Day 13: Religion

A picture of Barlaam Monastery in Meteora up high on the boulders.

Wow! Today we went to Meteora and probably saw the most beautiful site ever! Meteora means "in mid-air" and that is definitely what all of this looks like. In Meteora there are these huge boulders that reach up to the sky and on the top of them sit three separate monasteries. St. Athanasios (the founder of the first monastery) choose this site for the monastery because it seemed to be the highest place on the earth and looked like the monastery was actually touching heaven. The monasteries are from the 900 AD and are a place for prayer and meditation. (The word "monk" actually means alone).

We visited one of the monasteries and one nunnery. The monastery was named Barlaam and in order to get to it, we had to cross a very narrow bridge that went from one of the rocks to the next. When entering the chapel, you are amazed. The whole thing: walls and ceilings are painted with depictions from the Bible. The walls are black and then covered with lovely designs, pictures, and portraits of saints. It is a visual overload! I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures for you though. I bet if you google the chapel, you will be able to find pictures.

We then went to the nunnery which had two chapels. One of the smaller and older chapels had beautiful designs as well, BUT there were holes all over the pictures of the Virgin, Jesus, and the saints. Our tour guide, Stathis, said this was because when the Turks invaded in 1413 they came in and tried to destroy all the Christian monuments (the Turks were mainly Muslim). I'm so glad so much of it survived, though, because it looks like it would take years to paint all the scenes.

Greeks who are Christian are mainly Greek Orthodox, which is slightly different than Roman Catholic but they are still Catholic. This coming weekend is the Holy Spirit weekend, where everyone celebrates Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit to humanity (Cristina, that's an answer to your question!).

Yaraisel -- I don't think the Greeks would leave for America now a days. The Greeks are very proud of their heritage and love to share their culture with us. They seem very content (at least in the places I have been so far) and don't seem anxious to leave their country.

Cheers!

Ms. G