On the History of the Monastic Movement for the Paternal Calendar on Mount Athos

Abstract

The article analyzes events from the history of the Orthodox Church of the last century, which were caused by calendar transformations in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which led to active apologetic activity in defense of the Julian (“Old”, “Paternal”) calendar by representatives of one of the most important centers of world Orthodoxy - Holy Mount Athos. This movement found wide support among the laity and clergy of the Greek Church, and subsequently caused a wide public outcry throughout the Orthodox world. However, there were many who reacted indifferently to the event, or even supported it at all. The attitude to the calendar reform was also ambiguous within the monastic circles of Mount Athos, one part of which reacted sharply negatively to this innovation, the other took a moderate position. This publication is dedicated to this little-covered episode in the history of the Church. The article shows the significant influence that Athos monasticism had on the course of events caused by the calendar reform. The history of the Orthodox Church in the XX century is filled with many dramatic events, one of which is the church calendar reform, which began in 1924 and led to a split within the Church. The confrontation between reformers and traditionalists within the Orthodox Church first manifested itself acutely in the first half of the XX century. The prerequisites for this were indicated even earlier. Eventually after all the events. Two trends have emerged in connection with innovations in world Orthodoxy, one of which expresses itself in an effort to defend traditional spiritual values, on which Orthodox Teaching is actually based, the second is to introduce novelty, to go for reforms, to harmonize the Teaching of the Church with the spirit of the times.