ARMENIAN COMMUNITY MAKE SACRED PILGRIMAGE IN CYPRUS
Famagusta Gazette
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May 17 2010
Cyprus
According to the Representative’s Office, around 200 Armenian Cypriots
visited the monastery on Sunday, some of whom came especially from
abroad.
FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE 17.MAY.10
The Office of the Representative of the Armenian Community, Vartkes
Mahdessian, in co-operation with the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus
have made their third visit-pilgrimage to the Sourp Magar Monastery
(Magaravank).
The first visit came in 2007, when Armenian Cypriots made the journey
to the occupied Armenian Monastery as a community after 33 years.
According to the Representative’s Office, around 200 Armenian Cypriots
visited the monastery on Sunday, some of whom came especially from
abroad.
The monastery was founded by Copts around the year 1000 AD and in
1425 it was inherited by the Armenians.
It is dedicated to Saint Makarios the Hermit of Alexandria and it is
located in the eastern part of the Turkish-occupied Pendadhaktylos
at an altitude of 550 metres and a small distance from Halevga,
within the Plataniotissa forest. The vast land of the monastery,
which is over 8.000 donums, includes 30.000 olive and carob trees,
extends up to the sea and is known to be picturesque and idyllic.
>>From the monastery one can see the Taurus mountain range in Cilicia,
which is right opposite.
The Armenian Monastery had been for centuries a popular pilgrimage for
Armenians and non-Armenians and a place of recuperation for Catholicoi
(Patriarchs) and other clerics from Cilicia, Jerusalem and Armenia,
as well as a popular centre for local and foreign travellers and for
pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. Furthermore, the monastery was
used as a summer resort, where Armenian scouts and students would
camp, including students of the Melkonian Educational Institute,
many of whom were orphans of the Armenian Genocide. A large number of
exquisite and priceless manuscripts, dating back to 1202, as well as
other valuable ecclesiastical relics were housed there. Fortunately,
in 1947 some of them were saved when they were transferred to the
"Cilicia" museum of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.
The Magaravank is the only Armenian monastery in Cyprus and together
with the church of the Virgin Mary in occupied Nicosia, it is the most
important Armenian church monument on the island. It was occupied in
1974 during the Turkish invasion and ever since it remains at the
mercy of nature, silent, ruined, desecrated and deserted, awaiting
for its rightful owners to return.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress