FRIENDS OF MOUNT ATHOS BOOK REVIEWS
© 1997
Monasteries
of Greece. By Chris Hellier. London:
Tauris Parke Books, 1996. 224 pages. Price h/b £35.00. ISBN 1-85043-264-3.[1]
It has been estimated that at
the start of the eleventh century there were at least 150,000 monks within the
borders of the Byzantine empire. In Greece today, including the pan-Orthodox
stronghold of Mount Athos whose population is growing, there are barely 3000.
Since the average Byzantine was famously more interested in theology than in
politics, it was in vain that an eighth-century emperor in need of manpower
attempted to dissuade men from taking monastic vows, for Ôhe was tampering with
the Byzantine soul, which accepted monasticism as the ultimate sacrifice in the
name of God the FatherÕ (p.29). Today it is only thanks to Ôthe rise in
cultural awareness, the benefits [sic]
of tourism and a wealthier Greek stateÕ that important Greek monasteries are
being preserved as museums (p.213). Sic transit gloria.
This
book could easily have become a tedious exercise in picturesque nostalgia. The
author is not an academic but a journalist and a professional photographer to
boot. Greek monasteries tend to be deliciously photogenic and it is difficult
not to photograph them. This book contains some stunning examples of the genre:
I drool over Iviron from the south-east, sunrise over the skete of Bogoroditsa,
and the Roussanou monastery at Meteora; and the designer has got the best out
of them by making them all double-page bleeds. It almost seems churlish to
point out that the monasteries illustrated on pages 134 and 136 (so close to
each other on the west coast of the Holy Mountain that their confusion is not
uncommon) have their captions transposed; and the icon painter on p.166 is not
really left-handed.
But
this is a laudable attempt to tell the story of Greek monasticism for the
general reader. Hellier starts, as one must, with Sts Antony and Pachomius in
the Egyptian desert. (Where does he think Nitria was if not in Egypt? And, however
heretical their beliefs, Arians were not pagans! p.15) The 1100 years from the
ÔfoundationÕ [sic] of the
Byzantine empire in 330 to the fall of Constantinople are given a slightly
bumpy ride. It is as anachronistic to speak of Ôthe Orthodox faithÕ with a
capital O in a fourth-century context (p.20) as it is to list Mount Athos as a
centre of monasticism in the early Byzantine period (p.19). Hellier subscribes
to the tradition of St Theodore of Stoudios as Ôthe reforming abbotÕ (p.30);
but, as Rosemary Morris has pointed out (Monks and Laymen in Byzantium,
843-1118, p.15), what Theodore
preached was a return to established practices, and we know so little about the
organization of monasteries before then that to speak of a Stoudite ÔreformÕ
may be a misnomer. He makes an oblique reference to the theory that the
Stoudios monastery was the source of minuscule script (p.32), but doubt has
been cast on this by Nigel Wilson (Scholars of Byzantium, p.66). The list of monasteries containing important
collections of books and documents still largely intact today should include
Sinai (p.34). And does he really believe that the crusades were originally
launched Ôto help the Byzantines repulse the Muslims from the Holy LandÕ
(p.35)?
Hellier
is more sure-footed in his treatment of the monasteries (ÔThe Guardians of
HellenismosÕ) during the Tourkokratia.
In this period, he writes (p.46), Ômonastic populations fluctuated wildly for
reasons that are often unclearÕ. What he means is that reports of their populations fluctuated; and Abbot Pa•sios of
Chilandari in his Tale of the Holy Mountain of Athos (1550) tells us why: Ôwhen the scribes come to take a
census, we do not report exact numbers for fear of heavy duties and taxes.Õ
Hellier provides fascinating detail on the dissolution of the monasteries
following the liberation of Greece in 1832. According to a Ministry of Finance
report of 1843, there were 593 monasteries in existence of which 412 were
dissolved--which is presumably why the Greek countryside is littered with
abandoned monasteries. One wonders what might have happened to centres such as
Athos and Meteora had Macedonia and Thessaly been liberated at that time.
