2025 - EXALTATION OF THE HONORABLE CROSS - Pilgrimage to Mt.Athos

This blog documents our September 2025 pilgrimage to Mount Athos. Through a blend of personal reflections, borrowed accounts from fellow travellers, and shared photographs, we hope to convey not only the beauty of the Holy Mountain but also the logistical and spiritual realities of the journey.

From a blog of Rdr. Michael at ChinoValleyOrthodox.org:

What is it like to visit Mount Athos? Archimandrite Vasileios of Iveron – [Mount Athos] writes, regarding particular fathers, that “when you are near them, you do not acquire knowledge but rather receive a radiation that judges you and gives you joy, heals and matures you...”

I happened to be reading Fr. Vasileios’s book, The Thunderbolt of Everliving Fire, while on Mount Athos, next to his monastery and while he was in his 40 days of repose. Our bishop offered it to us because of his recent repose. The whole experience with the book and the timing seemed divinely inspired. The quote above is what it feels like to be on Mount Athos! I listened as much as I possibly could from different monks, priests, brothers, etc., and I did learn from them, but what was radically astounding was the way many, if not all of us, experienced this type of radiating grace that Fr Vasileios describes.

Our first monastery on the map was St. Sava’s, Hilandar. In this monastery, not only were there monks praying and what seems like radiating to us, there was the casket of St. Sava’s father, himself, St. Simeon. It was all there! All, meaning, the Spirit, the angels, the saints, the fathers (monks), the brothers, and even the sanctified walls themselves…walls covered with rich iconography going back hundreds and possibly a thousand years. Several of us expressed how we could physically feel it all run through our bodies and souls, like an energy gently resting within us. Ultimately, this, I believe, is the “silence” that many speak about regarding the Holy Mountain. Worldly chaos is banned from the Mountain, just as we are to ban it from our hearts and minds. 

Many other monasteries produced that same kind of energy. It seemed like it did depend on both the place as well as the fathers that greeted and talked to us. This obviously means that not everyone is going to have the same exact experience at the same places, necessarily. If you are close to one particular saint, he may very well be praying and/or guiding you in that monastery due to that being his home. For instance, one of the monasteries that was right on the beach, had a well within the hall. This well was founded by Archangel Michael and Gabriel. Could they have been with us in the pursuit of that well and the drinking of it’s water? Most certainly!  

When Fr Vasileios says, “receive a radiation that judges you and gives you joy, heals and matures you”, I believe it pans out in this way: The holiness of Christ’s incarnation is upon you at that moment. It is sacramental in the sense of God using his creation to heal us, much like he uses in the ecclesial manner (bread, wine, water, etc), but through the everyday nature that those sacraments have a hold of. Mount Athos is such a place. The continuing practice of the Liturgy is affecting everything around it, and you get to run into these “radiative experiences” on probably a daily basis. This is why St. Sava first went to Mount Athos, but then left. He needed to share with his countrymen the grace of Athos for the building of the nation.  

In another monastery that went to two or three times - since we were staying right next door - there was a father that began instruction us about the icons in the nave. This was a type of experiential teaching. For instance, in one case, he had us all walk past an icon of the Theotokos while look at her eyes. The eyes followed us with this reassuring love like no other icon any of us has ever seen…and there were some very experienced Orthodox men in the group. The father then presented some relics to us, and he did not just explain the relic, but gave us a hug afterwards. It was genuine! He knew what we were experiencing in that temple, and he wanted to give us comfort. It was hard hitting. Relics, healing icons, instruction, saints, and angels. It did feel like some judgement, but in a way that was strengthening us.

Many of us wanted to have conversations with the monks on the mountain, but as Americans in a foreign land, this is not easy. A small group of us did run into a type of holy fool who made several comments to us, only for us to later realize that he was directly confronting us on a clairvoyant level. This was humbling not only because we later realized he was speaking about our sin, but also because we were not in tune to him like we really should have been. I think our American spirit/guard against “crazy people” was up.

The Holy Mountain has many monasteries, but it is not just the monasteries, but entire peninsula that is holy. Journeying through the land was a spiritual adventure that was testing all of us. Hustling and planning like men need to hustle and plan…almost like we were a battalion in a war! Physical challenges that were overcome with small miracles, changes in schedule due to vehicle problems, and even feeling let down when trying to visit certain sketes and monks that were not available.The land itself is holy! It was chosen by the Mother of God, herself. We do have documentation on that, btw. A friend and I joked that Mount Athos is like Las Vegas, where people say that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, but what happens in Athos does not stay there, it radiates into the rest of the world! 

