Completing the Circle, A Journey To Esphigmenou
Nigel Fox and His Wife Elizabeth’s cousin Emmanuel visit the Holy Mountain
When Emmanuel, Elizabeth’s cousin and I arrived at Esphigmenou, to seek out her brother who had become a monk, it was nearly eight-thirty and almost completely dark, and I immediately noticed, standing on the small pier, a short, slender monk nearly fifty with a full greying beard and long hair tied behind his back. He carried a small oil lamp in his left hand and his right hand he seemed to be counting prayers on a long-knotted rope which hung halfway between his waist and feet. The captain of our little boat waved to him, and he waved back to us, and for a moment, a large gold cross which dangled from his neck, brightly flickered from the reflected light of the lamp. Our driver turned off the motor and began to row the last few yards into the dock.
“Kali Nichta,” the driver greeted the hieromonk once he had docked. He kissed the monk’s right hand, and the monk blessed him.
Then Emmanuel and I followed suit.
I felt awkward. When I raised my head after the blessing, I looked into his eyes, and it felt as if they were piercing through me and exposing my innermost thoughts. But he said nothing except a short sentence to Emmanuel in Greek, and then he gestured for us…
