Photograph by H. G. D wight 



the refectory oe vatopethi : MT, ATHOS, GREECE 



The story of the founding of Vatopethi is to the effect that on a voyage from Rome to 

 Constantinople the imperial trireme, having Arcadius, son of Theodosius, aboard, was caught 

 in a storm, in which Arcadius fell into the sea. The next day the trireme made the bay of 

 Vatopethi, and there the boy was found asleep under the trees. Vatopethi was built by 

 Theodosius as a thank offering for his son's rescue. 



MUCH LIBERTY PERMITTED 



For the rest, the ascetic life did not 

 strike us as being too severe at Vato- 

 pethi. The Eastern church contains no 

 such variety of religious orders as the 

 Western, all Greek monks following the 

 canon of St. Basil. They have a choice 

 of two forms of government, however, 

 the cenobite and the idiorrhythmic (each 

 member permitted to regulate his own 

 manner of life). Alt. Athos is almost 

 equally divided between the two. and 

 Vatopethi is one of the second. There is 

 no abbot, the government being in the 

 hands of two or three epitropi, annually 

 elected by the council of elders. The 

 goods of the monastery are owned in 

 common by the brothers, who live sepa- 

 rately, according to their tastes or means, 

 and are allowed considerable latitude in 



their religious observances. The ceno- 

 bite monasteries, on the other hand, are 

 governed by a hegumen elected for life, 

 who controls the policy and property of 

 the brothers. They occupy uniform cells, 

 take their meals in refectory, are disci- 

 plined for not attending offices, and other- 

 wise follow a more rigorous regime. 



We took early occasion to pay our re- 

 spects to the epitropi, being received by 

 those grave and reverend signors with 

 some state and asked questions not a 

 few. They were kind enough to express 

 the honor they felt in entertaining learned 

 strangers, telling us that they had lately 

 received with pleasure the visit of two 

 hundred French lords, who had stopped 

 at Vatopethi in a white ship of their own. 



When we said that six hundred Amer- 

 ican lords had recentlv visited Constan- 



262 



