Ukrainian Perspective of Mount Athos Presented at Lviv Book Forum

Bohdan Pankevych’s book “Journey to Mount Athos,” published by the publishing house Folio, was presented on September 12 at the Lviv Book Forum. In this book, the author writes about his experience staying in the “monastic republic.” The book will be helpful for those who are preparing to go to Mount Athos. RISU correspondent Marta Plishylo attended the presentation.

The moderator of the meeting was writer Volodymyr Yeshkiliev. He began by saying that the topic of Mount Athos is presented fairly narrowly in Ukraine: “We often accuse the Athonite monks of asceticism. Very few people pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain. This book represents a Ukrainian view of Mount Athos.”

Bohdan Pankevych decided to visit Mount Athos while touring Greece.

“I'm not a churchgoer,” the author said at the presentation, “so I was able to write a book for the 85% of Ukrainians who do not go to church, who do not accept concrete dogmas.”

This was the first aim of the author, which he achieved. The second aim was to show how much of Ukraine is there, as Athos has a Cossack monastery. According to the author, historically it happened that all Ukrainianness of Athos was lost when the monasteries were supported by Orthodox environments – from Serbia and Russia.

“We will wait, who will excommunicate you first: the Vatican or Moscow?” joked Bohdan Pankevych’s friends who read the book.

“I saw that many Greeks believe that one must go to Athos at least once in his lifetime,” the author continues.

Many people in the audience were interested in the question of why the Holy Mountain does not admit women. And the answer to this question can be found in the book. As such, the meeting encouraged the audience to read the book, and the book encourages the readers to take a trip to Mount Athos.

Bohdan Pankevych is a famous Lviv public and political figure, Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Ukraine. The book "Journey to Mount Athos" is a description of his pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain Athos. In the book the author gives his vision of solving eternal interdenominational disputes, problems of the centennial distortion of the dogmas of Christianity and the freedom of their interpretation, and speculates how to convey a deep understanding of the essence of religion to modern man.