Given at the The Historical Narrative of the Holy Past: Approaches and Requests conference in February 2024
Excerpt: My topic this evening is women and Mount Athos in the Byzantine period and I emphasize the conjunction and women and Mount Athos, not women on Mount Athos. As most of you are aware it would in fact be impossible for me to talk about women on Athos since for many centuries they have been forbidden to set foot on the Holy Mountain. This is a result of the tradition of avaton (Άβατον) the principle that women are denied access to Athos the practice seems to have been in force since the 9th century when hermits first arrived on the deserted peninsula and began to turn it into a center of Orthodox monasticism.
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Alice-Mary Talbot is the retired director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection and a highly regarded Byzantine scholar.
Women and the Mount Athos in the Byzantine Period
Paper by Alice-Mary Talbot
Given at the The Historical Narrative of the Holy Past: Approaches and Requests conference in February 2024
Excerpt: My topic this evening is women and Mount Athos in the Byzantine period and I emphasize the conjunction and women and Mount Athos, not women on Mount Athos. As most of you are aware it would in fact be impossible for me to talk about women on Athos since for many centuries they have been forbidden to set foot on the Holy Mountain. This is a result of the tradition of avaton (Άβατον) the principle that women are denied access to Athos the practice seems to have been in force since the 9th century when hermits first arrived on the deserted peninsula and began to turn it into a center of Orthodox monasticism.
Alice-Mary Talbot is the retired director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection and a highly regarded Byzantine scholar.
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