Archimandrite Venediktos Zacharakis spoke exclusively about the artist’s secret visit to Meteora on August 14.
The abbot of the Holy Monastery of Varlaam at Meteora, Archimandrite Fr. Venediktos Zacharakis, spoke exclusively to Orthodox Truth for the first time about singer Madonna’s visit to the monastery. The artist visited the monastery on Friday, August 14, a few days before her 68th birthday, after leaving Corfu.
As Fr. Venediktos explained, Madonna “had many questions and was engaged in spiritual and metaphysical searching,” and she asked him about prayer and his prayer rope. The abbot spoke to her about the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” and, as he relates, she “was extremely pleased.”
The meeting took place in the monastery’s reception room, following a tour of the Katholikon—the monastery’s main church—where the artist asked questions about the frescoes.
At the end of the visit, the artist expressed her regret that she did not have more time to spend at the monastery, telling her associates that she needed more time there. The visit was kept completely secret. The monastery was specially opened even though it was the eve of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, so that it would not appear that an exception had been made for a particular individual.
The abbot stressed that he received Madonna “just as I would the simplest person,” without giving her any special treatment.
The Holy Monastery of Varlaam, also known as the Monastery of All Saints, is one of the six active monasteries of Meteora and is built atop a rock opposite the Great Meteoron.
Its major development began in the early 16th century through the efforts of the hieromonks Nektarios and Theophanes Apsarades, and the present-day Katholikon was completed in 1541.
Its modern revival took place in 1961 under the care of the late Metropolitan Dionysios of Trikki and Stagoi, when a young monastic brotherhood—including men who would later become hierarchs of the Church of Greece—breathed new life into the monastic tradition of Meteora.
This is not the first time the monastery has attracted international attention. In 1980, it hosted filming for a James Bond movie, while in later years attention was also drawn to its rich collection of frescoes and manuscripts housed in the Katholikon, as highlighted by Princeton’s exhibition on Mount Athos and Meteora.
