ARMENIAN PILGRIMAGE TO RUINED MONASTERY IN NORTH
By Leo Leonidou

Cyprus Mail
8 May 2007

TWO hundred Armenians on Sunday returned to the abandoned mediaeval
monastery of Saint Magar in the north, where prayers were said for
the first time in 33 years.

"It was a great success and a very moving experience, which brought
back many, pleasant, old memories," said Vartkes Mahdessian, the
Armenian deputy in the House of Representatives.

Many of the pilgrims used to spend a great deal of time at the
monastery until the Turkish invasion in 1974, and they were escorted
to the site by a United Nations patrol and Turkish Cypriot police.

The trip took place following an initiative from Mahdessian, "with
the help of the Armenian Metropolis and the UN."

"Many young people came along with us and our trip raised awareness,
not only among our youth but also with Greek Cypriots," he explained.

The pilgrimage was in homage to the pre-invasion days, when people
used to attend religious services there on the first Sunday of May.

It wasn’t all good news though, as the visitors found the church to
be in a derelict state, with many inscriptions destroyed.

The perpetrators are thought to be prospective developers who had
set their sights on transforming the monastery into a casino.

Eyewitnesses reported that many buildings had no roofs and are in
danger of collapsing.

"It was all very upsetting to see," said Mahdessian.

Archbishop Varoujan Hergelian led those present in a prayer of grace,
Hayr Mer in Armenian, while some had brought candles with them to
mark the holy day of the monastery’s saint, a Coptic recluse who had
lived in the caves below the present site of the monastery in the
12th century.

The 9,000-acre estate of olive, citrus and carob trees leads down to
the northern seashore, which lies within a military zone and near a
Turkish Army camp in the Kyrenia mountain range.

"My intention is to organise a similar pilgrimage every year on the
first Sunday of May," the deputy said. "We must remind ourselves of
our heritage before the older generations start to disappear."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress