Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-31

ted etiquette in not first going to
karyes, they would overlook this
| tumbling-block, and entertain us.
! ! Indeed, already servitor had brought
tray with plate of Jam, tpmbler
full of spoons, and little glasses of
mastSeh liqueur. The visitor takes
spoonful of jam from the plate, and
then taking the liqueur, drinks to the
health of the monks pxesent. A mo-
ment later and the servitor appears
with Turkish coffee. At every monas-
tery, at every visit, this ceremony is
repeated, and when it is over conversa-
| tion commences.
! he monks are not very interesting
takers. As they never study, hardly
! ever see even a newspaper, and are
! long since separated from the world,
their stock of ideas is small, and ttey
have little to give forth from their
mental stores. Two human qualities,
/ however, are still strong in them: the
| first is curiosity, shown by all man-
er of strange inquiries about their
visitors and their country. They
wanted 10 know why We came, why We
had been brought in q ship of war,
whether Mr.. Gladstone was likely to
marry the Que IN, and more silly talk
| of the kind. The other salient point
about them was their over weening
opinion of the importance of Mount
Athos, its extraordinary sanctity, and
tue great name and fame which they
! possessed IN all the world. They
! thought hat in religion especially they
! had no equals, and they were very
much sstonished when Mr.. Sampson,
like true missionary, began to ques-
I hi ,.S~ Df ha1 nd 70
preach to them a gospel to which they
were per ect strangers.
For here is large society, or set of
societies altogether devoted to re-
hgion, whose every act, whose every
sight reminds them of holy things, and
yet the whole conception OF godlIness,
/ in our sense, is perfectly absent. For
to them, piety consists in strict ortho-
/ doxy according to the Eastern Church,
from whose tenets not one of them has
the smallest temptation to secede, and
in honorIDg God by perpetual services,
wherein they spend hours of the day
and of the night, but in which deUOtiOn
is not required. They understand no
service of God beyond the respectful
reading ont or singing of endless
! psalms, lessons, and prayers. AT the
great monastery called Lavra, we we're
present on the eve of Palm Sunday, at
a service which lasted from seven in
the evening to nine in the morningi
Many times in the night as l was sleep
less with excitement at all these won
ders, / rose and went into the church,
where i stall had been reserved for me.
1t was brilliantly lighted; the jewelIed
pictures on the screen glittered in
many colors; while the solemn monks,
IN sober black, formed a strange con-
trast in the stalls which surrounded
the little transepts. A crowd of ser
wants silent, vacant, patient faces
filed the west-end; while at a lectern
in the midst, the priests intoned the
one hundred and fifty Psalms of David,
or the whole narrative of the Passion.
Many of the very old monks were
asleep during most of the night; others
were allowed to pass out into the
court, where the full moon was shin
ing upon the countless galleries and
gables, and upon the two giant cy-
presses in the midst, which have stood.
( black as the monks, In this court for
many centuries.
Ii Is the fashion of the Greek Church
not to have more than one service in
any church on any one day, hence also
the fashion of having number of
small churches instead of one great
one. In this Lavra, the largest of the
monasteries, there were over forty of
these chapeIs, dedicated to various
saints, and all claiming sanctity from
the presence of various legs, arms,
tongues and teeth of the holy persons,
whose frail bodies are supposed to re-
tain the virtues of their long departed
,r1N Il
les are fragments of what is called the
True Cross. that is to say the cross
which the Empress Helena, mother of
Constantine, is said to have sought
and found IN the place supposed to be
Golgoths, and which t0aS proved to be
that of our Saviour, among those which
were exhumed, by bringing to life a
dead man laid upOn It'll OF this cross,
considerable portion is supposed to
be preserved IL the various churches
These thing SAVIOR so strongly of sup
erstition, that we imagine ourselves at
Treves or at Naples, where the Holy
Coat, or the blood of S.. Januarius
Iquefied twice a year, isssupposed to
possess miraculous virtues.
The whole series of monasteries on
the west side of the Mount are wild and
miIder stones of the east s,5e Hare "a
a series of Great castles beqinning
with Vatopedi' near the iunct,o9 of the
istbmus. and ending with the maonif;
cent i,avra near the point of the nrom
optorv To this general rule there are
eycentions potsbIy that of the Rnssic,,
Rnssian monastery ON the vest side
where, along with THAT called the
: Serai naar the central Karyes is a
nIantstion of that naonIe who des;re
70 ,7nsb Rnss;an Infnanca in Graak
iords anJ aro therafore raaordod
r;th orast iaaIonsv hv tbs nat;onsIist
nartv on the Mount will NOT snanJ
wor5 mon tb.sa rich ond a,narantIv
modern Establishments which endeav.
ored 10 show their gannine bosn,taIitv
h., ,,,,ttino tba;r ,;s,,ors ~, EIIro,,aa1 >
III With carnats On Ibe 49, Of
Tnro,o"n msnrfsctnra ard bv NO.