Over 200 Armenians visit Sourp Magar monastery in Cyprus

PanARMENIAN.Net - Over 200 Armenians visited the historic but crumbling Sourp Magar monastery in Cyprus on Sunday, May 13 in an annual pilgrimage in honor of Saint Makarios, the Hermit of Alexandria.

Cyprus Mail reports that Cypriot Armenians were joined by those from the UK, Syria, Lebanon and Armenia to visit one of the two most important Armenian religious sites in Cyprus. The monastery near Buffavento castle, founded in the early 11th century by Christian Copts, was transferred to the Armenian community in the early 1400s.

The monastery, for centuries a place of pilgrimage for locals and travelers en route to the Holy Land, has fallen into dangerous disrepair since the Turkish invasion.

“It’s very sad. People came out of Sunday’s service crying,” a spokeswoman for the representative of the Armenian community, MP Vartkes Mahdessian said.

She said that they had to cordon off sections of the monastery to prevent people from going into dangerous areas.

The Armenian community has been visiting the monastery as a community each year since 2007 when Mahdessian arranged for an organized visit after he came to office.

Before the Turkish invasion of 1974 families would travel to the monastery to make preparations for the Saint Makarios’ name day celebrated on the first Sunday of May (this year’s service was moved back for practical reasons).

“The vast lands of the monastery, which is nearly 8,500 donums, includes 30,000 olive and carob trees, extends up to the sea and is known to be picturesque and idyllic,” Mahdessian said in an announcement.

In the 20th century it was used as a summer resort for the Armenian community where scouts and students would camp, “including students of the Melkonian Educational Institute, many of whom were orphans of the Armenian Genocide,” Mahdessian said.

The monastery once held manuscripts dating back to 1202 as well as ecclesiastical relics.

To visit the monastery for Saint Makarios’ day, the community applies via the Foreign Ministry which relays their wish to the United Nations who act as intermediaries to get permission from the ‘TRNC’.

Together with the church of the Virgin Mary in occupied Nicosia, the monastery is the most important Armenian church monument on the island.