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Hilandar to be visited by women soon?

November 11, 2013

A group of female MPs of the European Parliament asked Greece recently to abolish a regulation, according to which women are strictly forbidden to visit the Holy Mountain, its twenty monasteries and 2,500 monks.

The request says that the law “violates gender equality and introduces discrimination against women, which is not consistent with democracy”. At the same time, ads appeared in Serbian media, offering to take women on the “pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain” at the price of EUR 100 – 200. In this way, a question of women going to the Holy Mountain and the monastery of Hilandar was opened, which some of the NGOs in Serbia want to start.

“Ideas of opening the Holy Mountain for women, which occasionally appear, are apparently a part of the frontal attack of the new world order on the Eastern Christianity under the guise of abolishing traditional communities, introducing democracy and developing modern tourist business. This comes from feminist circles in the U.S., and LGBT community, which have unlimited resources and simply destroy the Christian and Orthodox tradition under the excuse of some concern for equality,” said Veljko Djuric Misina, church historian.

It is known that women can not set foot on the Holy Mountain, because the Holy Mother of God forbid it, when she told in 442 the daughter of Theodosius the Great, as she was visiting the monastery of Vatopedi, to step down. Since then, no women have been allowed to walk in the Virgin’s garden.

www.pravoslavie.ru [pravoslavie.ru]

Alice:

Christ is in our midst!!

A sad day to see this type of thing. Is the Holy Mountain under Greek legal jurisdiction? I thought it was somehow quasi-independent. I would think that this is a matter of religious freedom, not something that gives everyone the "right" to enter private property, especially Church property.

It seems to be similar to the Georgian response you posted recently. Do you see the pattern? So why are they targeting the Holy Mountain and Orthodoxy?

There is a recent order just posted online by the European Court of Human Rights against Greece that says that their civil union law is unjust because it does not include same-sex couples and ordering that Greece pay a fine for violating the rights of some same-sex couples who sued. What about national sovereignty and the hallowed virtue of "diversity" that we have heard so much about for the last few decades? Apparently it doesn't extend to anything that the Left doesn't want to allow.

Bob

I'm running for president of this org: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...organization-for-atheist-women-launches/

If they don't elect me, I'm suing.

So do you support Esphigmenou Monastery and their "religious," freedom?

chadrook:

Christ is in our midst!!

The controversies that may be ongoing on the Holy Mountain are not the issue that I am addressing. What I am addressing is the idea that the monks have the right to restrict who is admitted to their territory, nothing more and nothing less.

Did you read the article? The article mentions that there are organizations that are trying to make this holy area a tourist attraction. If that happens, there will be an end to monastic life in that area because the quiet necessary will be destroyed by busloads of tourists.

The bigger picture is the aggressive secular pressure on the remaining Orthodox cultures and land areas. The pressure is simultaneously on Greece, the Holy Mountain, Russia, and Georgia. I'm also sure that the other Orthodox countries in Eastern Europe are also facing the same pressure, but we're just not hearing about it because they are not high profile. They're probably also considered too small and weak to put up resistance.

Western Christianity in Europe has lost its bearings and the only bastion of Christian culture left--it seems to me--to be the counries with Orthodox history and experience. And they seem to be under siege.

Bob

I do agree with you, and I am simply being snarky, as the situation in Europe is vastly complex. However, you have to admit there is some parallels in what the monks of Esphigmenou are seeking and what you are desirous of for the entirety of the Holy Mountain.

I wonder if a more fervent confrontation is needed. It might be beneficial for the Holy Mountain to find itself in stormy seas. Therefore a suitable helmsman could rise and return the Holy Mountain to the safe harbor of Tradition.

So, what say the EP? Is Athos not under his jurisdiction? Have they not been arguing this for some time?

Chad:

The secularists don't give one hoot for the EP or any Orthodox bishop or the Church's doctrine or Tradition or anything else. They're about breaking it all up because it is in the way of their desire to establish a religion-free zone on the territory of Europe.

