty. Whereas we know that Athos is a very different place where the visitors should be the ones that must be humble and apologetic with their behavior, and not the hosts. The monks are in Athos for a very specific reason and very specific beliefs and should not be distracted by mindless tourists.