netherworld. I can remember thinking, ���Is that truly when
you find God? At twilight, or at the twilight of your life?���
It requires three monks, each with a massive key, to open the
door to Lavra���s treasury. The Abbot, Father Prodromos, with
scholarly Costis translating, told the detailed history of each
display case���s contents, as he reverently turned back the cloth
covering each case. Rarely exhibited, none of these treasures
was included in the large, comprehensive exhibition about
Mount Athos at the Helsinki Museum.
The abbot took us to visit the extreme end of the peninsula
where the holy mountain descends thousands of feet directly
into the sea. Small hermitages could be seen, some of them
mere grottos, leaving to the imagination the scores that lay
beyond. At one, a good monk, though usually building walls,
had recently completed one of the most pleasing mosaic floors
I have ever seen. It harmoniously incorporates Orthodox and
Greek iconography. At the close of our visit, the abbot promised to join us on a hike to the summit when next we visited.
A
s we left Lavra on our way to Karakalou Monastery the
fragile existence Athos and Greece in general experience during the long arid summers���when she is often plagued by forest fires���was brought to bear. For the third time I saw a cigarette tossed, fully lit, into a pile of parched leaves.
HYLAND
24