Think for a minute what would happen if the Holy Mountain was turned into just another tourist destination. Maybe a four-star hotel with a casino, entertainment from around the world, and drunk tourists wandering around the place day and night. How about the same people stealing a keepsake to take home so that the treasures from the monasteries would soon be gone.

This is beyond intramural arguments. This is about will the Orthodox Faith given to us by the Apostles survive. This is about can we believe and teach doctrines that the world is aggressively trying to eradicate.

Bob

That is all well and good but it still does not address my question. What does the EP have to say about it. It is clear what the fathers of the Holy Mountain have to say, but they are under the protection of the EP. I don't see him addressing this issue. That could be because it either really is not an issue or he has yet to react, I don't know.

As for a tourist destination, well I can see that. There is lots of prime real estate that they want. They do not have eyes to see. For the final liturgy will be served on top of the Holy Mountain. With that being said, we do not know the time of his return. I do not doubt the Theotokos, this place will remain in her care until that liturgy. Be it tomorrow, or whenever.

"According to the constitution of Greece,[14] Mount Athos (the "Monastic State of Agion Oros") is, "following ancient privilege", a "a self-governed part of the Greek State, whose sovereignty thereon shall remain intact", and consists of 20 main monasteries which constitute the Holy Community, and the capital town and administrative centre, Karyes, also home to a governor as the representative of the Greek state. The governor is an executive appointee. The status of the Holy Mountain and the jurisdiction of the Agiorite institutions were expressly described and ratified upon admission of Greece to the European Union (then the European Community)."

"Status in the European Union

As part of an EU member state, Mount Athos is part of the European Union and, for the most part, subject to EU law. Whilst outside the EU's Value Added Tax area, Mount Athos is part of the Schengen Area.[23] A declaration attached to Greece's accession treaty to the Schengen Agreement states that Mount Athos' "special status" should be taken into account in the application of the Schengen rules.[24] The monks strongly objected to Greece joining the Schengen Area based on fears that the EU would be able to end the centuries old prohibition on the admittance of women.[25] However the prohibition persists and a special permit is required to enter the peninsula."

www.wikipedia.org [wikipedia.org]

I have no doubt that this is on the minds of some secularists and feminists in the EU, but a cursory search did not find any recent European articles relating to any current dispute about women entering the Mountain. As for development rights, let us pray that the monasteries do not succumb to the temptation of a fast buck by selling off surplus land or anchorages. I fail to see how the EU itself has any say in that regard.

I suspect that for so long as major areas of the EU remain in need of energy imports from the Russian Federation and grain from Ukraine and the German bankers require the acquiescence of Greece's government to preclude further default, preservation of the status quo is in the interest of all.

I suspect the threat gets amped up in certain ultra nationalist circles within Greece and Russia from time to time for their own political purposes.

With all due respect, why would this be a negative legislation? Women ate with Christ at the tables with him.

Dear Benjamin,

As a Greek Orthodox woman, I do NOT want this, for several reasons...

First and foremost, it is the garden of the Most holy Mother of God:


Secondly, as an Orthodox woman, I respect the right to complete holiness, prayer and devotion to God as practiced by the holy monks there, and respect the fact that women, no matter how covered up, might provide a distraction and a sexual temptation for the monks there--one which would take away from their sacred mission which has always been to pray for the world and to seek their personal holiness on earth.

Thirdly, Mt. Athos, as visited by men is a haven of repentence for them and thus, enables them to bond spiritually with each other and the Elders and monks there in a special way without the distraction of their wives or other women.

Finally, it would make this holy sanctuary of age old monasticism and pilgrimage more of a tourist destination.

There are enough Athonite styled Orthodox monasteries throughout the world that welcome women. The Garden of the Panaghia is only for men, as it always has been, and that is how it should be. Not everything in the world has to be turned upside down and inside out---thank God for those institutions which adhere to, and respect traditions as they have been through the ages.

In the meantime, I am content to see videos about the Holy Mountain and stories shared by men who have been there. I am also content that there are holy Elders who have been Athonite monks, but have now been sent into the world to minister their special holiness with women also