Greece. On Athos there is the smallest international community in the world, a functioning Babel

On Mount Athos, there is a monastery that clings almost impossibly to steep cliffs overlooking the sparkling turquoise Aegean Sea. Perched on jagged granite rock, its walls enclose a diverse Orthodox Christian community. Simonos Petra, also known as Simonopetra—or Simon’s Rock—transcends the national branches of the Christian faith, welcoming monks from all over the world, including converts from nations where Orthodox Christianity is not the dominant religion.

The monastery is one of 20 in the autonomous, all-male monastic community of Mount Athos, known in Greek as Agion Oros, or the Holy Mountain. Women are not allowed anywhere on the site, even as guests or tourists. The northern Greek peninsula is far from hostile to non-Greeks: of the 20 monasteries, one is Russian, one Bulgarian and one Serbian, and the presence of monks from other nations is not uncommon. But Simonos Petra boasts the widest variety of nationalities. It is arguably one of the smallest, if not the smallest, cosmopolitan international communities in the world.

"Spiritually, there are no borders, because the Holy Mountain has an ecumenical nature" that seeks to embrace everyone, Archimandrite Eliseos, abbot of Simonos Petra, tells the Associated Oress news agency. All of this - continues the religious man - is linked to the Byzantine Empire. "Let's say that Byzantium was a Commonwealth, a community... where (different) peoples lived together in the same faith."

The monastery welcomes anyone who wishes to visit, as long as they are male. According to a thousand-year-old tradition, women are banned from the entire peninsula, which is considered the territory of the Virgin Mary. While men of other faiths can spend a few days on Mount Athos as visitors, only Orthodox men can become monks.

Most of the 65 monks of Simonos Petra come from European countries where Orthodoxy is the predominant religion, such as Romania, Serbia, Russia, Moldova, Cyprus and Greece. But there are others from China, Germany, Hungary, the United States, Australia, France, Lebanon and Syria.

Founded in the 13th century by St. Simon the Myrrh-bearing, the seven-story Simonos Petra is considered a bold marvel of Byzantine architecture. Renowned for its ecclesiastical choir, the site has become a symbol of resilience throughout its long history, recovering from three destructive fires—most recently in the late 19th century—to embrace global Orthodoxy.

It was within these walls, almost 20 years ago, that Father Isaiah – who like other monks bears only one name – found the answer to a lifelong spiritual search that had spanned half the world. Born in Vietnam to Chinese parents, the monk, now in his fifties, grew up in Switzerland, where his family had moved when he was a child.

"In this environment, I was trying to understand what I was doing, where I was going, what was the meaning of life," he says in fluent Greek, albeit with a foreign accent. "As I searched, I found some answers through virtue, and this virtue was linked to the image of Orthodoxy."

As he immersed himself in this new faith, he found relationships based on love and a search for God, he said. His search led him to an Orthodox monastery in France affiliated with Simonos Petra. This, in turn, led him to Mount Athos in 2006.

Inside the monastery, he found a brotherhood of monks from 14 countries. He decided to stay. "We come together with some principles, which are those of love for others and love for God," Isaiah said. In the human and spiritual bonds he experienced in Simonos Petras, "I found a profound answer to everything I was looking for in my youth."

Life in the monastery – and on Mount Athos – has changed little in the more than 1,000 years of religious presence. Days begin well before dawn and are marked by religious services followed by daily activities, which may include farming, carpentry, winemaking, cooking, art, church work, and ecclesiastical work.

Nestled among forested slopes, nearly every inch of Simonos Petra’s land is cultivated, with monks tending to herbs, fruits and vegetables used in the monastery’s kitchen. Electricity comes from sustainable sources such as solar panels.

Father Serafeim, a Lebanese-Syrian who has lived at the monastery since 2010, said Eliseos and his predecessor as abbot, Elder Emilianos, had always welcomed foreigners.

“You don’t feel like a stranger, you feel like an equal member of the brotherhood from the very beginning,” said Serafeim, who joined the monastic community seven years after arriving in Greece to study theology in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

One of the oldest non-Greek monks in the monastery is Father Makarios. The spiritual quest of this religious man of French origin began in May 1968, when as a young man he experienced first-hand the social upheaval sparked by student demonstrations in Paris. He first came to Mount Athos in 1975.

"I found this monastery and a warm welcome," he says. "I found people who understood me and accepted me. They didn't judge me. It was very easy for me to decide that eventually, after I finished my studies, I would come back here to see if I could become a monk."

Having converted here from Catholicism, Makarios is now the monastery's librarian. He has lived in Simonos Petra for 46 years.

Aate Eliseos emphasizes that his monastery is open to all visitors.

"We say we are open to people with love," he says. "If someone comes and wants to visit Mount Athos, they visit. They want to learn more? We say, 'Let's discuss it, with your will.' What does he want? Does he want to participate in this life, does he want to enter into our spirit, embrace our values ​​and our faith? We will accept him. We will not discriminate."