“…Maxime Qavtaradze is literally close to the heavens. The 59-year-old monk lives atop a stone pillar in Georgia, scaling a 131-foot ladder in order to leave and enter his lofty home, reports CNN. Photographer Amos Chapple ascended the cliff to photograph his life there.
The Katskhi Pillar has long been venerated by locals in the area, though it’s been uninhabited since around the 1400s. When climbers ascended for the first time in centuries in 1944, they found the ruins of a church and the 600-year-old bones of the last stylite who lived there.
The stylite tradition is believed to have begun in 423 when St. Simeon the Elder climbed a pillar in Syria in order to avoid worldly temptations, but the practice has since fallen out of favor. However, Qavtaradze is a modern devotee.
Though isolated, he is not a total hermit, coming down once or twice a week to counsel the troubled young men who come to the monastery at the bottom for his help. After all, he was once one of them. Though he now lives at the top of the world, Qavtaradze found his vocation when he was the lowest he’s ever been, doing prison time after he ‘drank, sold drugs, everything’ as a young man.…”
Click here.
From Evan Kahn
I don't know about "avoiding worldly temptations"
but I might climb a 131 foot ladder to avoid an overload of a**holes.
Priorities change over the ages?
well, anonymous above, you have a point…sigh.
however, just like to say, am glad someone photographed it, as I don't have a head for heights, so won't be doing the tour.
Love to see the stone work/buildings/etc.. It all is interesting, but each time I look at a photo of a bit of distance, all I can see, is beautiful old historic stone buildings, perched on what seems to me (at this point in time), very dodgy rock formations. Seems like it wouldn't take much, earthquake wise, or sheering of rock face, to tumble it all.
here's a vid…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPUs5G4qBFg
Mike W
******