Mount Athos, located on a finger of Greece stretching into the Aegean Sea, has been an important center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism since 800 A.D. There has been an unbroken line of Christian worship on the site for nearly 1,800 years.
Mount Athos, the name for the peninsula as well as the mountain itself, has 20 monasteries that are under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – one of the 15 Eastern Orthodox jurisdictional units.
The site is important for Georgia and the country’s majority Orthodox population. 17 of 20 monasteries at Mount Athos are Greek Orthodox – one is Serbian, one Bulgarian and one Russian. Until the late 19th century, the Georgian Orthodox Church also operated a monastery, Iviron (or Iveron), which is now operated by the Greek Orthodox Church.
Iviron Monastery was built between 980-983 by two Georgian monks – John the Iberian (Iberia or Iveria being what part of modern-day Georgia’s territory was called at the time) and Prince Tornike Eristavi. The monastery is the third oldest standing on Mount Athos today, and third in ecumenical importance. The monastery’s thousand-year history has been eventful. In the 14th century, it was damaged by Catalan pirates and religious reformers who sought unity with the Western Church. It was damaged by fires in 1740 and 1845, and burned to the ground by a fire in 1865. The last Georgian monk to call the monastery home died in 1955.
The Iviron Monastery today is the home of Mount Athos’ protection icon – Our Lady Portaitissa. It is famous for a silver seven-branched lamp called ‘the lemon tree’ and an internal door made of silver and ebony. The Iviron museum also houses many Georgian artefacts, including a suit of armor owned by Tornike Eristavi. Iviron’s library is one of the richest in Mount Athos, with more than 2,000 codices, 15 liturgical scrolls, 100 manuscripts and 15,000 printed books. The monastery features a total of 26 chapels, cared for and prayed in by a monastic community of approximately 30 monks – none of whom are Georgian. The original Georgian inscriptions on the frescoes in Iviron Monastery are barely legible today.
Georgian artist and carpenter Nikoloz Badurashvili has worked at several of Mount Athos’ monasteries, replicating historic pieces that are moved to museums. He carved two iconostases at Zografou Bulgarian Monastery, replicated a moving statue that is part of a clock tower at Vatipedi Monastery, and constructed a replacement for a 500-year-old door at Dionysiou Monastery.
In 2013, non-stop Georgian worship was restarted on Mount Athos after an 80-year absence. Unceasing services were last held by Georgian monks in 1932, at St. Panteleimon Monastery in the cell of St. Stephen. That year, there was a fire that killed several monks and destroyed a library.
Mount Athos is about 150 km from the city of Thessaloniki – which is connected to Georgia by Wizz Air with direct flights from Kutaisi, but don’t book your tickets just yet. The territory is governed as an autonomous unit within Greece, and is even exempt from the European Union’s rules of free movement of people and goods. Only men are allowed to enter Mount Athos, and yes, the rumors are true, even female animals are barred (with the exception of female cats, birds, and insects, unsurprisingly)! Even for men, entrance is not easy – all visitors must have a special permit. Each day 100 Orthodox Christians and 15 men of other faiths are allowed to enter.
It’s also worth noting that in Georgia’s Abkhazia region, one of the most notable landmarks is the late 19th-century New Athos Monastery, a stunning silver-domed neo-Byzantine style confection that is an official Cultural Heritage Monument of Georgia. Although there are no specific gender-based restrictions for visiting this monastery, access to Abkhazia is currently prohibited by the Georgian government while the territory is occupied by Russia.
By Samantha Guthrie