Here is another group of pictures graciously shared by a friend who recently visited Mt Athos, this time from a monastery called the Skete of St Andrew, about a kilometer from the administrative center at Karyes, in the center of the peninsula. “Skete” is a Greek word of uncertain origin which means a monastery which is dependent on another; there are twelve such on Athos. That of St Andrew is actually the largest monastery on the peninsula, but it is not part of the hierarchy of twenty major monasteries, which includes only the ancient ones founded in the Byzantine period.
It was originally a small house dedicated to St Anthony the Abbot, founded in the 15th century after the fall of Constantinople, dependent on the Vatopedion monastery, then rebuilt in the mid-18th century and jointly dedicated to St Andrew. In 1841, Vatopedion gave it to Russian monks; under the patronage of Tsar Nicholas I, it was massively rebuilt, and the community grew to over 700. In the early 20th century, it became the center of a very peculiar heresy founded by one of its monks, known as the
Imiaslavie doctrine, the belief that the name of God is God Himself. After this heresy was condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church, the community was violently dispersed by the Russian Imperial Navy; four monks were killed, and many others injured. After a long period of decline and abandonment, it was repopulated by Greeks at the beginning of this century. The monastery possesses the relic of the skull of St Andrew which was returned to the Orthodox Church from the Vatican in 1966.
The entrance to the monastic complex.
Frescos of the titular Saint, Andrew the Apostle, known as the First-Called in the Byzantine tradition...
and another of St Anthony the Abbot, called Anthony the Great in the East, the original titular Saint.
The architecture of the church shows the very strong influence of the Italian architects who flooded into Russia in the 18th century, the period of Tsar Peter I’s Westernization program.
Interior views of the church.
