The Mount Athos monastery of Saint Panteleimon, also known as the “Rossikon,” meaning the “Russian.” Credit: kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
A Russian monk living in the Mount Athos monastic community has been arrested for residing illegally in Greece over the past three years. Authorities say the monk had been staying at the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon, also known as the Russian Monastery of Mount Athos.
He was detained at Thessaloniki airport while attempting to travel to Istanbul with a final destination in Moscow. Airport officials discovered that he lacked valid travel documents proving his legal stay in Greece.
According to police sources, the monk had first entered Greece in early 2022 with a two-month residence permit. When it expired, he obtained a three-day entry permit for Mount Athos but never left. He reportedly remained there for an additional three years.
“I intended to return to my country in 2022, but I couldn’t find a ticket,” he told the court during his statement. “I’ve been living at the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon all these years. I just want to go home now,” he added, claiming he was unaware that he had committed an offense. “I thought I would just pay a fine,” he said.
The Misdemeanor Court of Thessaloniki found him guilty under Greece’s new immigration law, sentencing him to two years in prison and a €5,000 ($5,830) fine, without suspension or conversion to a monetary penalty.
However, under Greek law, the sentence is not enforced if the convicted person voluntarily agrees to return to their country. The monk confirmed in court that he wished to repatriate immediately.
Mount Athos: The monastic community in Greece where time stands still
Mount Athos, referred to in Greek as the “Holy Mountain,” is one of the most important centers of the Christian Orthodox world. Home to twenty monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, it is governed as an autonomous state within the Greek Republic.
The first monks arrived on Mt. Athos in the ninth century. Today, over two thousand monks from Greece and many other countries, including Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, and the United States, live an ascetic life on Athos, isolated from the rest of the world.
There is a prohibition on entry for women, called avaton (Άβατον) in Greek, to make living in celibacy easier for the men who have chosen to do so. A 1903 photograph of a woman on Mount Athos, which was published in a Greek newspaper at that time, still remains a mystery, with some monks claiming that they believe the unknown female on the left was the Virgin Mary herself.
To some outsiders, the simple communal life of the monks may seem archaic, but for the men who have chosen to live there, it is a peaceful and even blissful existence.