Athos

Published by The National Herald, September 16, 2005

Russian President Makes Mount Athos Part of his Working Visit to Greece

KARYES, Greece (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin made a private pilgrimage to the 1,000-year-old monastic community of Mount Athos last Friday, September 9, the first Russian head of state ever to set foot in a place regarded as the Holy Mountain of Orthodox Christianity.

Putin visited a number of monasteries in the all-male, autonomous sanctuary located on the craggy Halkidiki Peninsula in northern Greece. He was to return to Moscow later that day.

"I am grateful for the opportunity you gave me to visit the Holy Mountain," Putin told the Peninsula's 20 abbots at a welcoming ceremony in Karyes, the medieval community's capital.

"This is a very special place for Orthodox Christians and the whole Christian world. In Russia, we always held the monks who lived here in great admiration and respect."

Dressed in black suit and shirt, Putin visited the 10th Century Iviron Monastery to view the icon of the Virgin Portaitissa. According to Orthodox tradition, Iviron monks sent a copy of the icon to Moscow in the mid-17th Century to help cure the sick daughter of Czar Alexei I (the original is thought to date to the 9th Century).

Putin, using a jeep to tour the Peninsula, which has only dirt tracks and paths, then visited the 18th Century monastery of Saint Panteleimon, which houses Russian monks.

He had planned to visit last year, but canceled following the September 1-3 Beslan school siege in southern Russia, during which 331 people were killed.

The Russian Orthodox Church acknowledged it was the first time a Russian head of state has visited the community where more than 1,500 monks live and where women are banned.

"I know that the Russian President has long wanted to visit Mount Athos. This is his private pilgrimage," Father Nikolai Balashov, a spokesman for the Department for Inter-Orthodox Relations, told The Associated Press.

From 1845, grand dukes from the Russian Imperial Family visited on several occasions. The last visit was made in June 1867 by Grand Duke Alexei, son of Czar Alexander II.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which counts two thirds of Russia's 143 million people in its flock, is the largest of the more than one dozen Orthodox churches worldwide, and has enjoyed an immense revival since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mount Athos, which is part of Greece – but is autonomous – is administered by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity, who is based in present-day Istanbul.

Putin, despite his career as a KGB officer in the officially atheist Soviet Union, has been publicly seen as a devout Orthodox Christian and has helped cultivated the powerful Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Patriarch Alexy II.

Putin has said he always keeps with him a cross given to him by his mother, which he had blessed at a holy site in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Lyudmilla, are often seen visiting churches and monasteries.
The links between the Russian Orthodox Church and Mount Athos date from the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Christianity through Eastern Europe more than 1,000 years ago.

The first great Russian monasteries, including 11th Century caves near Kiev, were inspired by the spiritual traditions of Mount Athos. The Russian role on the Peninsula as a guardian of Orthodoxy continued to rise during the four centuries of Ottoman control over Greece, which ended in the 1820's.

Although Russian influence on Athos began to wane after Greek independence, the monastic community continued to draw prominent Russian pilgrims such as Grigory Rasputin, the mystic monk who became part of Czar Nicholas II's court, and is often linked to helping bring down the monarchy and opening the way for the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Putin's trip is also seen as a bid to reclaim the Russian character of the Panteleimon monastery, which has been coming under the influence of Ukrainian clerics in recent years.

But some Orthodox believers are skeptical about whether Putin has religious inclinations, or is projecting an image to boost his popularity and authority.

The Russian President arrived in Northern Greece on September 8 and held talks with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Mount Athos is considered a spiritual cradle of Orthodoxy, and its conservative monks are widely perceived as guardians of the faith. The first monasteries were built in the 10th Century.

The Associated Press posted the above on September 9. The original headline is, "Russia’s Putin Visits Mount Athos Monastic Community."



Volume 7 Number 38 - Tuesday, September 20th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY