November 29, the Center of Cultural Initiatives of Satka (Chelyabinsk Region) will open the photo exhibition Paths of the Holy Mountain. From Athos to Valaam. The author is Hieromonch Sabbatius of Valaam Monastery (Sevostyanov), who has been living and making photographs in the Holy Mountain for about a year and a half. The event provider in Satka is Sobranie Fund.

The exhibition Paths of the Holy Mountain. From Athos to Valaam is dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the Russian monachism being present in the Athos Holy Mountain and is arranged with the blessing of bishop Pankraty Troitsky, hegumen of the Valaam Transfiguration of the Saviour stauropegic Monastery.

Let us remind you that the year 2016 was declared to be the cross-year of the Russian and Greek cultures. A special attention is given to the Athos Holy Mountain, as monachism is considered to have come to Russia from Athos. 

Photographs presented in the exhibition Paths of the Holy Mountain. From Athos to Valaam are a historic evidence of the spiritual life of two countries, expansion of Christianity and regular clergy, and of how live spiritual tradition is preserved and passed down for generations. 

For Sabbatius (Sevostyanov) this project is both work, obedience and paying the debt of memory to generations of monks of the Athos Holy Mountain. The exhibition presents two outlooks of the photo chronographer: one — to the Valaam Transfiguration of the Saviour Monastery often referred to the Northern Athos, and the second — to life of the Athos Holy Mountain, the world's only orthodox monacal republic with thousand-year history in the north of the Eastern Greece. “Way of life of “Athos monks is enforcement for every heart that hesitates, for every orthodox soul. Athos is a great school, where they learn and not perfidiously live in the God as taught by the New Testament. No doubt, the Holy Mountain remains a piece of Byzantium that connects the past and the future, that lives and breathes until now” — noted by Pravoslavie.ru. — The endless sea, boundless houses, cool springs, steep rocks, picturesque tops and above all of this – the great Athos. And faces of the reverend men of the current generation of Hagiorites; you can surely compare them with flowers of the Divine Garden – the House of the Holy Mother of God that give enjoyment to the eye with their diverse shades.

Place of the exhibition: Chelyabinsk Region, Satka,  Solnechnaya str., 34, Magnezit Museum”. The exhibition will continue until March 1. Admission is free.

Photo by Denis Shakirov.