Mount Athos 60 Minutes Presentation

Christmas of 2011 furnished me with an unexpected surprise when 60 Minutes of CBS featured Mount Athos. The first third of the night's show was about the Vatican Library, and the rest was about Mount Athos. I enjoyed it so that I watched it again tonight on the CBS website. Now even if you feel the media is filled with left wing bias you will find this show good. I have provided links here to Part 1 and Part 2 of the show, and the 60 Minutes Overtime featured only on the web.

The last TV crew to be admitted to see the 20 Monasteries was in 1981. They occupy a Greek peninsular that covers 130 square miles. The Orthodox monks allow themselves to eat two meals a day that take exactly 10 minutes each with no meat. They sleep a total of 3 hours a day. They have a doctor if they need one but have very little cancer, heart disease, or alzheimer's.

The prayer on their lips while they work is "Lord Jesus have mercy on me". Every day at 3:00 a.m. Byzantine Time the monks join in 8 hours of communal prayer. The quote that impressed me most is that they strive to "embrace and love death".

Part 1: About a third of the hour.

Part 2: Another third of the hour.

60 Minutes Overtime: Web story of how the behind the scenes story of how the crew dealt with access to the monks and filmed the show.