Clinging to a Greek cliff, this monastery welcomes people from around the world. No women allowed

MOUNT ATHOS, Greece (AP) — The medieval monastery clings almost impossibly to sheer cliffs high above the shimmering turquoise of the Aegean Sea. Rising from the rugged granite rock, its walls enclose a diverse Christian Orthodox community.

The Monastery of Simonos Petra, also known as Simonopetra — or Simon’s Rock — transcends country-based branches of the Christian faith, embracing monks from across the world, including converts from nations where Orthodox Christianity is not the prevailing religion.

The monastery is one of 20 in the autonomous all-male monastic community of Mount Athos, known in Greek as Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain. The peninsula in northern Greece is no stranger to non-Greeks: of the 20 monasteries, one is Russian, one is Bulgarian and one is Serbian, and the presence of monks from other nations is not unusual. But Simonos Petra has the greatest range of nationalities.

“Spiritually, there are no borders, because the Holy Mountain has an ecumenical nature” seeking to embrace all, said Archimandrite Eliseos, the abbot of Simonos Petra. This links back to the Byzantine Empire, he explained. “We say that Byzantium was a commonwealth ... in which (different) peoples lived together in the same faith.”

The monastery welcomes anyone who would like to visit — provided they are male. In a more than 1,000-year-old tradition, women are banned from the entire peninsula, which is deemed the Virgin Mary's domain. While men from other faiths can spend a few days at Mount Athos as visitors, only Orthodox men can become monks.

Most of Simonos Petra’s 65 monks hail from European countries where Orthodoxy is the predominant religion, such as Romania, Serbia, Russia, Moldova, Cyprus and Greece. But there are others from China, Germany, Hungary, the United States, Australia, France, Lebanon and Syria.

Founded in the 13th century by Saint Simon the Myrrh-bearer, the seven-story Simonos Petra is considered an audacious marvel of Byzantine architecture. Renowned for its ecclesiastical choir, the monastery has become a symbol of resilience during its long history, recovering from three destructive fires — the most recent in the late 1800s — to embrace global Orthodoxy.

It was within these walls nearly 20 years ago that Father Isaiah — who like other monks goes by one name — found the answer to a lifelong spiritual quest that had spanned half the globe.

Born in Vietnam to Chinese parents, the now 50-year-old monk grew up in Switzerland, where his family moved when he was a child.

“In this Swiss environment, I was trying to understand what I’m doing, where I’m going, what is the meaning of life,” he explained on a recent morning, standing on a fifth-floor balcony next to a winch used to bring supplies up in wicker baskets from the monastery’s storerooms.

“While searching I found some answers through virtue, and this virtue was connected to the image of Orthodoxy,” he said, his fluent Greek bearing a hint of a foreign accent.

Delving into this new faith, he found relationships based on love and a search for God, he said. His quest led him to an Orthodox monastery in France affiliated with Simonos Petra. That, in turn, led him to Mount Athos in 2006.

“It was in essence a deep searching of spiritual life, which is the answer for the meaning of life,” he said.

Within the monastery, he found a brotherhood of monks from 14 countries. He decided to stay.

“We gather together with some principles, which are those of love towards our neighbor and the love for God,” Isaiah said. In the human and spiritual connections he experienced in Simonos Petras, “I found a deep answer to everything I had been seeking in my youth.”

Life in the monastery — and across Mount Athos — has changed little in the more than 1,000 years of religious presence there. Days begin long before dawn and are punctuated by prayer services followed by daily tasks, which can include farming, carpentry, winemaking, cooking, art, clerical and ecclesiastical work.

Set among forested slopes, nearly every inch of Simonos Petra’s land is cultivated, with the monks tending to herbs, fruit and vegetables used in the monastery’s kitchen. Electricity comes from sustainable sources such as solar panels.

Father Serafeim, a Lebanese-Syrian who has lived in the monastery since 2010, said Eliseos and his predecessor as abbot, the Elder Emilianos, had always embraced foreigners.

“You don’t feel that you’re a stranger, you feel from the start that you’re an equal member of the brotherhood,” said Serafeim, who joined the monastic community seven years after he first arrived in Greece to study theology in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

“This spirit, this open spirit of the elder attracted many souls who were searching for a genuine, emphatic meaning of life,” he said.

One of the oldest non-Greek monks in the monastery is Father Makarios. The Frenchman’s spiritual quest began in May 1968, when as a young man he experienced first-hand the social uprising sparked by student demonstrations in Paris.

His search led him to Mount Athos for the first time in 1975.

“I found this monastery and an embrace,” he said. “I found people who understood and accepted me. They didn’t judge me. It was very easy for me to decide that in the end, after I finish my studies, I will come to Mount Athos, I will try to see if I can become a monk.”

Converting from Catholicism to Orthodoxy on Mount Athos, Makarios is now the monastery’s librarian. He has been living in Simonos Petra for 46 years.

Eliseos, the abbot, stresses his monastery is open to all visitors.

“We say we are open to people with love,” he says. “Someone comes along and wants to visit Mount Athos, he visits it. … Does he want to take it further? We say: ‘Let’s discuss it, with your will’. What does he want? Does he want to participate in this life, does he want to enter into our spirit, embrace our values and our faith? We will accept that. We will not discriminate.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Father Makarios shows a 1744 map depicting the Simonopetra, or the Simonos Petra Monastery, home of the all-male autonomous community Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain, on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Father Serafeim lights a candle inside an ossuary where the shelves are full of the skulls of the deceased monks of the Simonopetra, or Simonos Petra Monastery, home of the all-male autonomous community of Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain, on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Monks pray during the afternoon liturgy at the Simonopetra, or Simonos Petra Monastery, home of the all-male autonomous community Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain, on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Simonopetra, or the Simonos Petra Monastery, home of the all-male autonomous community Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain, stands on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Father Serafeim prays in the ossuary of Simonopetra, or the Simonos Petra Monastery, home of the all-male autonomous community Agion Oros, or Holy Mountain, on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states after at least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in the capital, Caracas.

The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas. Another military installation in the capital was without power.

People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.

“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”

Venezuela’s government, in the statement, called on its supporters to take to the streets.

“People to the streets!” the statement said. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”

The statement added that President Nicolás Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.”

This comes as the U.S. military has been targeting, in recent days, alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking.

Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the U.S. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes on boats in September.

U.S. President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The U.S. has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.

The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.

Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on the explosions in Caracas on Saturday, showing images of the Venezuelan capital. Iran has been close to Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared enmity of the U.S.

Pedestrians walk past the Miraflores presidential palace after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Residents evacuate a building near the Miraflores presidential palace after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)