Page 101 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(2) (2024)

tradition of Byzantine art was purportedly pre- itants. He recounts an encounter with a kind
served, thus highlighting the rarity and exclusiv- monk who aided him and his companions on
ity of this experience. This idea seemed to ger- the peninsula, illustrating the profound con-
minate in the 19th century, which wandered nection between the natural environment and
throughout the 20th century and truly char- its monastic residents: ‘The good monk preced-
acterizes the essence of travel stories to Mount ed us. He would nimbly lift his dress to cross a
Athos. Father Neyrat, in 1884, spoke of it as fol- ditch or tumble down an embankment and ad-
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lows: ‘I wanted to see in my turn this region that vise us on the best passages’ (Régner 1913, 297).
only a few privileged people had been able to This deep-seated harmony (Zaïtsev 2017,
58
contemplate; these churches where, it was said, 22) between humanity and nature emerges as a
the tradition of the purest Byzantine art was recurrent theme in viaticum accounts, with no-
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preserved’ (Neyrat 1884, 3). This image of rar- table exceptions in Maryse Choisy’s controver-
ity, the notion of a closed community of purity sial 1929 (reprinted in 1931) work Un mois chez les 101
(‘In fact, it is not very easy for a Frenchman to hommes. Additionally, François Augiéras, in his
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approach this remote country…’ (Neyrat 1884, Letters from Mount Athos, provides a more crit-
2)), is the basis of a viaticum narrative that fos- ical perspective on the monks. However, he ac-
ters a vision of timeless otherness, interweav- knowledges their sense of community and shar-
ing landscapes, architecture, and individuals ing, as evidenced by a monk who offered him the
who embody an anachronistic past. The Rus- last remaining piece of bread.
sian Viscount De Vogüé’s 1876 account, subti- The vision of the territory encompassed by
tled ‘A Journey to the Twelfth Century,’ exem- this republic of monks can be succinctly articu-
plifies this sentiment. The enduring enthusiasm lated through the insightful observations of Bo-
for De Vogüé’s work, which reached its fourth ris Zaïtsev, who encapsulated the multifaceted
edition in 1894, serves as an invitation for read- experiences of the traveller in 1927 in a man-
ers to embark on a true epic of pilgrimage, as the ner that remains relevant to contemporary vis-
author himself asserted: ‘Here we are in the mid- itors. Zaïtsev’s description evokes a rich tapes-
dle of the marvelous and, as we were promised, try of natural and spiritual elements that define
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in the middle of the Middle Ages’ (De Vogüé Mount Athos (Zaïtsev 2017, 24): Perceptions of a ‘Journey to the Past’ in Some Viatical Stories at Mount Athos
1894, 260). Mountains, winds, forests, here and there
The themes of lost paradise and preserving vineyards and olive trees, isolated monas-
the past through the sustainability of monaster- teries with their monks, the solitary ringing
ies serve as fundamental drivers in portraying of bells, cuckoos in the woods, eagles above
otherness. Henri de Régner (1864–1936), writing the peaks, flights of swallows making a stop
in the early 20th century, describes ‘the trans- on their road to the north, chamois and wild
parency’ and ‘the delicious purity’ of the ‘water boars, silence, peace, sea around... and above
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of the little bay’ (Régner 1913, 292). For Régner, everything: God - that is what Athos is.
this paradisiacal beauty appears not only trans-
missible but also harmonious with its inhab- Summary
53 ‘Je désirais voir à mon tour cette région que quelques priv- As travellers to Mount Athos have over the centuries ex-
ilégiés seuls avaient pu contempler; ces églises où, disait-on,
était conservée la tradition de l’art byzantin le plus pur.’ perienced a ‘journey into the past’ by staying in the mon-
54 ‘De fait, il n’est pas très aisé à un Français d’aborder en ce 57 ‘ Le bon moine nous précédait. Il relevait lestement sa robe
pays reculé…’ pour enjamber un fossé ou dégringoler un talus et il nous
55 ‘Nous voici en plein merveilleux et, comme on nous l’avait conseillait les meilleurs passages.’
promis, en plein moyen âge’ 58 The Russian traveller Boris Zaitsev said in 1927 that he im-
56 ‘la transparence’ et de ‘la pureté délicieuse’ de ‘l’eau de la mediately felt that ‘in this new world, everything is mar-
petite baie’ vellous.’