Our Athos Pilgrimage is an opportunity for anyone to visit Mount Athos, and experience the heart of Orthodox spirituality together with a group of like-minded men.
We will immerse ourselves in a landscape and community untouched by modernity. We will meet with and work alongside monks living in the last place in Europe where women have not been allowed for 1000 years. And we will go through the experience as a group of men looking to deepen our experience of life.
This trip is open to men of all ages and backgrounds. We have organised contacts on Mt Athos who will help us with special access to parts of the Holy Mountain not normally accessible. As we will be walking on foot paths to get around, participants should be able to walk at least 10 - 20 km in a day.
Mount Athos is a peninsula in North Eastern Greece, close to Thessaloniki which has been a centre for Christianity since ancient times. According to Church Tradition, The Virgin Mary was forced to anchor at Athos while travelling from Joppa to Cyprus with St John the Theologian. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the mountain's wonderful and wild natural beauty, she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden.
Today, about 2000 monks live on the peninsula in 20 different monasteries. These monasteries preserve a way of life from the ancient world, and a rich treasury, not only of relics, artefacts and ancient building works. Mount Athos is a World Heritage Site.
We will travel independently to Thessaloniki, getting there at the latest on the afternoon of 18th October 2024, and then stay in the town for one day, getting acclimatised to Greek life. Then we will travel to Mount Athos by rental car and ferry. Once arriving on the peninsula, we will walk on mountain paths in order to get from monastery to monastery.
Given that we will be walking, we will also be learning multi-day trekking, confidence and self-reliance. We will provide transport to Athos, the route, visa for the Holy Mountain, monastery bookings and all logistics. You will just need to bring your clothing and personal equipment for trekking.
On the 24th October we will travel back to Thessaloniki and have the last night in town before a farewell breakfast on the 15th together.
For more details, program and pricing check out the practical info page.
