Devout atmosphere, problems due to the financial crisis, as well as free of charge accommodation and nutrition, have led thousands of citizens to spend their Easter holidays on Mount Athos.
In Karyes, the administrative center for the monastic republic of Mount Athos, the phones keep on ringing even on Holy Saturday and the monks answer that there are no more residence permits (diamonitirio). Police measures are high because of the great number of pilgrims that arrive at the Holy Mount.
“We haven’t seen so many people for many years,” the abbot of an Athonite monastery stressed. The Holy Week is traditionally a period that the pilgrims’ visits to Mount Athos are spectacularly increased, but this time the image is different. The 20 monasteries have no other space to host more worshipers. The requests are so many that some ask to sleep even in skites, which is prohibited by the rules.
“All the cells that our monasteries have to host pilgrims are full. Nonetheless, believers that are connected with the monastery keep on calling asking us to find them a residence permit,” an Athonite monk described.
The virgin nature of Mount Athos, the serenity that the piney slopes of the Holy Mount emits and the openhearted hospitality of the Athonite monks are very attractive factors for thousands of believers, who find the opportunity to visit this shelter of spirituality and tranquility.
Mount Athos, comprises today monastic foundations which can be divided into six categories: monasteries, skites, cells, huts, seats and hermitages. The number of the monasteries, which cannot be increased or decreased, is twenty. Today the monks are about 1,650. Usually the monasteries are surrounded by four-story buildings where the monks’ cells are placed into different sections. In the monasteries each monk has a small rectangular room with very few things in it, as reported on the Mount Athos website.
Each monastery acts as a separate patriarchical basilica. Except for the twenty monasteries, there are also fourteen skites, huts, seats and hermitages. At Karyes, an Ecclesiastical School operates for the novices and monks who wish to be educated. The monasteries are all cenobetic, where everything, including building, work, food and prayer, is common.
The legislative authority is conducted by the senate which eminent monks comprise. The administrative authority is conducted by the abbot who is the lifelong master and the spiritual father of the monastery. He is elected by the monks who have been in the monastery’s service for at least six years, according to the Mount Athos website.
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