A Contemporary Greek Nunnery As a Pilgrimage Site
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Pilgrimage as a Lifestyle A Contemporary Greek Nunnery as a Pilgrimage Site Mari-Johanna Rahkala, M.Th. Study of Religions Faculty of Theology University of Helsinki Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XII, on the 11th of August, 2010 at 12 o’clock. Copyright © Mari-Johanna Rahkala ISBN 978-952-92-7544-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-6373-2 (PDF) http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Cover image: A church in Plaka, Athens. Photo by Mari-Johanna Rahkala (The image is not related to the convent of the Dormition of the Virgin) 2 Table of contents: Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................5 A note on transliteration and interview quotations................................................................ 7 I Introduction: Studying pilgrimage in a Greek convent...........................................9 Why study contemporary Greek female monasticism? .................................................. 11 Earlier studies on Greek monasticism.............................................................................. 15 The aim and scope of the study........................................................................................ 22 The research data............................................................................................................... 27 Fieldwork: interviews and observation............................................................................ 30 The analysis process.......................................................................................................... 33 The revival of monasticism............................................................................................... 35 Numbers of nuns, monks, and pilgrims ........................................................................... 40 The convent of the Dormition of the Virgin.................................................................... 41 II Locating oneself in the field ..................................................................................... 44 Not a Greek, not an Orthodox, but at least a Christian ................................................... 45 Cultural prejudices ............................................................................................................ 50 A woman in a female convent .......................................................................................... 52 Monastic life as a research topic, and the challenges...................................................... 54 Am I a pilgrim? ................................................................................................................. 56 III A sacred journey versus “proskínima”................................................................ 58 A visit to a convent with the Koumanídis family...................................................... 59 Pilgrimage - Proskínima ................................................................................................... 61 Interpreting the pilgrimage process.................................................................................. 69 Conflicting ideas or ideas in common?............................................................................ 74 Back to the convent........................................................................................................... 78 The profile of the pilgrims - different groups of visitors in the convent............... 81 A typical pilgrim................................................................................................................ 82 Pilgrims’ time and space................................................................................................... 83 Friends, relatives, workers and tourists............................................................................ 85 Behavior and customs................................................................................................... 88 Popular piety: festivals, icons, relics, and votive offerings ............................................ 90 Food and coffee ................................................................................................................. 93 Gifts and donations............................................................................................................ 94 The Divine Liturgy............................................................................................................ 95 Interaction or prayer? ........................................................................................................ 96 Pilgrimage and gender................................................................................................ 101 The Role of gender in the convent and in Greece ......................................................... 103 Orthodoxy and Greek feminism..................................................................................... 108 The Mother of God.......................................................................................................... 112 3 IV Pilgrimage and the functions of the convent ..................................................... 114 The transcendent function of the convent...................................................................... 123 Distinctive spiritual personalities at the convent of the Dormition.............................. 125 The convent as a place in which to remember the past................................................. 129 The Church in crisis and the loss of memory ................................................................ 131 V Pilgrimage and reflections on broader social processes .................................... 135 Secularization and the development of pilgrimage....................................................... 135 Flexibility and a sense of understanding........................................................................ 146 Pilgrimage and national identity............................................................................... 148 The potential guardians of Hellenism ............................................................................ 151 The convent as an ideal Greek microcosm .................................................................... 156 The future......................................................................................................................... 160 VI Summary ................................................................................................................. 163 Appendix 1. Interview questions and themes................................................................ 169 Appendix 2. Glossary...................................................................................................... 172 Appendix 3. Interview synopses..................................................................................... 177 Appendix 4. Picture 1. Map of Greece and some monasteries and convents.............. 182 Appendix 5. An example of the daily routine of the convent of the Dormition of the Virgin: .............................................................................................................................. 183 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................ 184 SOURCES..................................................................................................................... 184 LITERATURE............................................................................................................. 186 4 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like thank warmly the following foundations and institutes, which have contributed to this research financially and made this thesis possible: The Finnish Graduate School of Theology, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, the Otto A. Malm Foundation, the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO), the Church Research Institute, Finnish Institute at Athens, the Synod of the Finnish Orthodox Church, the University of Helsinki Funds and the Confederation of Finnish-Greek Associations. The Finnish Graduate School of Theology was one of the key financiers. I appreciate not only the financial support but also the many valuable researcher meetings that the School and its head Professor Eila Helander organized over the years. I am deeply indebted to my pre-examiners, Professor Emerita Alice-Mary Talbot (Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, USA) and Docent and University Lecturer Teuvo Laitila (University of Joensuu, University of Helsinki, University of Turku) for their useful observations and proposals for improvement concerning my PhD manuscript. I am deeply grateful to Professor René Gothóni. It was Professor Gothóni who first said to me that the contemporary Greek convents were a lacuna that should be covered. He has always been most encouraging and helpful. I am also grateful to Professor Tuula Sakaranaho: she is truly a Magister Bonus, and actually the person who first made me interested in the Study of Religions. I would also like to give my warm thanks to Professor Emeritus Juha Pentikäinen. Several people in our department made my research work (and life) much easier than it could have been. I wish to thank the staff of the Study of Religions