At St. Dionysios monastary I also discovered another pilgrim from America named Moses who converted to Orthodox Christianity a few years ago. He is college age (about 21) and came from a regular Sunday Christian family in the Southern US but hungered for something more. He visited several different denominations and found in the Orthodox Church a true light. We sit down together in some shade in the courtyard of the monastary and he tells me the story of St. Nicholas and the Aryan heresy. On of the most popular saints depicted in Iconographic art, and the most famous piece of iconographic art in this monastary is of St. Nicholas, usually shown with an unusually large forehead holding a book against his breast.

Aryus was a popular theologan and religous leader in his day (about 400 AD) who was the proponant of the view that Jesus was born as a man like any other and became God through his own internal development. In an argument of the bishops and leaders from various regions St. Nicholas became enraged with Aryus and punched him in the nose. The rest of the religous leaders at the conference rightly condemmed Nicholas for this act of violence, took away his St. Mary medal (the symbol of his authority) and banished him from the church. That night all the other bishops and leaders had the same dream, of St. Mary visiting them in their sleep and chastizing them for punishing Nicholas saying “it was me who punched Aryus through St. Nicholas, restore him.” Aryus’s view was eventually officially declared a heresy and Aryus died somewhere of an early for of E. coli bacteria (I have no idea how anyone could know this but I did not question the fellow about it).

He went on to recommend I visit two American monks at Karakalou near Philotheu monastary named Father Alexis and Father Barnabbas. He also spoke of another American at Vatopaidi named father michael (who he said is a simple man). He can always use a hand in the kitchen and I could cut onions and chat with him.

It seems that he has a spiritual guide (called “Yerinda” meaning literally “old man”) on Athos and the purpose of his visit here is to speak with him. As a parting gift he teaches me that the central Orthodox mantra is Kiriye Elesion and the longer form of that is “Keriye Isu Christe Eleisson me” both meaning “God forgive me or Jesus, have mercy on me.”

From Moses, I leqrned about the floorplan of the main worship space inside each monastery called “The Catholikon”:

I love the information Moses gave me about how the floorplan of an Orthodox church (Catholikon) represents the original Jewish Synagogue floorplan with everyone getting a “promotion” to sit closer to the holy of holies room at the head of the building through the advent of Christ.

“In Hebraic times (when the Hebrew temple was the true authorized temple of God) only the priests entered the Temple and the Holy of Holies was entered only one time per year by one high priest. When this high priest entered the Holy of Holies he had a rope tied around his ankle and held by the other priests out in the courtyard. In case he was struck dead the other priests could pull out the body without having to go inside themselves and risk a similar fate.. All the congregation or worshippers had to stay in the courtyard. Now all the priests and all baptized Orthodox Christians can worship together in the Temple area.”

He also explained a bit about Iconographic Paintings:

“Icons are not an effort to record a photographic representation of a Saint, they are a window to the afterworld offering a vision to the beleiver. As a window they use reverse perspective that opens out into the frame towards the viewer. The features represent characteristics of the Saint rather than the factual appearance of that Saint. For example:
- Extra large ears: this represents that the Saint listens to God
- A big forehead: knowledge
- A small mouth: silent
- Lots of gold leaf and color used: the uncreated light of the devine?

He recommends three books:
“The Life of Father Seraphim Rose”
“God’s Revelation of the Human Heart”
“Jesus: The Eternal Dao” by Father Damascene