A QUEEN AMONG THE MONKS.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13649, 14 February 1913, Page 8

A QUEEN AMONG THE MONKS.

Th© Neves Wiener Tagblatt publishes ft telegram from Athens which states tbnt Queen Olga of Greece intends to visit the 21 monasteries on Mount Atflios, thus breaking the rule forbidding a woman to get foot on the holy mountain —a rule which has been observed without a single breach for 1500 years.

Through tho chance* of war the penLnßula of Chalcidioe (which lies to the -south-east of Salonika) haa come into the possession of the. Greek troops and the inhabitants are now Greek subjects. The republic of monks who live on Mount Athos have already distingui&hed themselves by their want of courtesy to crowned heads, excusing their uncouthness by their statutes and by the legend that the Virgin Mary came bearing infant'Jesug in her arms to indicate the site of the monasteries —since when no other woman has been permitted to set foot where she had trodden. ;

Theso argument^ were put forward when the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria wished to visit the monasteries and Bho was not allowed to land, while wife, was refused permission to visit the the monasteries unless he left his wife; was refused permission to visit the monasteries unless he left hia wife behind him.

The announcement that the King and Queen of the Hellenes proposed to visit tho moutain caused a great flutter among the monks, who hurriedly summoned a council and decided that there was no course open to them but to alter their statutes ad welcome, their Queen.