Mount Athos, Greece

Mount Athos, Greece

Mount Athos, or the "Vatican of the East," has been a center of religious and monastic life since 1000 C E. Through the devotion of the various monastic communities and the publication of the manual "The Painter's Book of Mount Athos," the traditional way of painting icons has been preserved.

The following is a music sample from Psalterion Terpnon (a transliteration from the Greek title) sung by monks from the Simon Petras monastery in Mount Athos.

Click below to hear Greek Psalm 94

greekchant (1MB)

Many of the icons of St. Demetrios' Cathedral and St. Irene's Chrysovalantou were made by monks from Mount Athos. The following is a prayer from which is recited before a monk takes on the task of creating an icon.

O Divine Lord of all that exists,
thou hast illumined the Apostle and Evangelist Luke
with thy Holy Spirit,
thereby enabling him to represent thy most Holy Mother, the Theotokos
the one who thee in her arms and said:
"The grace of him who has been born of me
is spread throughout the world."

Enlighten and direct my soul, my heart and my spirit,
Guide the hands of thine unworthy servant
so that I may worthily and perfectly portray thine icon,
that of thy Mother and all the saints,
for the glory, joy and adornment of thy Holy Church.

Forgive my sins
and the sins of those who will venerate these icons
and who, kneeling devoutly before them,
give homage to those present,
Protect them from all evil"
and instuct them with good counsel.

This I ask,
throught the intercessions of thy most Holy Mother,
the Apostle Luke
and all the saints.
Amen

-by Gennadios Limouris
from Icons: Windows on Eternity, ed. Gennadios Limouris (1990)