Greece, Part 4

From Ancient Delphi, I insisted that we journey into central Greece to an area known as Meteora, where 24 medieval monasteries are located atop these rock formations.  Click on this photo to see Holy Trinity Monastery, way up on the top of that rock in the center of the photo--a place where I made a solitary pilgrimage.

I say that I "insisted" on going to Meteora because no one else in my family was at all interested in Greece's religious sites.  But they did not regret coming to Meteora, where we visited a more touristy monastery together.

Of the 24 original monasteries at Meteora, only 6 remain in use.  I was most interested in the remotest of those 6, a smaller, less popular monastery called 'Agia Triada, or Holy Trinity.  

'Agia Triada called to me because it was accessible by a steep footpath up into the mountains from the town where we were staying.  The path afforded wide views out over the countryside below, and you could even see a few of the other monasteries from some spots.

I also liked the fact that Holy Trinity was less popular than the larger monasteries--which were indeed overrun with tour buses and cars and souvenir vendors.  

After about a mile-long uphill hike through steep, shady forests, the path emerges onto this long walkway carved in stone.  See the town far below.

Upper and upper you go...

After the quick woodland hike, I arrived at the monastery door just before opening time.  I was saddened to learn that photography was not permitted in the holiest and most beautiful parts of the interior--the oratory and the chapel--but this place?  This place did my soul good.

Its quiet, its seclusion, beauty, and peace were all wrapped in smoky incense... If I could carry its mountaintop seclusion and serenity forever in my soul, it still wouldn't be long enough.  

John the Baptist...my favorite saint.  He makes frequent appearances in Greek religious art.

It was not easy to capture the monastery on an iPhone camera, but I don't think any camera would have been up to the task--its terraces and gardens, its chapels and icons, its vistas and cloistered walks.

The guard was very vigilant about preventing visitors from taking photos in the sacred places of the monastery, which I did not attempt to do.  But I did light a candle just outside the chapel to St. John the Baptist.  It was not unlike consulting the Delphic Oracle in my earlier post.

Most of the monastery was off limits.  I wish I'd sat longer in its peaceful chapel, enveloped in incense and surrounded by the faces of angels and saints.

There are three monks left at Holy Trinity.  Can you imagine sharing a place like this with two other people...and a bunch of tourists every day 9:30 to 3:30, Thursdays excepted?

Holy Trinity appeared in the 1981 James Bond film, "For Your Eyes Only."  Now I'll have to watch that movie, which I haven't seen since I was a child and don't much remember.  This may have been my favorite day in Greece.  As much as I loved spending time with my grownup daughters, the solitary mini-pilgrimage to 'Agias Triadas will come back to me again and again.