TABOR - Tradition and Contemporaneity in the Romanian Orthodox Church
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Greece - The museum-country of Europe


 

For any European, a trip to Greece is as necessary as a trip to Mecca is for every Muslim. In Romania, where, until the invasion of communism, teaching Latin and Hellenic in schools was a reality, visiting Greece was a mandatory form of studying and consolidating of the knowledge already acquired. Travels to Greece are of two kinds: the laity travel in the footsteps of ancient civilization in cities where vestiges of the old world are more and more eloquent and trips of laity and clergy to Mount Athos in order to discover the homeland of Orthodoxy and the way Christian faith was able to remain alive and unchanged in the eastern Byzantine area of a world entirely dedicated to preserving religiosity uncorrupted. The article presents, on a literary tone, the trips to Greece of certain scholars, some older some more recent. One can even speak in this respect about Romanian memoirs regarding Greece.


Keywords: Greece, travel, memoirs, ancient culture, Mount Athos


 

MIRCEA POPA