I took a few photos of the little port village of Dafni, bought my ticket at the Customs and ticket office, and waited.
As I sat, I smiled at an old Greek man who had come in the same bus with me from Simonos Petras. He smiled back, and as he passed he patted my head. I have had a lot of kindness from men of all ages on this trip. It has been very interesting being in a ‘men only’ zone. The sense of brotherhood has been strong. Here there are well over 1,000 – perhaps even 2,000 – men all seeking to deepen their relationship with God.
The ferry came at the expected time, and before long I stepped out on the wharf of Xenofontos monastery. I watched the ferry leave,
and then walked along to the monastery gate.
As I entered I noticed a sign saying that people were asked not to come during the week of 2-8 May as the monks were preparing for a Patronal feast day. Oops! That would explain why only 4 people got off the ferry. Still I had received a fax saying that I was welcome, so I continued on up the stairs and went into the guest house.
I was greeted by a monk who did not speak much English. He showed me to my room and gave me a rough idea of the programme of the monastery. The few other guests did not speak English either, so it was clear that I was going to be doing my own thing pretty much during this time. I decided that I would take a walk along the beach. I took a photo looking back towards the monastery. My room was in the building further away, where the 5th and 6th windows from the right are, just where the building extends out above the wall.
I also took a photo of the sea, as it reminded me of words from the classical Greek poet Aeschylus’ play, ‘The Persians’, where he speaks of ‘the limitless laughter of the sea’ (anarithmon pontou gelasmon).
I went to the service at 5pm and then on to dinner. After dinner I heard someone speaking in English. The speaker was a Canadian man, who was a retired professor of medieval art history and who had been coming to the Holy Mountain for 25 years. He was well known to the monks at Xenophontos monastery and was staying for 7 weeks. We had quite a long chat and it was interesting to meet him and to hear what he had to say. Then I watched a beautiful sunset from the guest house balcony.
The next day I attended the morning services and had breakfast. After that I took some photos within the monastery, as this was permitted. I took the next two photos in the early morning light, before the sun was really up. The first is of the central courtyard and the second is of the lower courtyard looking at the monks rooms.
A little later, the sun was shining more brightly, and the garden looked lovely.
You can see from the photos above how beautifully maintained the monastery is.
Early in the afternoon I left the monastery and caught the ferry back to Ouranoupoli, picked up my large suitcase from my hotel, and caught the bus back to Thessaloniki. On the bus was an English man whom I had meet at Simonos Petras. Fr Gregory had been an Anglican priest but was now an Antiochene Orthodox priest, ministering in Manchester, who had been visiting Mt Athos. We had a lovely conversation for the more than 2 hours it took to reach our bus station in Thessaloniki. I then took a bus to the train station, bought a ticket for the overnight train to Istanbul, and waited a few hours for the train.
This wait gave me time to have dinner and also to do some initial processing of my time at Mt Athos. It had been an extraordinary privilege to experience a part of our world that is totally set aside for prayer and the worship of God, and one that is so rich in natural and human-created beauty. Because there were few English speakers where I had gone, I had been pretty much left to my own resources, but that was okay, and besides I wasn’t on my own. I was on pilgrimage – a time of journeying spent consciously in the company of God. If I ever get the chance to go again, I would jump at it, and of the monasteries that I visited, the one that I would most like to return to is Simonos Petras. I experienced this as the high point of my visit to the Holy Mountain not just because it was so arrestingly beautiful, but because of the warmth of the hospitality and the experience I had of connection with Fr Makarios who spoke to me about prayer. All of this helped me to connect both with the place and with God in a very special way.
The train arrived around 7.30pm. There were not many passengers, so I had the sleeping car all to myself. I slept fitfully throughout the train trip, and was awake at aunrise to take photos of the beautiful countryside through which we were travelling.
We got into Istanbul around 9.15am.
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