VIEWSrnThe Great SchismrnGrounds for Division,rnGrounds for Unityrnby Fr. Hugh Barbour, O. Praem.rnIn August 1994,1 was happy to be one of the many Latin clericsrnwho over the years, in divisa or in borghese, have made arnpilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Athos, the Garden of thernMother of God. On the Feast of tiie Lord’s Transfiguration, 1rnwas able to set foot on that peninsula where souls and bodiesrnhidden from the world, but known to God and His angels,rnshare still in the bright glorv’ of the ni}’ster}’ narrated in the Hoh’rnGospels. I made this pilgrimage with the blessing of mv abbotrnafter attending an international meeting of some clergy. OnrnAthos, I expected to be refreshed and edified, and I was, afterrnhaving had to breathe deeply tlie atmosphere of a sadly typicalrnpostconciliar gathering of ecclesiastics—some of whoirr werernmerely juridically Roman Catholic—for whom God and thernthings of God could scarcely be said to hold the primacy, andrnthe Pope not at all.rnIn a shop by the docks at the little western port of the mountain,rnI found a postcard of an icon depicting a touching and curiousrnscene: “The Lamentation over Gonstantine Palaiologos”rnwritten at the Old Calendarist hesychasterion of the Mother ofrnGod of the Myrtle Tree in Attica. In the icon, the emperor reposesrnon a bier with a candle as two women mourn on eitherrnside: one kneeling, written as “Orthodoxy,” and the other, “Hellas,”rnstanding with her hand to her mouth in a gesture of reverence,rncalling to mind the original sense of the imperial Romanrnadoratio. A touching scene, because it brings to mind the magnificentrn”courage born of despair,” as even the malicious Gib-rnFr. Hugh Barbour, O. Praem., is the prior of St. Michael’srnAbbey, Trabuco Canyon, California.rnbon puts it, with which the last of the Roman emperors diedrnleading the defense of his New Rome; yet still a curious one,rnsince this Gonstantine XII died in communion with the see ofrnOld Rome, having received the eucharistic viaticum that morningrnat a uniate liturgy, the last to be served in the Ghurch ofrnHolv Wisdom. Even more curious was the figure “Hellas,” forrnnothing could be less Byzantine, less Orthodox, less imperial,rnthan the use of this term to name the nation of Greek-speakingrnRomaioi.rnTo Orthodox Byzantium, “hellenic” meant secular, pagan,rnsomething worse than heterodox, to be anathematized in thernsynodikon on the first Sunday of Great Lent. At the time of thernfall of the city, a “hellene” was one who, by promoting the FlorentinernPlatonic revival, exceeded even the utilitarian impiet}’rnof the Florentine latinophrones (Greek latinizers). The figurernof Orthodoxy, undoubtedly the most important in the image,rnwas in ery strange company indeed, with anomalies more thanrnanachronistic. That this icon was the work of Old Galendaristsrnwho clearly intended it to be the expression of a rigorously Orthodoxrnhistorical sensibilit}’ indicates a fact, more relevant thanrnever, which those of us who sympathize with the zealots.rnCatholic and Orthodox, must keep in mind. We must be vigilantrnto ensure that in our understanding and defense of right beliefrnand right worship we do not adopt the ideological preoccupationsrnof political and philosophical movements, sometimesrnthose of our friends and allies, which are foreign to our faith andrnits tradition, lest we undermine the ver’ thing we are striving tornpreserve. We must examine carefulh the understanding andrninstincts of the best representatives of our twin tradition, East-rn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn