Publications beyond Medicine

Faith on a String

Almost endless is the number of chains with beads, charms and other decorative elements that were used by mankind since the dawn of human existence. It is very difficult to speculate what was done with the charm chains but it is obvious that they were used as decorative elements. However, it is very probable that our ancestors fingered them in times of idleness and maybe at times of contemplation on an issue that worried them. This might have been the beginning of the transformation of the charm chains of being understood as a spiritual tool for meditative awareness.   

The first undeniable documented use of Prayer Beads can be found around the 8th century BC in Hinduism. The next report is between the 3rd and 4th century AD from the first Christians who lived in the Egyptian Desert as hermits a tradition held unchanged since then by the Greek Orthodox Christians.  All major religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity use Prayer Beads with the exception of the Jewish religion.

Homo Sapiens evolved as the first ape learned how to cook

Cooking developed to an art and nobody can imagine that cooking and eating together will be abolished from our social life. However, cooking had a great impact in our evolution as it increased food metabolic efficiency. Homo sapiens spent less time foraging, chewing and finally digesting, leading to the development of a smaller and more effective digestive tract. This liberated energy for a bigger and more complex brain converting him into a thinking machine.

Stained windows in ST. Ignatius Chapel on Mount Athos

Prof. Zachariou has travelled many times in the last 30 years to the Holy Mount Athos, not only as a pilgrim but also as a researcher with main theme Byzantine Medicine in times when the means of transport between the Holy Monasteries and Cells were donkeys and mules. One of his hobbies are stained glas windows so he designed and produced the windows of thus chapel. The book depicts the windows and interprets the symbolic meaning of the windows.