The stories that angels visit Mount Athos, until recently, could cause only a skeptical smile in many. However, in recent years, evidence has appeared that turns the legend into an actual miracle.
History of heavenly messengers
Oddly enough, the concept of what angels are is still rather vague: it is not known for certain whether this is an energetic entity or a humanized image, designed to protect the population of the planet and preserve faith in people. Even professional theologians argue about the angelic essence, to say nothing of ordinary people!
The only thing scientists agree on is that angels are divine messengers who carry the will of the Lord to mortals and have supernatural powers. Actually, the word "angel" in translation from Greek means "messenger", or "messenger".
The conviction that came to us from distant pagan times and was subsequently used by Christianity, attaches these wonderful creatures to distant human ancestors who once lived a righteous life and therefore received the opportunity to keep descendants and help them where they themselves cannot cope.
There is also a hypothesis according to which children who died at an early age acquire an angelic rank for the sinlessness of souls. The same kids can see them, although over time they lose this ability. However, whoever these mysterious creatures are, eyewitness accounts show that their abilities are truly amazing.
Promotional video:
From my own experience, a woman from a small English town was convinced of this. The bus she took to work in the morning was descending a high hill and suddenly had brake failures. At the bottom, the turn was fenced off by a brick wall, and just towards it the bus rushed, picking up speed. The woman realized that an accident was inevitable, but suddenly she saw amazingly beautiful creatures in light clothes moving behind the window glass.
They found themselves in the path of the bus, and it suddenly stopped at the very wall, and as soon as it happened, the unknown saviors disappeared. The participant in the wonderful event immediately thought that the angels had saved her. The bus fleet mechanics also considered that a miracle had happened to the passengers: the bus brakes did not work, and how he managed to stop on the descent remained unknown.
However, sometimes there are appearances of angels that cannot be explained by the urgent need to save human life.
The mystery of angelic singing
This happened about 10 years ago on Mount Athos. The young pilgrim stayed at a hotel in one of the Athonite monasteries. In the middle of the night he woke up to the sounds of church singing of extraordinary beauty. The young man thought that he had missed the beginning of the service, and hastily went to the temple. To his surprise, the temple door was locked. And looking through the window, the young man saw a light inside, although its source was unclear - not a single candle burned.
Moreover, there was no one inside the church, and the singing seemed to spill over into the glowing air. Wonderful, not at all similar to human voices, the ancient Byzantine chant - "The Cherubic Song" was brought out. The pilgrim realized that he was simply obliged to preserve the wonderful singing.
He rushed back to his room, grabbed the tape recorder and ran back to the temple, where all the divine music was playing, played by an invisible angelic host. The recording made by the young man made it onto the Internet and caused real battles between those who believed in the singing of angels and skeptics who deny the very possibility of such a "concert".
Disputes about whether the pilgrim brought a fake from Athos would have lasted endlessly if the experts had not intervened. The audio spectrogram of the recording obtained as a result of the analysis showed the inhuman nature of the performance of the old chant. The timbre of the mysterious voices is exactly in the middle between masculine and feminine. The chant sounds so even and strong that it is impossible to compare it with a human voice.
In addition, the increase in the amplitude of the sound wave does not occur gradually, as is the case with humans, but at an incredible speed, almost instantly. An indirect proof of the angelic nature of singing can be considered that. The chant in the recording breaks off before the words "we put off all everyday care". The angels have no earthly, everyday worries ("cares") and cannot have, and therefore they finished singing precisely on this part of the chant.
The influence of the heavenly voices on every listener was no less unique. Someone, having listened to the singing, noted how easy and joyful it is in the soul, while others, on the contrary, said that angelic voices make you feel anxiety and sadness. It even happened that from repeated listening to the recording, the blood pressure rose, the heart rate increased.
Facts and hypotheses
Having studied in detail the sound of amazing voices, theologians asked themselves the reasons for the appearance of divine messengers to people. If angels usually come to save their lives, then a wonderful church service was supposed to bring some important message. Which one - just had to find out.
First of all, it was necessary to exclude any possibility that it was not angels who sang on Athos, but, on the contrary, the messengers of Satan. In theory, demons seemed to be able to assume the form of cherubim in order to deceive their listeners. The chimeras they create are sometimes capable of introducing the weak in spirit into mental or physical disorder, and even taking some of their lives. On the other hand, the demons did not have to use church singing for this at all - after all, they unwittingly once again confirmed the truth of Orthodoxy.
Theologians from several countries arranged an extensive discussion, during which they established that the intrigues of the unclean had nothing to do with it. There is no distortion of Christian chanting in the recording. And the servants of the devil are deprived of the divine singing gift and are only capable of disgustingly mock sacred chants, uttering sounds that most of all resemble cacophony. Thus, the tape recorded on Athos really preserved the voices of the Lord's messengers.
As for the goals of the appearance of angels in the Athos temple, opinions differed here. Some scholars believe that part of the service sung in the ancient Byzantine manner should have reminded believers of the need to observe the ancient canons of church singing. Such a reminder is timely, since Christianity is more and more inclined towards a new, polyphonic style of performing Christian services. And chances are, these innovations are not to the liking in heaven.
There were also adherents of a more general version: with wonderful singing, the angels once again announced to the world their existence. And since they really exist, then not only church-going people, but even inveterate atheists will receive protection and patronage in those cases when only a miracle can save them.
However, to this day there are those who call the singing of angels on Athos a fake. Opponents of the "angelic theory" claim that the voice of the Greek singer Dimitrios Surlandzis, who has a timbre of rare beauty and famous for his performance of Orthodox chants, sounds on the tape. True, the singer himself did not confirm that his voice sounds on the recording of the "Cherubic Song". So the phenomenon of angelic singing continues to be considered one of the most wondrous Athonite phenomena.
According to your faith, let it be to you
The list of such phenomena in the monastic republic is much more extensive than one might imagine. Unfortunately, only men will be able to see them with their own eyes - since the 7th century, when the first ascetic monks came to Athos, women are forbidden to appear on the Holy Mountain (even there are only males of pack animals). According to legend, the Mother of God commanded this, giving the monks her heavenly protection.
As if confirming the constant invisible presence of the Mother of God, a cloud constantly hangs over the very top of the mountain: it increases or decreases, changes color, but never disappears.
In each of the 20 monasteries holy relics and miraculous icons are kept. In the Vatoped monastery alone, there is a particle of the Life-giving Lord's Cross, the belt of the Mother of God, particles of the relics of Dmitry Thessaloniki, Panteleimon the Healer and other saints. The imperishable, fragrant right hand of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene is preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra. Any true believer who kisses the relic can confirm that the saint's hand is still warm.
A few meters from the sea, right from the rock, a spring gushes, which the monks were able to find by the Lord's direction. Not far from the spring, a vine grows more than 700 years old. One berry from this vine can cure infertility in any woman who dreams of offspring.
The angelic voice sounded on Mount Athos is just one of the endless list of miracles of the Holy Mountain. Believing in them or doubting them is everyone's personal business, but it is much more joyful to know that we live in a world where real miracles are still happening.
Anna NOVGORODTSEVA, magazine "Secrets of the XX century" №31 August 2016