Posted on 06/21/2002 9:35:54 AM PDT by dead
President Vladimir Putin of Russia intends to make a retreat to the Orthodox monastic enclave of Mt Athos, in northern Greece, later this year. In doing so, he will be following some illustrious but very disparate forebears: Rasputin, Prince Charles, Edward Lear and innumerable Byzantine ex-emperors.
But not everyone is a convert to the ways of the peninsula enclave. The very principle on which it was founded - all women, and all images of women, are banned - is under challenge for gender discrimination by the European Union.
In the past few years, with EU help, many of the 20-odd monasteries - populated by just over 2000 monks - have been lavishly refurbished. As a result, most of the monasteries now have plumbing, electricity and shiny new balconies.
But with the money come conflicting attitudes. European MPs recently asked how Athos can continue to justify its gender discrimination. Various members of the European Parliament have threatened to take the monks to court unless they abandon their centuries-old strictures. The next few years will show whether the Athonite authorities have the will to hold on to their arrangements.
The Athonite banning of persons and images female was first decided a thousand years ago. Following various mystic visions of the Virgin Mary, the bigwigs of the Byzantine Orthodox Church decided that the burgeoning monastic community on the lush 640-square-kilometre peninsula should be dedicated solely to Mary. And to ensure that she was not outshone by anything else female it was ruled that all rival females should be banished from the peninsula.
From the off, the monks took this ordinance literally. Not only did they banish all the washerwomen and fishwives, they also drove off the female animals: the mares, sows and bitches. Even the hens were shooed away. Eventually, only the female songbirds were allowed, mainly because there was nothing that could be done about them.
And so it remains to this day. Since AD1060 no female traveller or pilgrim has been allowed into Athos. Even the male animals-only policy is still enforced as strictly as possible.
The first thing a visitor to Athos notices is that womanlessness. Daphne, Athos's port, bustles with activity, but it is a strangely sexless, neuter world. The gender imbalance becomes starker when you wander through the minuscule capital of Athos, Karyes. The main street is lined with shops - but what shops! Piles of old bananas sit on dusty icons, rosary bracelets are draped over packets of ancient biscuits.
From Karyes it is a three-hour walk to the monastery of Stavronikita. Here a monk called Hector talks about life without females. "People say it is wrong to banish women," he says, but "we will never change". He half smiles. "When man not see woman, he see inside himself. That is what we are here for, to see inside, and to pray for the world."
The Guardian
And, an orphanage in between the two.
(credit to S.L. Clemmons)
You live on their dime, you end up living by their standards.
Let us all take a moment to thank the Founding Fathers for our Bill of Rights.
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