Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#101

Post by asymmetric » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

prometheus76 wrote: post #87

fennecfoxen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a small mismatch of expectations. A monastery is not generally a "life of study". There may be study and prayerful contemplation, but there is definitely labor, physical labor -- generally starting with some measure of agriculture -- as the community supports itself. It's also still a society, a small one at least, a group life. It is likely to impose on you much more than society in general, though i…

One other thing to note: permission to be a hermit is only granted to monks after many years of being part of the community of monks. To go off alone as a monk is very spiritually perilous for the first few years. It takes a long time to gain the discernment necessary to be a hermit monk, and some monks are never given that permission by their spiritual father.

Do you have more sources about this? I find it quite interesting

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#102

Post by Christopgr » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

Well, the company I work for builds the hotel system for two of the biggest monasteries! (It's a super outdated .NET Framework + webforms website for which, over the years, they have requested micro-changes to the fullest extent so it's really made to measure now, I am pretty sure it will never be upgraded)

The two monks I have spoken with are real sweethearts, but they sound really bored and idle to me. They do love speaking with my female coworker though which is, eh, kinda funny. :p

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#103

Post by prometheus76 » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

belorn wrote: post #70

In gender segregated monasteries, how common was there of rules against inviting members of the opposite sex? As I understand it, there existed many different enclosed religious orders, both for men and women, and most Christian orders seems from a glance to be exclusive. Orphans who grow up in such places must have gotten some very strange perspective about the world.

You're right that most monastic orders are either for women or for men exclusively, but there were some monasteries in Britain that were for both genders in one community, and were led by female abesses, which was unusual. I'm not near my home library, so I can't get you a reference, but it definitely existed, but was definitely out of the ordinary.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#104

Post by dr_dshiv » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

The peninsula was on the invasion route of Xerxes I, who spent three years excavating the Xerxes Canal across the isthmus to allow the passage of his invasion fleet in 483 BC. After the death of Alexander the Great, the architect Dinocrates (Deinokrates) proposed carving the entire mountain into a statue of Alexander.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#105

Post by carapace » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #54

From another article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36378690 "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," says Speake. "It's still called 'the garden of the mother of God', dedicated to her glory, and she alone represen…

> Like so many rules, it seems to be enforced strictly, except when...

...cats are involved. ;-)

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#106

Post by dta5003 » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

JimWestergren wrote: post #14

Wonder if they will get some kind of bonus points in heaven for the streak of daily prayers for more than a thousand years uninterrupted. Don't lose the streak! ;)

Not just that - monastics practice 'prayer without ceasing', hesychasm.

There's a great book "The Way of the Pilgrim" that explores a man's journey to discover what 'prayer without ceasing' means and how it could be possible.

There's also a monastery that was called 'the unsleeping ones' where they divided the hours of the day into shifts and had monastics in prayers throughout the day and night continuously.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#107

Post by AlbertCory » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

The comments prove once again, as if proof was needed, that the easiest way to provoke an argument with a bunch of hackers is to bring up date-time.

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#108

Post by cblconfederate » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:45 PM UTC

Talk about holding a gripe:

> The peninsula was raided by Catalan mercenaries in the 14th century in the so-called Catalan vengeance due to which the entry of people of Catalan origin was prohibited until 2005.

It seems Catalans are old troublemakers

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#109

Post by raptorraver » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

I had a two week pilgrimage to Mt Athos on Summer 2019. It was literally a trip to another world. We wondered around the peninsula and visited few monasteries and met wonderful people living there. Happy to see this on HN. If anyone has any questions I'm more than happy to answer those.

Btw, there's a great documentary about Mt. Athos that I think really expresses the ehtos of the place: https://youtu.be/U5pwfLRI-R8

Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)

#110

Post by prometheus76 » Fri, Dec 10, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

asymmetric wrote: post #101

prometheus76 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One other thing to note: permission to be a hermit is only granted to monks after many years of being part of the community of monks. To go off alone as a monk is very spiritually perilous for the first few years. It takes a long time to gain the discernment necessary to be a hermit monk, and some monks are never given that permission by their spiritual father.

Do you have more sources about this? I find it quite interesting

Here's a brief article about being a hermit from an Orthodox Christian perspective: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Hermit

The first half of this book is a recollection of life as a monk on Mt Athos (the second half is a collection of the monk's teachings as an elder): Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios.

Another good book is The Gurus, The Young Man, and Elder Paisios by Dionysios Farasiotis. This one has a lot more detail about life on Mt Athos. Also, it's important to note that Elder Paisios has been venerated and is now Saint Paisios.