Update on the Vaccinations of the Monks on Mount Athos

Below is an update to my last post, due to popular request.

The Pfizer vaccines arrived at the Karyes Health Center on Friday and the vaccinations started immediately, and they should be completed within a week.

The second dose is scheduled for within the first ten days of April.

About 500 people, mostly monks, but also lay people who have been living on Mount Athos for a long time, have received the vaccine so far.

Monks of Mount Athos Begin to be Vaccinated

A Coast Guard boat delivered the first 400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday, March 19, to Mount Athos and vaccinations began immediately.

The vaccination center was set up at the Health Center in Karyes under the supervision of the director, Konstantinos Dokouslis.

The first 36 monks were vaccinated on Friday, as well as employees-collaborators of monasteries, while the vaccinations will continue daily.

The abbot of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou, Archimandrite Bartholomew, was the first to be vaccinated, followed by monks from the Monasteries of Iveron, Koutloumousiou, Simonos Petras, who were there especially for this purpose in Karyes.

The Orthodox Church and Science Today: An Interview With Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (2 of 2)

...continued from part one.

K.H.: So we are to understand, Your Eminence, with what you are telling us that beyond the pandemic, the vaccine, the lockdown, all these situations we live in, there are a number of other issues that have to do with the relationship between theology and science and between the Church and the State.

M.H.: Do you want me to be more raw in how I say it? I don't know if it will provoke. When we say the word "superstition", what do we mean? If you open Babiniotis' dictionary you will see that superstition is the irrational belief in supernatural and mysterious forces that rule the world and affect our lives. This is superstition, where they do not believe in the real God, or that God rules the world, but it is directed by some invisible forces. And this is an expression of religion. Religion, said Father John Romanidis, has the element of mysticism, superstition and magic. Why? Because, when one believes that there are supernatural forces, mysterious, impersonal forces that rule the world and influence people, UFOs and whatever else, then immediately magic follows.

The Orthodox Church and Science Today: An Interview With Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (1 of 2)

 

This was a recorded interview by the journalist Katerina Houzouri with Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos on the issue of Orthodoxy and Science regarding contemporary issues, conducted for the Radio Station of the Church of Greece on 4 January 2021.

 

Katerina Houzouri: We have the special pleasure and honor to host His Eminence the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou Mr. Hierotheos. Your Eminence, we wish you a Happy New Year.

Metropolitan Hierotheos: Good morning to you and the listeners. May you be well, have strength, health and most importantly have inspiration. This is very important because all our saints talk about inspiration. That is, the Christian, as both Saint Porphyrios and Saint Sophronios said, resembles the poet. Just as the poet and the artist is inspired, when he starts in the morning, he is inspired and he begins to create his work, so we must be inspired for God, for life, for love and for God, and so on. It is something I would like to emphasize today at the beginning to the listeners and offer my wish: Let us have spiritual inspiration.