Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Offline
It is the end of a long and beautiful summer and winter is not far away. Outside a small Macedonian village a lone nun keeps a quiet watch over a silent convent. She is the last caretaker of this site of significant historical developments, spanning more than 2,000 years. When Sister Maria Cyrilla of the Order of the Perpetual Watch dies, the convent of St. Elias will be closed.
That isn't likely to happen soon, however, as Sister Maria, 53, enjoys excellent health. By her own estimate, she walks 10 miles daily about the grounds of the convent, which once served as a base for the army of Attila the Hun.
In more ancient times, a Greek temple to Eros, the God of love, occupied the hilltop site. Historians say that Attila took over the old temple in 439 A.D. and used it as a base for his marauding army.
The Huns are believed to have first collected and then destroyed a large gathering of Greek legal writs at the site. It is believed Attila wanted to study the Greek legal system and had the writs and other documents brought to the temple.
Scholars differ on why he had the valuable documents destroyed. Most agree that he did away with them either because he was barely literate and couldn't read them himself or because they provided evidence of a Democratic government that did not square with his own notion of "rule by an all-powerful tyrant."
When the church took over the site in the 15th century and the convent was built, church leaders ordered the pagan statue of Eros destroyed, so another ancient Greek treasure was lost. Today, there is only the lone sister watching over the old Hun base. When she goes, that will be it.
Thus, that's how the season ends: No Huns, No Writs, No Eros, and Nun on base.
That isn't likely to happen soon, however, as Sister Maria, 53, enjoys excellent health. By her own estimate, she walks 10 miles daily about the grounds of the convent, which once served as a base for the army of Attila the Hun.
In more ancient times, a Greek temple to Eros, the God of love, occupied the hilltop site. Historians say that Attila took over the old temple in 439 A.D. and used it as a base for his marauding army.
The Huns are believed to have first collected and then destroyed a large gathering of Greek legal writs at the site. It is believed Attila wanted to study the Greek legal system and had the writs and other documents brought to the temple.
Scholars differ on why he had the valuable documents destroyed. Most agree that he did away with them either because he was barely literate and couldn't read them himself or because they provided evidence of a Democratic government that did not square with his own notion of "rule by an all-powerful tyrant."
When the church took over the site in the 15th century and the convent was built, church leaders ordered the pagan statue of Eros destroyed, so another ancient Greek treasure was lost. Today, there is only the lone sister watching over the old Hun base. When she goes, that will be it.
Thus, that's how the season ends: No Huns, No Writs, No Eros, and Nun on base.
