The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-05

for ages back, are some thousands of Basil
ian monks of the Greek orthodox church.
The monasteries existed in the ninth
century and are probably much older.
There are twenty of them scattered over
the peninsula; each owns estates on Athos
and in many countries of the Greek faith !;
each governs itself and has share in the
common government of the district. Sub
ordinate to them are other religious
houses, without independent corporate ex-
istence, called Ascerteria, each governed
| by an officer appointed by the monastery
to which it is subject. Besides these there
are countless cells and hermitages, either
grouped around the larger esta blishments
or standing alone in almost every part OF
the mountains.
The Holy Mount is second only to
Jerusalem in the veneration of pilgrims
of the Greek faith. Its isolated position,
made almost inaccessible by the canal
which XerXes cut across the neck of the
peninsula five centuries before our era, has
saved it in great part from invasion and
plundering, so that it is a perfect treasure
house of Byzantine art and antiquities
Some of its buildings are the oldest speci-
mems OF domestic architecture to be found
in Europe outside of Pompeii. The shrines
are adorned with goldsmiths' work of
great antiquity. The libraries are rich
in Illuminated manuscripts; they have
charters and title deeds of early Byzantine
Emperors with the golden seals still at
tached; but they have no chronicles, and
their stores of literary material have never
been carefully investigated. The monks
keep up the traditions of the Byzantine
school of painting; they manufacture the
metal objects used by the Greek church
crosses, censers, lamps, chalices, reliquar-
ies-and carve and inlay i'll wood.
No woman is allowed to set foot on the
mountain. The exclusion of the sex is ex-
tended even to animals, so that milk and
eggs are not to be had on the peninsula I'M
less they are imported. As the sea sur
rounds the mountain, provision is made
for the contingency that q woman is ship
wrecked Then the oldest monk must take
charge of her, and shelter her in a lonely
part of the mountain, apart from the other
inhabitants, and as soon as is humanely
possible, send her by sea to the nearest
port. Nevertheless, the mountain itself is
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, one of the
monasteries has for its patron Saint Anne,
another Saint Laura, and other woman
saints are worshiped in the thousand
churches and chapels that the monks
maintain.
Asceticism of the strictest sort is prac-
ticed by the monks, who are nearly all men
that have lived in the world and grown
weary of it. The novitiate lasts for three
vows of chastity, temperance, piety and
obedience. Except in rare cases, the
greater habit is only given at the hour of
death when the monk solemnly renounces
the world and the things that are therein.
Besides the usual fasts, they observe four
"Lents" in the year; on certain specified
days they eat absolutely nothing; on 159
days in the year they have, only one meal,
consisting of vegetables and bread stepped
in water, as eggs, milk, cheese, wine, fish
and oil are then forbidden; on no day do
they bave more than two meals, and they
never eat flesh.
The usual condiment is oil; the common
food is dried vegetables, salt fish, olives
and black bread. They can drink and two
liquors which they make-raki, kind of
anisette, and mastic. The monks never
sleep more than five or six hours; they go
to bed at or 8 and are up for prayers at 9
in the morning. The offices occupy eight
and ten hours on common days, and some
times sixteen or seventeen hours. In the