Greek Orthodox monk in front of the skulls of monks that lived in his monastery before him (Mount Athos, Greece)

32 comments
  1. I think I’ve been to this particular monastery. I believe it is Xenophontos. Quite haunting.

    I remember being there and having chills go down my spine as a monk read us Ecclesiastes in Greek:

    > 1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

    > 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

    > 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

    > 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

    > 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

    > 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

    > 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

    > 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

    > 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

    > 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

    > 11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

  2. Mount Athos. Is it that place where women or female animals are not allowed to get in? Edit: All female animals with the exception of hens (eggs) and female cats (rodents).

  3. i an electrician used to work at a greek orthodox monastery around here. i was weirdes out by them but they really chill tbh

  4. Soooo….they decapitate their dead monks and then do what exactly to the heads to get the skulls cleanly out?

  5. This is common for some secluded monastries of the orthodox world.Some well known monks or patriarchs get to lie in the courtyard while others get this.
    Far worse than this are the ottoman skull towers that i saw.

  6. Kinda related interesting fact: Jews at the time, including Jesus and many christians long after held the belief that there is no seperation of soul and body. You are completely dead until the day of resurection when your physical body is made alive again and you are judged by god. The belief that the soul is somehow seperate from the body developed later and was inspired by ancient Greek philosophers, whom also gave us our common depiction of Jesus in a white robe and with a beard.

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