Hermits of Mount Athos: more than 60 years in isolation from people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On the holy Mount Athos in Greece, off the coast of the Aegean Sea, there is one of the oldest monasteries on earth. The first monks arrived here in the ninth century. Some of them settled in caves right on the sheer side of the cliff. You can read about how you can survive in such harsh conditions in our today's article.

The Karuli Monastery, or rather even this hermitage, belonging to the Great Lavra in Greece, consists of 12 cells, which were built in the 17th century, and several caves. The word "karuli" is translated from Greek as "coil" - it is used by monks to lift baskets of food and water into the skete.

In this region, there are several hermitages of the Lavra, in which Orthodox monks live. In total, there are about two thousand of them, but today only ten people live in the Karuli skete.

The life of the monks in the monastery has hardly changed since the first Orthodox monks arrived here in the 9th century. Some of them grow vegetables, make wine, others carve various utensils from wood, they constantly clean and repair the monastery, it is considered shameful to sit around. Monks try to provide themselves with everything they need themselves, so that there is no need to leave the Lavra. Those who have chosen to live in caves live in almost complete isolation, little contact in the world we are used to and even almost never seeing other monks. “I don’t like life in a monastery, for me it’s like a prison. Here in Karuli I am free,” says one of the hermits.

Getting to these hermitages and caves is so difficult that the monks almost never see anyone. In order not to die of hunger, they receive a minimum of food and water using a cable system located tens of meters above the water. Previously, in order not to crash on a steep slope, when descending and ascending into cells, monks tied themselves with chains and ropes as a safety net. Today there are almost vertical steps made of wood, which, although they are quite dangerous, still greatly facilitate access to the skete. Despite this, some monks deliberately do not take the opportunity to go downstairs, and some cannot do it due to their poor health. So, for example, Father Arsenios has not left the skete for 64 years, and now he is unlikely to leave because his health does not allow him to use the steep steps.

Women are strictly not allowed to visit this place, even to approach the shore closer than 500 meters. It is believed that the last woman who was on this peninsula was Mary herself. However, given that all the monks of the Lavra observe celibacy, this rule is also intended not to lead them into temptation.

For all the monks living in Karuli and in the other 20 monasteries of the Lavra, the main part of the day is spent on prayer. Even when they are working or when they come for lunch or breakfast, all their actions are accompanied by prayers. The duration of the masses is different, sometimes it can last 6 hours, sometimes it takes place at night - it is believed that the stronger the silence, the easier it is to concentrate on the prayer itself.

In the 1970s, the Lykov hermits were discovered in the Sayan taiga, who lived for more than 40 years in complete isolation. Read about how they lived and how their story ended in our article. "Taiga dead end".