Article 167
Goods of a value of up to one thousand golden drachmas per monk per year may be imported free of customs into Mount Athos for use by the monks. Goods over this value, as well as any goods imported by mer chants, are taxed as usual by the State.
Article 168
All timber and other produce from Mount Athos can be exported free of any duties and customs.
Goods may be requisitioned on Mount Athos only following a requisite decision of the Hiera Koinotis.
Article 169
The forests of the Athos peninsula are not subject to the laws of the State governing woodland areas.
Article 170
Fishing on Mount Athos for consumption by the monks is free and not subject to taxation.
Article 171
No repairs or restoration work may be conducted on Mount Athos if they can damage or alter ancient frescoes.
Article 172
Apart from monasteries and sketes, no dependent foundation or person is allowed to possess an official seal.
Article 173
No bishop may celebrate a service on Mount Athos without permission from the Hiera Koinotis or a monastery and without obtaining a document from the Ecumenical Patriarchate stating that he is able to celebrate the service without impediment. Every bishop outside Mount Athos, invited by a monastery, must be invited through the Hiera Koinotis. Any clergyman of a lower rank should have such a document from his local church authorities to present to the Hiera Koinotis.
Article 174
On the Holy Mountain, it is strictly forbidden to sell icons or works of art, in general, made outside of Mount Athos, or made on Mount Athos by laypeople. The icons of monasteries may not be reprinted on paper without the monastery’s permission.
Article 175
Opening commercial stores in monasteries or dependencies and trading in objects that are not necessary or suitable to the athonite community are strictly forbidden.
Article 176
Any person visiting Mount Athos apart from pilgrims from the surrounding area must appear before the Hiera Epistasia to obtain permission to visit the monasteries and their dependencies.
Article 177
Any monk or rasophore person [person wearing a cassock] who does not belong to a monastery or dependency of Mount Athos, but is rather wandering as a vagrant on the Mountain, is to be expelled by the Hiera Epistasia with the assistance of the civil authorities.
Article 178
No one apart from the monks and those who have become novices in accordance with the legal procedure is allowed to wear a rason [cas sock]. Any offenders are to be deported pursuant to Article 177.
Article 179
The heirs to the property of laypeople who have lived and died on Mount Athos are those who have a legal entitlement to this property.
Their property may be sealed and unsealed only by the authorities of the monastery if the person died in a monastery or in its dependencies, or by the Hiera Epistasia if the person died in Karyes. These authorities are then tasked with notifying the legal heirs of the deceased.
The property of laypeople who have died on Mount Athos without any legal heirs, or of independent monks [kaviotes18], is inherited by the Hiera Koinotis if they died in Karyes, or by the local monasteries and their dependencies if they died there.
Article 180
Only the Hiera Koinotis may operate a printing press on Mount Athos.
Article 181
All real estate property of the monasteries, as their God-given right, is absolutely inalienable.
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Article 182
The Holy Monasteries are obliged to ensure the regular and smooth operation of the Athonite Ecclesiastical Academy in Karyes. The Academy is at present an institution of higher education including all grades (year groups or classes) of the secondary schools. To this end, each monastery must send at least two of its monks or novices to the school as disciples without any qualifications. The number of students will be completed by the admission of persons from outside of Mount Athos.
No monastery may refuse to pay the fee for the upkeep of the school as determined based on the financial situation of the latter. In order to satisfy the needs of the school, the Hiera Koinotis may impose a mandatory levy on imported and exported goods.
Monks or disciples may not be sent to be educated outside of Mount Athos if they have not first graduated from the Athonite Academy. The details of the organization of the school will be determined by a special regulation of the Hiera Koinotis, in accordance with to the afore mentioned guidelines.
Article 183
No corporation or particular brotherhood may be created or founded on Mount Athos, as this would be incompatible and opposite to the an cient monastic regimes of the Holy Mountain.
Article 184
Any propaganda or promotional activity of an ethical, ecclesiastical, social, nationalistic, or other similar character is strictly forbidden on Mount Athos. Offenders may be deported.
Article 185
Any collection of funds for religious, academic, or charitable purposes on Mount Athos may only be conducted with the authorization of the Hiera Koinotis. For this reason those who make such a request must present a recommendation of their local bishop to the Hiera Koinotis. Those who wish to visit the libraries of the Holy Monasteries must present themselves before the Hiera Koinotis with a letter of recom mendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece or the Ecumenical Patriarch, with whom the Hiera Koinotis shall conduct a direct correspondence.
Article 186
Persons of the female sex may not enter Mount Athos according to the ancient established tradition.
Article 187
Any legislative provision that contravenes the present Constitutional Charter shall have no force on Mount Athos.
Article 188
The present Constitutional Charter shall enter into force from the mo ment it is approved by the Hiera Koinotis and ratified by the State.
It proceeds from Imperial chrysobulls and typica, Patriarchal sigillia, fermans of the Sultans, the applicable General Regulations and the most ancient monastic institutions and regimes.
It was composed in May 1924 by a five-member commission of the Extraordinary Twofold Synaxis of Mount Athos, consisting of: Elder Arcadios, Archdeacon of Vatopedi; Archimandrite Athanasios of Pantokratoros; Proïgoumenos [Abbot Emeritus] Evdokimos of Xeropotamou; Elder Evlogios of Saint Paul’s Monastery, and Elder Varlaam of the Monastery of Grigoriou, all members of the Extraordinary Synaxis.
In Karyes, on 10 May 1924, the present Constitutional Charter was ap proved by an Extraordinary Twofold Synaxis of the Holy Monasteries.
Members of the Extraordinary Twofold Synaxis:
Monastery of Megisti Lavra: Hierodeacon Grigorios
Monastery of Vatopedi: Elders Arcadios and Anatolios
Monastery of Iviron: Proïgoumenos Amvrosios
Monastery of Hilandar: Hierodeacon Anthimos (in Serbian) and Proïgoumenos Onuphrij (in Serbian)
Monastery of Dionysiou: Elder Iakovos and Hieromonk Evgenios
Monastery of Koutloumousiou: Elder Bessarion
Monastery of Pantokratoros: Archimandrite Athanasios and Proïgoumenos Alexios
Monastery of Xeropotamou: Elder Aetios and Proïgoumenos Evdokimos
Monastery of Zographou: Hieromonk Basil (in Bulgarian)
Monastery of Docheiariou: Elder Dionysios and Proïgoumenos Daniel
Monastery of Karakallou: Elder Dorotheos and Hieromonk Maximos
Monastery of Philotheou: Elder Efstratios
Monastery of Simonopetra: Elder Joseph
Monastery of Saint Paul: Elders Ioasaph and Evlogios
Monastery of Stavronikita: Elder Jeremias and Proïgoumenos Sophronios
Monastery of Xenophontos: Elders Damascene and Joachim
Monastery of Grigoriou: Elders Andreas and Varlaam
Monastery of Esphigmenou: Elder Petros
Monastery of Konstamonitou: Hieromonk Modestos and Elder Athanasios
