{"id":22062,"date":"2026-09-22T01:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-baptised-on-mount-athos-greek-city-times\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:06:28","slug":"mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-baptised-on-mount-athos-greek-city-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-baptised-on-mount-athos-greek-city-times\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA Fighter Leon Gavanas Baptised on Mount Athos \u2013 Greek City Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-first=\"S\">\n<h2 id=\"h-mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-has-been-baptised-at-the-holy-monastery-of-gregoriou-on-mount-athos\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">MMA fighter Leon Gavanas has been baptised at the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou on Mount Athos.<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Video from the monastery circulated this week and shows the sacrament on the Holy Mountain. Baptisms there are uncommon. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DdkeVmjPf5O\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"\/>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>avaton<\/em> bars women from Athos, so only men and boys receive the rite, often in the sea rather than a font, and only with the abbot\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-576x1024.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-602230\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.5625019074068422;width:670px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-576x1024.gif 576w, https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-169x300.gif 169w, https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-450x800.gif 450w, https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-20x36.gif 20w, https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SnapInsta.to_AQPAc8eA1Kn79n4DJbURq-6zKSfFAN0ohL4emlEZ5kMunDZlEB-FIbU4cvhZr3t45Z8OiRgjGWQF-7UrjJ-gJspK0-Wl3U1yI9cZLvs-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter-225x400.gif 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Leon Gavanas baptism<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gavanas was born in Kavala on 7 April 1998. He fights out of Germany \u2014 Peiting and Frankfurt \u2014 with MMA Spirit. A former boxer and kickboxer, he turned professional in late 2025 as a middleweight. Fight records list a 2\u20131 pro MMA mark after bouts under MFC and Fight Nation Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The monastery has not issued a long public statement. Orthodox pages sharing the footage present the baptism as his reception into the Church.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Source: Video circulated 21 September 2026; fighter details from public MMA records (Sherdog \/ Tapology \/ FightMatrix).<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/leongavanas\/?hl=en\">Follow Leons Adventure <\/a><\/p>\n<footer class=\"article-tags entry-footer\">\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"category_container author-information\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<section id=\"authorpage\" class=\"authorpage\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e431a0aaf2dcb7e221a3bd95d4b4996106e91f12afa178bba01dd45d1cdacc01?s=164&amp;r=g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e431a0aaf2dcb7e221a3bd95d4b4996106e91f12afa178bba01dd45d1cdacc01?s=328&amp;r=g 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-164 photo lazyload\" height=\"164\" width=\"164\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-content\">\n<h5>Athens Bureau<\/h5>\n<p>Athens Bureau is Greek City Times\u2019 news desk in Athens, reporting on Greek politics, society, economy, culture, and breaking national news for readers in Greece and the diaspora.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<i class=\"fa-solid fa-link\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2026\/09\/22\/mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-baptised-on-mount-athos\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MMA fighter Leon Gavanas has been baptised at the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou on Mount Athos. Video from the monastery circulated this week and shows the sacrament on the Holy Mountain. Baptisms there are uncommon. The avaton bars women from Athos, so only men and boys receive the rite, often in the sea rather than &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"MMA Fighter Leon Gavanas Baptised on Mount Athos \u2013 Greek City Times\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/mma-fighter-leon-gavanas-baptised-on-mount-athos-greek-city-times\/#more-22062\" aria-label=\"Read more about MMA Fighter Leon Gavanas Baptised on Mount Athos \u2013 Greek City Times\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MMA-Fighter-Leon-Gavanas-Baptised-on-Mount-Athos.gif","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}