The Friends of Mount Athos

President:

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia

© Copyright 1995-2011 The Friends of Mount Athos. All rights reserved.

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A Pilgrim's Guide
to Mount Athos

All visitors to Mount Athos are by definition pilgrims. Whatever your reason for visiting them, the monks will welcome you as a pilgrim. Guiding pilgrims is one of the oldest activities of the Friends of Mount Athos. Just as the proskynetaria -- personal pilgrimage accounts written by pilgrims from the middle ages to early modern times -- guided the pilgrims of the past, so also the FoMA Guide provides today's pilgrims with advice and understanding based on the experience of fellow pilgrims. Unlike those venerable pilgrims' books, however, this Pilgrims' Guide is updated constantly.

Introduction: Making Your Visit: Mount Athos Information:
What is Mount Athos
Be a Pilgrim
Map 		Daphni and Karyes
Hospitality on the monasteries
Liturgical rhythm and
    the measurement of time
Libraries and treasuries
Photography
Bathing
Extending your visit
Languages
Distances between monasteries

Foundation and dedication dates
    of the monasteries
An Athos Directory
Further Reading

Boat Schedules
 
Planning Your Visit: Forms and Spellings of Monastery Names:
The climate of Athos
Bureaucracy
What to take
Helping your fellow pilgrims 		Explanation of monastery
    naming conventions
Conventions of naming in English

Header Image: Detail from a pilgrimage souvenir print produced for Philotheou Monastery in 1849. The detail depicts the arrival of the "pious pilgrims" on horseback, with the monastery on the left and two monks waiting to greet the arriving pilgrims.
Photograph by Robert W. Alllison, © 2011. The original print bears the following inscription (in Greek):
This bronzeplate print of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain of Athos was printed at the personal expense of Nikolas Emmanouel Chionakes of Crete for the salvation of his soul and those of his parents and kin, and it was dedicated freely for pious pilgrims.
Printed in Moscow on 4 August, 1849.