Mount Athos: The Highest Place on Earth

Mount Athos, or the Holy Mountain. Its name contains two words: the word mountain-something you can climb with your feet, and the word holy- which you may 'ascend' through your prayer. Every hermitage is like a deep well. What exactly is an ascetic and what on earth is asceticism, or monasticism, for that matter? What does a saint look like and what does he do and say? Can the human person go beyond what is humanly possible? Can the irrationality or the non-reason of the fool be greater and more rational than human reason?