A Japanese-born monk fluent in Greek is now the formal guardian of one of the most venerated icons in the Orthodox Chris...

A Japanese-born monk fluent in Greek is now the formal guardian of one of the most venerated icons in the Orthodox Christian world. Father Timotheos, born Takayuki Kozaki in Tokyo, left a career in aerospace engineering and space technology to live and serve at Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos, according to iefimerida. Pilgrims arriving at the monastery are often stopped in their tracks when Father Timotheos greets them in flawless Greek. He has a reputation for warm humor, frequently joking with visitors from Crete that his Japanese surname sounds like it could pass for a Cretan one. His path to Mount Athos was anything but direct. While studying aerospace engineering in Japan, he found no spiritual fulfillment in Shintoism or Buddhism and eventually came to Christianity through Protestant communities before discovering Eastern Orthodoxy. He described the moment as finding "the ultimate truth." From Japan, he traveled to Orthodox communities in California, Alaska, and Arizona, then spent time at a monastic mission in South Korea before securing permission to relocate permanently to the Holy Mountain. At Iviron, he was taken under the wing of the late Abbot Vasilios Gontikakis, who guided him in monastic life. Father Timotheos now spends his days recounting the 1,000-year history of the Panagia Portaitissa, the Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary of the Gate, to thousands of pilgrims each year. He explains how the icon survived the Byzantine Iconoclasm and emphasizes a point he considers central to its meaning. The icon sits at the monastery's entrance not because the monks guard it, but because the Virgin Mary guards them. #MountAthos #EasternOrthodoxy #Greece