An exhibit "Mount Athos the Ark of Orthodoxy" prepared by the Mount Athos Foundation of America and the Mount Athos Center of Thessaloniki  will be on display at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 4900 Mooretown Road, Williamsburg, Virginia from March 3, 2024 until April 30.  The exhibit features one panel for each of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain plus additional panels depicting life on the Holy Mountain.  Additionally the exhibit narrates the Holy Mountain's history, institutions, art, architecture, natural environment and spiritual life.

 

The Exhibition will open with a Blessing Service on Sunday March 3rd at the conclusion of the 10 am Divine Liturgy. The exhibition’s panels and accompanying book feature dramatic photography taken at each of the monasteries, and narratives explaining their vast and impressive histories. Monasteries such as Great Lavra, Vatopedi, Iveron, Zographou, Xenophontos, and Esphigmenou have histories dating back over 1,000 years.

 

Spiritually, Mount Athos is a community of men dedicated to the uninterrupted worship of God through ascetical practice, where the daily spiritual and material life of the monks unfolds with the liturgical life at its epicenter. Writers from Byzantine times to today have praised both the natural beauty of the location and the virtuous life of the ascetics, viewing it as the ideal place for asceticism, as an ideal realm of God on Earth.

 

The exhibit is located in the Williamsburg Hellenic Center adjacent to St Demetrios and is open to the public from March 3rd to April 30th as follows:

Sundays from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm 

Wednesdays from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm 

Fridays from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm

or by appointment: churchoffice@stdemva.com