Akritohori

After leaving Mt. Athos, we went to the convent at Akritohori, driven by Father Jeremiah, the monk from Texas.  I may have forgotten to mention that women are not allowed on Mt. Athos, but that is the case, so convents have to be founded elsewhere even if they have ties to the monasteries there.  It was, in fact, the abbot of Xenophontos who lead the way in raising funds to found this convent and his monastery provides all sorts of support, including sending priests on the weekends and other times.  (As in Catholicism, women cannot be priests).  The convent is sited on a beautiful site on a mountainside near the border with Bulgaria.  Although monks and priests are not allowed to stay within the convent walls, Frank and I lodged inside in rooms set aside for visiting family members.

This is a panorama taken from the slope above the convent looking down at the great shallow lake in the valley below.  I didn't get a single day of sunny weather to take a better picture.  At the bottom of the panorama, you can see the new church and, to the right, the convent.  I got to go bird watching down at the lake one morning, but that is another story.

The convent itself is built on the usual monastic plan, but is more unified in form and color because it is modern and built all at one time.  If you look very, very closely, you can see the cross of the highest dome of the inner church peaking out above the roof in the center.

Like the monks, the nuns all have jobs, and several of the nuns operate looms.  They primarily make cloth for priestly vestments and other ecclesiastical and monastic needs.  Other nuns do embroidery, icon painting, and many more mundane tasks.

Here is an example of embroidery done using old-fashioned pedal-driven sewing machine and needle and thread.  It is a cover for the elements (bread and wine) during communion.

This is the new church built outside the convent walls.  It is not in regular use, so I am not sure exactly why it was needed, but it is beautiful. As it was done under the direction of the abbot of Xenophontos and was designed by one of its monks, it incorporates stones from that monastery's lands.  Its dedication several years ago was a major event attended by numerous bishops and even the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (the city in Turkey known otherwise as Istanbul).  Frank got invited because of his relationship with Xenophontos and Akritohori and because he was a donor and was in near ecstasy taking pictures at the event.

Frank's donation consisted of about ten of these chandeliers for the common/meeting rooms attached to the new church.