Journey to Mount Athos

Journey to Mount Athos is part travelogue and part spiritual journey. It tells the true story of five young men who raised money working at Greek Food Festivals in the Chicago area so they could visit Mount Athos.

Four college students and a young professor began reading Greek and Russian Orthodox books on aestheticism and plan to visit Mount Athos, a peninsula in Northern Greece devoted to monastic communities and still governed under Byzantine law. The first half of the book describes the misadventures of the boys as they perform clean-up operations at Greek food festivals in the Chicago area to raise money. Finally, miraculously, they are able to fly to Greece. The second half of their adventure takes them through the churches of Thessaloniki and Mount Athos. This account was written one chapter at a time and read to the group as they continued to meet through 1988. It is an accurate account of their experiences, although decidedly from the author's perspective. The descriptions, history, and views of Christian Orthodoxy presented here reflect the groups perceptions of the Church and are not intended to be in any way authoritative.

Dr. Roach has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and English and Master of Arts degree in English from Northern Illinois University as well as a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University. His dissertation on the American news media received a national Dissertation of the Year Award from the Speech Communication Association in 1994. Dr. Roach was an assistant editor for Star Publications and managing editor of the Romeoville-Bolingbrook Beacon. He served as Media Coordinator of Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and Corporate Director of Internal Communication for Carson Pirie Scott. Today he is president of Thomas Roach and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in public opinion research, news media strategies, advertising, and employee communication. Former clients include Jones Lang LaSalle, LaSalle Bank, Amoco and the Ford Motor Company. He served as message strategist on several political campaigns, including two congressional races.