AMORGOS – For greater than 50 years, Spyridon Denaxas has prayed, labored and welcomed the devoted in an island monastery carved right into a seaside cliff that’s little modified since its founding greater than a millennium in the past.
Greece has rapidly secularized alongside the remainder of Europe, and different Aegean islands like nearby Santorini are wrestling with the large progress of tourism targeted way more on seashores than church buildings.
However just a few Orthodox Christian monks stay icons of native life — a lot in order that when the latest weekslong swarm of near-constant earthquakes caught Father Spyridon, as he is affectionately recognized, away for a medical emergency, all he may take into consideration was making his manner again to Amorgos.
“I needed to be right here with my neighborhood, really feel their feelings, as a result of I’m accountable. God put me right here to look after them,” he advised The Related Press in Greek at Panagia Hozoviotissa monastery, the place he mentioned not even a rock fell through the tremors.
Throughout that temporary absence, in addition to his longest ever final yr — when he spent practically 5 months on the mainland for surgical procedures — the entire island, atheists included, was abuzz with hypothesis as to when he may return.
“He’s a part of the island,” mentioned Mina Mavrou the week that Spyridon was lastly scheduled to return by way of the practically eight-hour ferry journey from Athens.
Orthodox monk welcomes the world to island monastery
Settled again at his whitewashed monastery perched between sky and sea, the monk was elated.
“I really feel non secular euphoria having met the individuals of the village once more, those that have been looking for me and missed me,” he mentioned. “I’m overjoyed with the monastic life and my return to my pure surroundings.”
Custom holds that Byzantine monks fleeing persecution within the Center East within the ninth century sailed to this mountainous island with an icon of the Virgin Mary. They have been constructing a shelter in a cave when falling rocks revealed a chisel hanging farther up the cliffside.
Taking it as an indication, they spent the subsequent a long time setting up the monastery greater than 150 meters (500 ft) above the ocean, the place each the icon and the chisel are nonetheless on view within the small chapel that anchors the advanced.
Spyridon, who was born on Amorgos, joined the monastery straight out of highschool in 1971, when he was 18. He’s now certainly one of solely two monks there, plus an assistant, 35-year-old Constantin Papakonstantinou, who hopes at some point to hitch them. For now, he tells guests the monastery’s historical past within the varied languages he discovered throughout a earlier profession in style.
Seated on the chapel’s entrance, Spyridon welcomes pilgrims with a smile.
Many are nonetheless puffing after climbing up 300 meters (nearly 1,000 ft) of stepstones from a parking zone, squeezing by the tiny entrance door, and climbing once more a slender staircase to the darkish chapel. There, they pay homage to the icon earlier than getting into the blinding sunshine of the terrace.
The gorgeous views of the ocean shimmering far under are a serious draw for vacationers, too, coming from close by, typically overrun destinations in the Cyclades islands.
Whether or not they’re on a quest to nourish their non secular life or their Instagram feed, Spyridon is raring to welcome all guests, providing chilly water, sweets and photographs of do-it-yourself honey-flavored raki liqueur.
“The Virgin Mary extends her hand and pours therapeutic balm into the souls of all individuals,” he mentioned. “That is an ecumenical monastery, open to the entire world. … Everybody receives one thing from her grace.”
Island life continues to revolve round beloved monastery
Panagia Hozoviotissa, whose picture is on the duvet of the present Lonely Planet Greece information, is way from the one home of worship in Europe that’s also a tourist attraction.
However Amorgos’ monastery serves one other perform too — an important reference level for locals, who search the monks’ assist, each materials and non secular, as Jap Christians have for practically 2,000 years.
“Individuals would go search them out within the desert or caves for knowledge, develop into connected to them as non secular guides,” mentioned Ed Siecienski, a Stockton College faith professor. “There’s a sense of the monks on the market as super-Christian.”
Even when Spyridon was away for knee and dental surgical procedures, islanders like Mavrou known as him typically to ask about his restoration and obtain his blessing, she mentioned.
In contrast to Orthodox parish clergymen, who typically are married, monks stay celibate — a choice that Spyridon contemplated as a teen. He has no regrets, he mentioned, viewing his flock as his household.
“Their kids could be my kids. I might rejoice with everybody, mourn with everybody, and be with them in keeping with their circumstances,” he mentioned.
On “identify day” when individuals rejoice their namesake saints — in conventional Greek tradition an even bigger feast than birthdays — Spyridon calls with congratulations. If it’s a well-liked identify like Vangelis, celebrated in late March, he makes dozens of calls, beginning earlier than daybreak to catch these in Australia or the Americas.
He typically visits in particular person, making his manner with a gnarled stick with distant chapels within the rock-strewn hillsides and the villages scattered round Amorgos.
After he stopped at a espresso store just lately, the proprietor mentioned he has three images on show — portraying his mom, his father and the monastery.
“I need a {photograph} of Father Spyridon to position subsequent to my father. As a result of I really like him deeply,” Nikolaos Economides mentioned.
Days of labor and prayer beginning effectively earlier than daybreak
Monks’ days are typically anchored in busy schedules of worship and work, for the reason that monasteries have to support themselves.
“There is no such thing as a time for boredom. Nor for melancholy,” Spyridon mentioned. He rises each day at 3 a.m. for the primary prayer service and doesn’t fall asleep till after 9 p.m.
Michalis Giannakos left Amorgos after highschool 20 years in the past, however remembers visiting the monastery as a toddler and seeing Spyridon hurrying up and down its rocky slopes, tending to animals just like the monastery’s donkey and greeting pilgrims.
“Spyridon was there taking good care of individuals, ensuring individuals visiting have been completely happy,” Giannakos mentioned whereas vacationing on Amorgos.
Whereas many city Greeks are distanced from and even hostile to the church, “for smaller locations, it’s nonetheless vital. It’s not simply concerning the religion and faith,” he added.
That’s as a result of on an island like Amorgos — inhabitants 2,000, divided amongst a important mountaintop village and smaller hamlets — clergy may be known as upon to handle conflicts and supply recommendation.
The monastery gave a few of its land to construct a college, Giannakos recalled, and hosts a lot of the inhabitants throughout its feast days in November.
“Spyridon provides lots to individuals,” mentioned Cristina Astrecha, who teaches faith in Amorgos’ college. “That’s spirituality, you may see it from the acts of an individual.”
A spirituality that takes in everybody — and creation
For Spyridon, spirituality is all-encompassing.
“God positioned man in paradise to have a tendency it and work for it. You understand how vital nature is — the ocean, the mountains, the valleys, and the plains,” he mentioned. “They’re meant for human use, however we should respect, protect and defend them.”
That’s the reason he’s so content material to stay right here, taking good care of his “personal courtyard” whereas providing phrases and prayers to anybody who may want them.
“It’s in my DNA, intertwined with the monastery and its existence,” he mentioned.
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AP photographer Petros Giannakouris in Amorgos contributed to this report.
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