The different color of the skulls

Ossuary of Esphigmenou Monastery. The different color of the skulls is clearly visible. White, as the Athonites say - begged, saved through the prayers of the Mother of God. And brown or the color of ripe wax are ascetics especially pleasing to God.

By the way, an interesting observation of the Athonite monks. In communal monasteries, most bones are white, brown or waxy are rare, and there are few black ones. But in the sketes, in idiorhythms, in the cells, the number of brown ones is much larger than usual, as well as black ones. Because walking the middle royal path of humble obedience in a skete and taking off into the desert is not always easy, but there are much fewer falls. And in a skete or desert, the stakes rise sharply.

Hieromonk Cleopa (Lyubochkin)