These
centres formed the heart of Greek monasticism during the late Byzantine and
Ottoman periods and so they quite properly form the heart of Hellier's book,
though not before he has devoted a separate chapter to the important houses of
Patmos, Hosios Loukas, Daphni, and Mistra. His coverage of Athos is sympathetic
and well balanced and he is au courant with recent debates, notably those relating to the environment, the
autonomy of the Mountain, and the non-Greek monks. The following points do not
diminish that overall impression.
The
tradition of John Cantacuzene's retirement to Vatopedi (p.100) is not upheld by
his biographer, Donald Nicol, though the monks continue to claim him as their
own. The Amalfitan (Benedictine) monastery flourished for at least 300 years,
hardly ÔbrieflyÕ (p.114). I have yet to find evidence of manuscripts of secular
texts that have been copied on Athos (p.118). Philip Hunt visited Athos in
1801, not 1817 (p.121). The name of the Russian monastery is St Panteleimon,
not St Pantemelion (p.124 bis). The frescos attributed to Manuel Panselinos (fl. 1300) in the Protaton are given generous treatment
(pp.126-31), though nothing is said of their rapid deterioration resulting from
recent botched repairs to the building; those of Theophanes (fl. 1540), by contrast, notably at the Lavra and
Stavronikita, are not illustrated at all; and it is disconcerting to read
(p.130) that the former was the ÔteacherÕ of the latter. We are not told where
the pictures on p.139 are from, though the context would suggest Xeropotamou;
but St Paul (bottom left) is described in Greek as Ôthe founder of this
monasteryÕ, which suggests to me St Paul Xeropotaminos, founder of St PaulÕs;
and ÔSt OnuphriosÕ (bottom right) is labelled in Greek St Peter the Athonite.
Fr Maximos Lavriotis has some important things to say in his book Human
Rights on Mount Athos; he also makes
some very wild allegations without any evidence to back them up; he has an
agenda of his own and to say that he Ômay have overstated his caseÕ (p.171) is
an understatement. If Ôzealots have no representation on the Sacred CommunityÕ
(p.164), it is because the monks of Esphigmenou (the only zealot monastery)
have chosen to boycott its proceedings. The Glossary states (p.216) that the
office of Protos was abolished in the mid-seventeenth century; but the present
office holder is known to me personally!
Turning
to Meteora, Hellier describes how its first monks, Gregory and Athanasius, fled
from Athos in the fourteenth century to escape the persistent raids of pirates.
He writes about the equally persistent tourist invasion that has overtaken
Meteora in recent decades. But he omits to mention that in 1973 the monks could
bear it no longer and to a man fled back to Athos. Under the leadership of
their charismatic abbot Fr Aimilianos they took over the monastery of
Simonopetra where they have formed a community that is spiritually and
intellectually the equal of any on the Mountain.
If
these are the ÔbenefitsÕ of tourism, then Meteora is enjoying them; for its
monasteries are now little more than museums, preserved artificially for the
delectation of busloads of importunate voyeurs. A similar fate, alleviated by
no such ÔbenefitsÕ, threatens the continued existence of the fragile community
at St CatherineÕs, Sinai, though it is to be hoped that the recent initiative
of the Prince of Wales in founding the St Catherine Foundation may be in time
to preserve it. By contrast the monks of the Holy Mountain revel in their
seclusion and multiply. Not without reason did they turn their backs on
substantial sums offered them by the European Union. No theme parks for Athos!
Hellier
quotes Philip HuntÕs description of an Easter celebration in 1801 attended by
Ôabove fifteen hundred peopleÕ on Mount Athos Ôwhere they not only get a
plenary absolution... but enjoy the luxury of hearing a perpetual din of bells,
and the sight of splendid churches, pictures of saints, and wonder-working
reliquesÕ. There is nothing new about large crowds being attracted to the
Mountain for a major feast and there is no reason to carp at the monasteries
being Ôoverrun by a new breed of vacationing ÒpilgrimÓÕ (p.11). Visitors to
Athos are by definition pilgrims. A daily quota has had to be imposed; but few
monks will complain if it is occasionally exceeded; and no reader of this
splendid book should be left with the impression that he will not be welcome on
the Mountain (or she at the Athonite dependency of Ormylia).
[1] This review first appeared in Sobornost incorporating Eastern Churches Review, 19:1 (1997), 91-4, and is reprinted here with the editorsÕ kind permission.