Hollywood icon Mel Gibson is reportedly in Greece for a spiritual retreat before filming begins for “The Resurrection of Christ” in August.
Images of Gibson, 69, touring Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece went viral this week after the Oscar-winning filmmaker arrived in what one report called “one of the most profound spiritual strongholds” in Orthodox Christianity.
Gibson will spend time with resident monks in prayer and silence, along with other daily religious services, according to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema.
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The actor and producer is said to have focused much of his visit on the Holy Serbian Imperial Lavra, a 10th-century Romanian Orthodox monastery serving as a spiritual center for the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Gibson spoke with monks about Church history in Serbia and the “struggle for freedom and defense of Christianity,” reports the Serbian Times. He was also present at monastic meals and was introduced to holy relics.
Photos of Gibson with several monks have circulated online, with one quote attributed to Gibson as saying, “I have never felt such a strong connection to God anywhere else as here.”
One photo in the Serbian Times showed Gibson standing with nearly two dozen robed monks in front of an altar during a feast day celebration. Another video circulating online, uploaded June 30, appeared to show Gibson in a deep conversation with one of the monks at Mount Athos.
Often called the “Garden of the Virgin Mary,” Mount Athos is described as a “treasure trove” of Orthodox artifacts and iconography, which, according to MountAthos.org, “have been the focal points of veneration and pilgrimage for centuries.”
With a network of approximately 20 monasteries and other religious sites, Mount Athos has been referred to as the “holy mountain” of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
A UNESCO World Heritage site and considered a spiritual epicenter of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Mount Athos hosts what Orthodox leaders describe as a multi-ethnic monastic community under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its 20 monasteries, including Greek, Serbian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Romanian communities, include the Serbian Hilandar Monastery, a 10th-century cornerstone of Serbian Orthodoxy where Gibson is reportedly staying.
The monastic community of Mount Athos is known for its ascetic lifestyle, with monks dedicating their lives to prayer and solitude in pursuit of union with God. Despite the peninsula’s isolation, marked by dense chestnut forests and the towering 6,670-foot Mount Athos, women are prohibited from entering the peninsula, a tradition rooted in the monastic veneration of the Virgin Mary as the spiritual protector of the region.
Gibson, who at one point was named the “most powerful Christian in Hollywood,” told podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this year that while he was “born into a Catholic family,” he has become “very Christian” in his faith.
