Mount Athos, Greece - Mount Athos is a verdant peninsula in northern Greece and has been the center of Christian Orthodox monastery for more than 1,000 years.

The all-male autonomous community, in Greek as Agion Oros or Holy Mountain, is no stranger to non-Greeks. Among its 20 monasteries, one is Russian, one is Bulgarian, and the other is Serbian, and the existence of monks in other countries is not uncommon.

However, the largest nationality resides in a monastery - Simonos Petra.

Here are the four monks of Simonos Petra and how they think of Mount Athos:

The abbot of Simonos Petra has lived in the monastery since 2000.

On Athos Mountain: "The real Athos Mountain has no spiritual boundaries. It is a place, the center of the Christian monastery. Not only now, but for a long time, it has the name Agion Oros (Holy Mountain).

Indeed, spiritually, we cannot say that it has boundaries. This is proven by centuries of existence, Athos Mountain...has a divine mission to unite people in peaceful coexistence, where there will be true relationships, love and harmonious cooperation between them. ”

Isaiah has lived in Simonos Petra since 2006, reaching there from an affiliated monastery in France as part of his spiritual pursuit.

Regarding the reason to bring him to Mount Athos: “Essentially, it’s an in-depth search of spiritual life, the answer to the meaning of life. I’ve been looking for this since I was a child. Because I was an expatriate Chinese, I left Vietnam, I left Vietnam, I was born as a refugee, and then we were accepted in Switzerland and my family.

In a Swiss environment, I try to understand what I am doing, where I am going, and what the meaning of life is. In the search, I found some answers through virtue, which is related to orthodox faces. ”

Makarios has lived in Simonos Petra since 1979 since the spiritual exploration triggered in Paris in 1968.

Regarding the reason for bringing him to Mount Athos: "Firstly, I was looking for truth. I was a generation in Paris in 1968, and everyone was thinking about revolution, political revolution. With some friends, we felt that the problem of young people at that time was not political, it was spiritual, and our society forgot the meaning of tradition, the holiness of God.

…I found in an intellectual search that, ultimately, realizing, realizing truth is in Christianity, but in the initial Christianity, in the Father of the Church, the apostles are in the apostles. In searching, I found that this is not only a reference, but a nostalgia from the past, and it exists in the Orthodox Church. ”

Serafeim has lived in Simonos Petra since 2010.

About what Mount Athos means to him: “The Holy Mountain is a place where spiritual peace is truly found.

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