The Australian Hellenic Council, New South Wales, held its inaugural Pilgrimage to Picton.
Led in prayer by Father Chris Vergos of St Raphael Orthodox Church Liverpool, a trisayio (memorial prayer service) was held over the final resting place of Antonis Manolis, one of the first two Hellenes to settle in Australia, on Saturday April 2. Mr Manolis lived in the Wollondilly district for two-thirds of his life was buried in Upper Picton Cemetery at his passing in 1880.
AHC members and friends were joined by newly-elected MP for Wollondilly, Jai Rowell, and Wollondilly Shire Council’s Mayor Cr Michael Banasik and Cr Ben Banasik, as well as Campbelltown Labor figure Nick Bleasdale. Mayor Banasik thanked the AHC for organising the pilgrimage.
“Honouring pioneers such as Antonis Manolis is important as much to the Picton community as to the Australian Hellenic community. It is a great honour for our shire that one of the founding fathers of the Australian Hellenic community found a home in life, and a resting place afterwards, in our area.” The Pilgrimage to Picton is the second in the series of such commemorative visits to the final resting places of pioneers of the Australian Hellenic community in this state, organised by the AHC of NSW. The program was initiated in December 2010.
In Sydney’s Waverley Cemetery are the final resting places of Katherine Crummer, the first Hellene woman migrant to Australia, Ioannis Comino, foundation President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW, and Father Serapheim Phokas, the first Orthodox priest resident in Australia, amongst other luminaries.
