Turkish authorities this year failed to approve a request by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to perform a celebratory divine liturgy on the occasion of Thursday’s Dormition of the Virgin religious feast at the historic Panaghia Sumela Monastery – a site revered by ethnic Greeks whose ancestors hail from the Pontus region.
Instead, Turkish authorities issued a license for the holding of the Christian Orthodox service for Aug. 23, the ninth day after the great feast day.
Priests of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate, including the Ecumenical Patriarch himself, Bartholomew I, had in previous years officiated at a divine liturgy on Aug. 15 at the cliff-hanging Sumela monastery, which was converted to a museum in 1923.
Bartholomew, the primus inter pares of the world Orthodox primates, will be on his native Imbros island (called Gökçeada in Turkish) for the significant religious feast day, known in the Greek Orthodox tradition as the Feast of the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.
Turkish authorities last year relented at the last minute and allowed the holding of the Christian service.
The Monastery was closed to visitors in September 2015 for three years due to restoration and field work. It reopened in May 2019.
