The Orthodox Church today honors a great Despotic Celebration, the transformation of the Savior And in the refugee settlement of Nea Kromni, in one of the most beautiful suburbs of the city of Drama, a special temple is celebrated, which is now directly linked to Pontian Hellenism. The reason for the Lavrian monastery or otherwise Nea Sumela, whose temple is honored in the Transfiguration of the Savior.
On the eve of the great celebration and the joy of hundreds of believers, Members of Pontic Associations and Associations who overwhelmed The enclosure of the imposing monastery was pervasive on their faces. As for the first time, after his fundamental reconstruction by the blessed Metropolitan of Drama, Mr. Paul, the temple opened its doors to faithful, pilgrims and ordinary visitors.
It is a monumental temple that causes the admiration of Visitor with impressive mosaic images and land inscriptions, orthoming, elaborate Iznik relief tiles, as well as the symbolic relics that adorn him. Throughout the temple it is widespread that the point remains a living reality and not just a forgotten story. While there are clear references to the genocide of Pontian Hellenism and the expatriation from the unforgettable homelands.
Incoming the visitor In the main temple he faces a cross In Petra, dated 1902, which the blessed Metropolitan of Drama brought in 1997 from the Kromni of Pontus, from the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, the Alhazadon Settlement. He placed him in the infrared of the Holy Temple and is surrounded by the weeping figures of the Virgin and St. John Chrysostom, accompanied by a verse of a well -known Pontian song: “Do not cry for me and you are crying and you are coming.”
In the chapel, on the west side of the temple, with the wood -carved iconostasis, honored in the Assumption of the Virgin, there is a unique representation of the Pontus of stones and below it has the inscription: “I dry the linguistics if we are overdue. The phrase “Dry half the linguist if you are over, oh patriarch of Pontia earth” is an archaic expression, which means “let our throat dry if we forget you, oh homeland Pontian land”. It is a curse that expresses dedication and love for the homeland, in this case Pontus. “
The original naphorine made was The first attempt to revive Panagia Sumela of Pontus in the 1930s. It was founded by the then Metropolitan of Chaldean Lavrentios Papadopoulos from Barrenos of Kromni (1922-1928), which is why it is called Lavrantian.
A temple that will keep the Pontus memory lime
Lavrentios established the first temple in memory of Our Lady of Sumela in Greece, placed the first copy of the image, before being transferred to Greece from Pontus. So he named the Nea Sumela Monastery. The first catholicon was inaugurated in 1927, but was demolished in 2006 due to static problems to rebuild a new Catholic, analogous to the burden of the monastery’s history associated with Panagia Sumela of Pontus.
Speaking to RES-EIA, The History Professor and Scientific Associate of the Pontic Studies headquarters AUTH Theodosis Kyriakidis emphasizes: “As has happened in many areas of Macedonia and Thrace where the refugees settled, refugee Metropolitans were also placed or postponed who also followed the refugee path with their flock. One of them, the Metropolitan of Chaldea Lavrentios, who settled in Drama and created a new monastery, the so -called Lavriani or New Sumela, to save the memory of Pontian Hellenism. “
‘The one who worked with an inadequate zeal, tire, For the memory of Pontian Hellenism in Drama »continues Mr. Kyriakidis, was the blessed Metropolitan of Drama. He fundamentally renovated the New Sumela and made sure to gather in addition to the rare relics of Pontus and all the sleeping monks of the old Sumela Monastery of Sumela of Matsouka of Pontus. “
The first owner of the monastery, Lavrentius, dedicated the first temple, only in 1927, to the memory of the victims of the genocide of Pontian Hellenism, even placing the inscription on the east side: “of the faith and the homeland of the Pontians”.
The completion of the construction of the impressive worship building, built on the standards of Mount Athos, which dominates the western entrance of Drama, stopped almost violently, after the inappropriate death of Metropolitan Paul. However, it is certain that it will continue to be a spiritual embankment of oblivion and a sacred place that holds the memory of Pontus. Inside the walls of the monastery, the pain of uprooting, but also the hope of continuity, which will be expressed by the functional life, pilgrimages and cultural activities that will now be hosted.
The new Metropolitan of Drama, Mr. Dorotheos, makes every effort to continue his work His predecessor, in order to honor the memory of both the first property of the monastery, Metropolitan of Chaldea of Lavrentios and two of the last monks of Panagia Sumela, the abbot Anthimos Masmanidis and the Hieromonk Polycarpos Adaktos – Parmax.
The recovery of the sacred relics by Metropolitan of Lavredio A few days ago, the brilliant celebrations both on the eve of the feast and today, with the celebration of the Festive Divine Liturgy, show the interest and effort of the new Shepherd of the Akritic Drama.