Monastery and Convent

 Tuesday, September 12, 2023

 

O

ff  we went to the Convent of St. Stephen after the icon workshop trip.  We can only take photos outside of the Meteora Monastery and Convent of Stephen. 

 The monks and nuns are resourceful tending to bee keeping for the paraffin needed to make candles.  They also have icon woodcarving workshops, and wine making.  The locals bring them food and what they need.  They are not cloistered and freely interact with the locals.  They share everything except their private cells or rooms.  They spend most of their day in prayer and participate in many of their workshops for their subsistence.

We entered the Orthodox Church dedicated to St. Haralambos.  At the end of his life he was martyred by skinning him alive.  While tortured, he thanked his tormentors for exchanging his mortal skin for the eternal.

The church at the monastery took 25 years to construct, the icons littered every square inch of space, and the feeling conveyed is one of quiet holiness. 

In the ancient of days, monks climbed their fortress by using connected wooden ladders.  This improved into a gear hoisting them up via big nets and currently, there is a cable system much like zip lines carrying them to the place.  We used the compounded stone walkways to get safely to the monastery.

After visiting the Meteora monastery (Meteora means suspended), we headed off to Kalabaka for a buffet lunch.  Then we headed off to the city of Delphi, a 4 hour trip.  The priest with us, Father Lito proposed praying the Sorrowful Mystery of the Holy Rosary en route to the next destination.

Post-prayer, others spent a quiet time, some hunkered in slumber, and I kept writing this blog until sleep claimed my conscious mind.

“The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Varlaam Monastery

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