"At Simonopetra [Monastery] monks pile the bones of brothers in a charnel house. The remains of a former abbot rest in a special box held by Father Macarius. To the monks who pray here, these orderly rows of skulls evoke the monastery's long history and the devotion of the men who kept alive its spirit."
—From "The Byzantine Empire: Rome of the East," December 1983, National Geographic magazine
