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PRILEP, Yugoslavia (AP) - Outside a small Macedonian
village close to the border between Greece and strife-torn
Yugoslavia, a lone Catholic nun keeps a quiet watch over a
silent convent. She is the last caretaker of the 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 by the
Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Macedonia.
However, that isn't likely to happen soon 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 that 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 - either because he was barely literate
and couldn't read them, or because they provided evidence
of democratic government that did not square with his own
notion of rule by an all-powerful tyrant.
When the Greek 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.
And that's how it ends: No Huns, no writs, no Eros, and nun
left on base.
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