Cenobites & Idiorrhythmics

For more than 1,000 years, bearded, black-robed Greek Orthodox monks have lived in theocratic communities on that marble crag, Mount Athos, which rises 6,000 ft. out of the Aegean Sea. Accessible to male visitors, the monks are used to being asked: "What is the purpose of your life?" They invariably reply: "What is the purpose of your life outside?" Few years ago Mount Athos had a visitor who did more than ask about purposes. A Dartmouth sociologist named Michael Choukas, he viewed the "holy mountain" as a medieval hangover, a laboratory for pure sociological research. He lived among the monks, studied their life, wrote a book. Black Angels of Athos, which was lately published.*

In the mountain's 20 monastic communities live some 5,000 monks. That they may not be led into temptation, not only are women banned but also beardless boys (under 18) and female animals whose matings might "furnish an outlandish spectacle to souls which . . . are daily being purified." Spiritually preoccupied with an attainable Heaven, an avoidable Hell, the Athonites do not always succeed in resisting the prickings of the flesh. Investigator Choukas found overwhelming evidence for the stories he had heard about the perverted tastes of these black-bonneted men of God. Nor was he pleased to find that as regards their bodies, their linen, their tableware, the monks subscribed to an ancient aphorism: ''Who is once washed in Christ needs not to wash again." Author Choukas learned it was better to drink Mount Athos wine than Mount Athos water, which brings on an abdominal bloat. Medical care on the holy mountain turned out to consist mainly of the use of relics and rat oil.* Eleven of the Athonite monasteries are cenobitic, holding to the strict monastic ideals of early Christendom. The rest are idiorrhythmic--liberal, individualistic and permitting their inmates to own property during their lifetime. All were once wealthy and politically powerful, drawing revenue throughout the Balkans and from Russia which furnished many a neophyte monk. Still autonomous under the Greek Republic, the monasteries own and run the whole mount. But their influence, thinks Author Choukas, is on the wane and their eventual disappearance as religious centres likely. Chief reason: Mount Athos no longer attracts young men to replace old ones.

A little-known fact about the holy mountain is that, besides housing many another Christian relic, its monasteries contain more pieces of the True Cross than any other single locality. The Cross has been calculated to have measured 178,000,000 cubic millimetres. Of 3,942,000 c. mm. extant, Mount Athos has pieces aggregating 878,360 c. mm., Rome 537,587 c. mm.

*Stephen Daye Press, $3.

*Oil in which a newborn rat has been steeped.

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