Hegumen Ephraim: Karl turned to me when he was diagnosed with cancer

“He contacted me after he found out he had cancer and I believe he will get through it.” – Abbot Ephraim said after a conversation with the King of England.

As Abbot Ephraim said in an interview with Ant1, Charles III (at that time Prince Charles) visited Vatopedi monastery eight times, and they have kept in touch ever since.

“Charles has a spiritual culture, he knows about spiritual life,” said Abbot Ephraim.

Charles’s interest in Orthodoxy arose in 1996, and from 1998 he began to visit the Holy Mountain approximately twice a year, constantly staying at the Vatopedi Monastery, sometimes for more than a month. During his visits to Mount Athos, Charles lives in a tiny cell and gets up at five o’clock to pray with the monks.

Prince Charles, the future King Charles III, officially visited Greece for the first time on November 22, 1998, 14 months after Diana’s tragic death. The heir to the British throne was then the official guest of the late Costas Stephanopoulos, president of the republic from 1995 to 2005.

Then he visited the Vatopedi monastery, where he met with Abbot Ephraim. Since then, his visits to Mount Athos have become more frequent. It is noteworthy that from the spring of 2003 to May 2004, he visited Mount Athos three times.

Always accompanied by the usual two bodyguards and politely refusing the presence of Greek officials. At the same time, an order is always given to keep the identity of the distinguished visitor to the “Garden of the Virgin Mary” secret.

The Guardian on May 12, 2004, wrote in the spirit of the great English detective masters:

On Monday evening, a magnificent yacht moored at the watery entrance to the world’s only monastic republic. A middle-aged man, accompanied by two bodyguards, stepped onto the pier of a peninsula in northern Greece and entered the “state” known as Mount Athos, Agios Oros and the Holy Mountain. Several monks in black robes and hooded hats waited, under orders to keep the identity of this particular pilgrim a secret; it was a quiet reception. Their guest – clean-shaven, in contrast to the bearded clerics – was Prince Charles, who was making his third secret visit to Mount Athos in the last 12 months…

And further: “There is no doubt that the British king is Orthodox in his heart– one Athonite monk admitted… – Unfortunately, he is very limited by his position.” They say Athos embodies Charles’s deep admiration for tradition, ancient wisdom and the divine natural order, even as he supports the ban on women since 1060 AD… The prince, like his friend, the composer Sir John Tavener, who converted to Greek Orthodoxy in 1977 is said to be particularly drawn to the austere spirituality of the Orthodox Church…

Not since Stuart times had an heir to the throne shown such an intellectual interest in religion…His regular meetings with Ephraim, abbot of Vatopedion – his adopted monastery on the mountain – managed to fuel rumors that the prince was personally training himself in Eastern Christianity, even if courtiers vehemently denied it.

This monk is said to frequent Highgrove. Witnesses say that when the prince arrived on Athos a few days after the death of Princess Diana, almost seven years ago, it was Ephraim who encouraged him to join the faith. Locked in a room alone with the abbot, Charles is believed to have made a “spiritual commitment” to Christian Orthodoxy.

According to the publication Λοιπόν, when Prince Charles stops on Mount Athos, he spends his hours in a 30-square-meter cell, where there is a sleeping place, icons, a volume of the New Testament and a wardrobe. The only luxury of a “luxury cell” for high-ranking guests is a private bathroom. The daily program for the guests of Athos is, of course, the same as that of the monks. Here it is customary to wake up before dawn, perform worship, and conduct religious and philosophical conversations.

It is reported that the nature of Athos encourages the prince to be creative. According to media reports, during pilgrimages to the Holy Mountain, Charles paints landscapes in watercolors. Some of these paintings were sold at a London auction, and the prince donated the proceeds from their sale to the Athonite monks.

As noted by those around the prince, “a short retreat from worldly affairs and intense spiritual work have the most positive effect on Charles.”

Charles’s father, Duke Philip, was born and lived for some time in Greece. His father was the Greek Prince Andrew, and his grandmother was Olga Konstantinovna, Grand Duchess of the House of Romanov. After his wedding with the future Queen Elizabeth, Philip adopted the Anglican religion according to British law, although in interviews he repeatedly said that he continued to consider himself Orthodox.

Philip’s mother, Prince Charles’s grandmother Alice Battenberg, was Orthodox and actively helped the Orthodox Church. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, she hid Jews in her house, saving them from being sent to concentration camps. For this she was subsequently declared “the righteous woman of the world.”

Her son’s wedding was the last formal event at which Alice Battenberg appeared in a secular dress. Having blessed her son and returned to Athens, she forever put on the monastic robe and fulfilled her old dream by organizing a monastic ceremony in memory of her aunt. Elizaveta Feodorovna, the Orthodox sisterhood of Martha and Mary, in which future nannies and caregivers were raised.

Alice Battenberg died in 1969 at Buckingham Palace. Before her death, she expressed a desire to be buried in a Russian Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem next to her aunt Elizaveta Fedorovna. This wish was fulfilled on December 3, 1988, when her remains were transferred to the Orthodox Church in Gethsemane (in Jerusalem).

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