Panteleimonos aerial: from our flight over Athos the 6th of May 2017
Arriving at the monastery
The clock tower on the left, the blue East wing in the middle and the katholicon on the right
Above the palmtree: the double church on the top floor
Me standing on one of the balconies of the East wing, making the picture below (the five photo’s above made by mr. Jitze Bakker):This is the same spot in 1980, during my first visit to Athos 37 years ago, when only 8 elderly monks remained at the monastery.
The belfry of Roussikon
View to the NorthView to the West/not Kassandra but Sitonia, thanks Bertinos, I always mix them up!
In the right corner of the blue building stairs go up to the double church. I took my chance to see if they were open and went up.
But first I passed this marble fountain with a large icon of the Panaghia
The stairs that lead to the first floor
A door on the first floor, with three paintings at its side and one – small – above it.Agios Dimitria or Dimitrios
A scene from the live of Agios Dimitrios (?)
a detail of the text from the painting above, where I can read Dimitria (in Russian)?
Agios Dimitrios being wounded with spears by soldiers
The painting above the door, the child Jesus with his Mother
The door on the second floor, with two large paintings
A St. Sergii of Radonezh (thanks Bertinos)
Apostles Petros and Joannis with the Panaghia (standing on clouds)
A mosaic of Agios Panteleimonos
On my way down I first passed this little building (chandlery)
and secondly this chapel (dedicated to St. Mitrofan (Gr: Μητροφάνης) of Voronezh- thanks Bertinos)
It was time to move on, because we had a long way to go to the other side of the peninsula, the cell of Maroudá.
But before we left we passed this large churches, that lie a little higher up the hill
All buildings of the monastery are excellent state now, also this general storage. In 2009 it looked very diffrent, as you see on the picture below:
From here we tried to find a path that should bring us directly to the Paleomonastir, but we were unable to find it, although some maps indicated that there would be a monopati behind Panteleimonos. So we took the long way over a dirt road, passing the Silouan mill and skiti Xenofontos, to be seen on the other side of the valley.
Next time more about our new discoveries in Paleomonastir.
Wim Voogd, 17/9
Very Nice!
Just a few comments/additions to this marvellous article:
– The Greek surname of Agios Panteleimon is “Ρωσικόν”=”Rosikon” (Ρωσία/Rosía being Russia).
– It seems the view to the west shows the Sithonía peninsula, which “blocks” the view of Kassandra.
– There are only icons of Saint Dimitrios in the article. “Димитрия”/Dimitriya (in post-Bolshevic Russian spelling) just means “of Dimitrii” (=genitive or second case).
– The other saint is St. Sergii of Radonezh (Се́ргий Ра́донежский, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergius_of_Radonezh).
– The chapel is dedicated to St. Mitrofan (Gr: Μητροφάνης) of Voronezh (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitrophan_of_Voronezh).
Apart from the Katholicon and the chapel of St. Mitrofan, there should be churches/chapels dedicated to St. Demetrios, St. Sergii of Radonezh (of which you probably found the entrance), the Ascension, the Archangel Michael, St. Gerasimos, Sts. Constantine and Helen, Sts. Vladimir and Olga, the Protection of the Theotokos (Покров), and St. Alexander Nevsky.
How many monks live in the monastery now? It sure is beautiful. What an honor to be able to be there. Please say a special prayer for me and for my ministry with the Hermits of the Holy Cross.
Peace in Christ Jesus,
broMark
Hi brother Mark,
it is difficult to say how many exactly, but if you visit the trapeza during dinner, I’ll estimate the number well over 150 monks nowadays!
The icon next to the Panagia is St. Sergij Radonezhsky.