Mount Athos is described in many ways by the fathers and saints, but one common theme they probably all have is that Mount Athos anchors the world from drifting into the abyss. If you choose to go, or to send your friend of husband, you must prepare spiritually. It is good to read about the fathers that were there, and to prepare mentally through prayer on how you will handle being away from your comfort zones such as your family and even your conveniences. Not all men are capable of this, and if this is the case, you might want to resolve such a posture, lest you be preoccupied while on the trip and miss much of what is going on around you, both relationally and spiritually. On the other hand, perhaps if you are the type that is does not do well on pilgrimages like this, maybe you should indeed go! It is all a matter of timing and how you believe that you can and are willing to be healed. If you are going to go without willing to experience awkwardness and out-of-comfort-zone experiences, then it is going to be difficult to experience the healing. It is going to be a fight, and you may risk returning home disappointed and/or even embittered. The grace of God is with you in the decision, whichever way you choose!  

Thank you,

Rdr. Michael 

Email from Father Nicholas Carr:

In August, 2025, I received a phone call from Reader Paul Rose about an opportunity to go to Mount Athos in September, just a month away, because one of the pilgrims had cancelled. Having just retired from a career of teaching in June, I was experiencing anxiety and angst, having trouble adjusting, and the timing could not have been more perfect.  From the beginning of this experience - I had a very strong sense that I was meant to go, called to go, and that this call was an invitation from the Holy Theotokos to visit her gardens, to come to Mount Athos.  I knew that the Lord's most pure Mother had invited me and would not take no for an answer, and that a meaningful lesson awaited me there, though I did not know what it was.

I entered into the pilgrimage with fasting and prayer, knowing something wondrous was about to happen.  Of course I was blessed in many ways on this Pilgrimage, visiting holy sites in Thessalonica and on Mount Athos, including the glorious Hilandar Monastery and the fellowship of Father Marco and my fellow pilgrims.  But the central memory for me, the meaningful lesson taught to me, came on the 5th day of our tour.  That day we hiked from the town of Kareyes through beautiful terrain to the Iveron Monastery where we visited the Iveron Icon of the Holy Theotokos.  If you do not know the story of how this Icon  arrived at the Iveron Monastery, I highly recommend you learn this history.  The Holy Icon is located in a chapel easy to reach right after entering the monastery.  We entered that chapel and I was pulled immediately into prayer. I placed a candle and began intercessory prayers for those on my heart.  I venerated the Holy Icon of the Mother of God, and then stood in prayer within the chapel.  As I prayed, my eyes were drawn to the Iconostas, specifically to the Theotokos.  And as I looked, the Icon became something more, for I saw the Holy Mother looking at me, no longer just the materials used such as paint and wood, and I could not fully understand what I saw.  This was the Theotokos after the Holy Dormition, now entered into eternity, enabled to do so by her Son, yet present with me in my temporal moment standing there.  I knew her love and protection and sensed great power beyond my conception, I stood in awe and tears of joy sprang from me. I don't know how long I stood there, only that eventually I was outside the chapel wiping tears away, taking time alone to contemplate what had just happened.

Later that night, Reader Paul and I went to the Vigil at the Protaton Monastery.  Just as I reached the door and was about to enter, a man in white robes quickly took my hands in his, looking deep into my eyes, and said, 'It happened.' with a smiling face of joy.  I was taken aback, and at first did not comprehend what he meant.  I simply took in his visage, and stood there wondering who this was and what he meant and why he was talking to me.  Observing this, he said, 'the Theotokos,' and I gazed into his eyes and the joy I had experienced earlier at the Iveron Chapel returned, and we shared it together for a moment longer.  Then we parted, he was gone and I entered the church, feeling a bit stunned.  Later, I asked Reader Paul if he had observed this, and he said yes, and that he had assumed we were already well acquainted with the way he greeted me.

Now, having returned to California and life here at home, the angst and anxiety I had been experiencing before the pilgrimage has mostly lifted.  More importantly, I know more deeply the love of God, which was expressed to me through His Most Holy Mother on Mount Athos, the Garden of the Holy Theotokos.  I am thankful for her love and compassion, demonstrated to me by her call for me to come to Mount Athos.  I will end with the words of Saint John, Bishop of Euchaita, "With a heart that is humbled, I your servant offer you a hymn of gratitude, O all-holy Virgin, for you freed me from all that was troubling me.  Therefore I salute you and say: Rejoice!  You are the shelter and the helper of people in dire need."

Thank you, Father Nicholas (Carr)