In November 1914, two of the greatest Greek writers, young friends at that time, Nikos Kazantzakis and
Aggelos Sikelianos, visited Mount Athos with a letter of recommendation from the Prime Minister Eleftherios
Venizelos.
Nikos Kazantzakis decided to take this trip when he saw a photo album of Mount Athos at the
house of Sikelianos.
In his "Report to Greco" Nikos Kazantzakis writes: "I closed my eyes, looking around for a book. The friend grabbed it from my hands and opened it. It was a great photo album: Monasteries, monks, bell towers, cypresses... cells above the cliff and down a wild sea. The "Aghion Oros", I cried... "Are you ready"? he said. "To take our iron-made bicycles... aren't we dragons? To take our iron-made bicycles, and climb Mount Athos"?... With our backpacks, leaning against our thick sticks, we were climbing between dense, half-naked chestnuts and skins and broad-leaved laurels on the cobbled path. The air, so it seemed to us, smelled of molasses. It's like getting into a huge church by the sea, with chestnut forests and mountains, and a ravenous sky above as a dome... ". After 40 days, the two writers made their way back.
Karakalloy Monastery.
The communal dinner.
A long hall.
Eight columns –long
tables at the right.
The fathers are eating in silence.
Small green jugs in front of them. When
we entered,
a male cat jumped and
crawled silently
under the tables.
Α lectern on the left.
The reader is reading while they are eating;
The abbot is sitting at the head of the tables
under the icon
of Jesus.
Three altars in the background.
Virgin Mary on the left,
the iconostasis in the middle.
On the right, (where the abbot is sitting)
there is Jesus.
Then suddenly, the abbot signals
with a small hammer
and the dinner is over.
Then the reader
approaches the abbot
asks for his bless
and kisses his hand.
The abbot gives him
the wine
and the bread.
Then a second signal
by the small hammer is heard
and everybody stand up,
the abbot in front
and after him one by one
the fathers.
At the back,
towards the right exit,
the servant,
the reader
and the cook, on their knees,
are asking for repentance to be forgiven,
by the fatrhers as the are passing by,
if their work was not good enough;
The abbot
blesses them with his
black pastorial stick
as he passes by. The priest,
on the opposite side,
blessses
all the fathers.
The Scete of Aghios Pavlos Monastery.
The gardens, full of broadleaves laurel; olives, lemons, oranges...
The icon of Glycofylousa of the Scete of Aghios Pavlos Monastery;
Jesus raises his hand to the chin of the Virgin Mary
under her lips.
The other hand falls along his long body, standing still.
In the evening prayer,
the wooden semantron;
the monk
wearing his epitrachelion
goes around the cathedral.
The sounds are slow rhythm at first
then speed up in pace
and finally go serene,
reverenced, esoteric.
And suddenly
a single hard shot,
and the monk enters the Chancel
from the back door.
And back again.
It is the dying
of Jesus
at the end.
And the final hit
'It's over!'
This sound
of the semandron, incarnates
the drama of Jesus
for him. The second time
hits the semantron
twice;
and the tird time, thrice.
Then we come to vist the
wood carvers.
One of them with gray
eyes. The other one just waken up from his sleep, soft,
pale, with a silk-beard around his pointed face,
and deep virgin eyes.
His hand is pale like wax, and lightweight like the holy bread.
Then we visit wood carver Arsenios, who carved the vade mecum
of Karyes, depicting the Second Advent.
Self tought; he begung
since his childhood
carving bold holly crosses.
It took him 15 years to finish his work on the Second Advent.
He gave expression to each face.
Ther is the light of work in his face.
The Refectory of Dionysios Monastery: The Gathering of the Angels.
A luminous dance.
Jesus in
the middle; a twelve-year child.
Everyone with dark hair, golder halos, golden wings, golden stoles
and belts.
Brighter than the mowing of grass during a summer sunset.
Their chitons are white, sometimes with flames.
