Pontians across Australia joined many Greeks who spent this weekend commemorating Panageias (The Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokou).

Panageias is also special to the Pontians because of their veneration of Panageia Soumela, a depiction of the Virgin Mary which goes back to the early days of Christianity and is said to have first been painted by St Luke.

This weekend was also important to the Pontian diaspora because for the first time in 88 years a Greek Orthodox service was conducted at the monastery of Panageia Soumela, in Trapezounta in north east Turkey.

The liturgy for the Dormition was held yesterday and was led by the by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

The last Pontian Greeks were forced to leave Pontos in 1922 with the Turkish goverment banning all liturgies in the almost 1,800 year old monastery, which Pontian Greeks deem their most valuable religious site.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople in Istanbul has applied for permission from the Turkish Ministry of Culture to organise a holy liturgy in the monastery for many years but has previously been declined.

Swedish Pontiac organisation, Evxinos Pontos Stockholm, said the Pontian Greeks have waited 78 years to once again experience a holy liturgy at the Panageia Soumela monastery up in the Trapezounta’s mountains.

Greek Australian Stephanos Eleftheriadis, who has visited Panageia Soumela twice, once in 1997 and once in 2000, told Neos Kosmos that the only way he could describe it is as “heaven on earth”.

Mr Eleftheriadis and his sister first visited the monastery in 1997 as part of a tour group of 50 people, organised by George Andreadis, author of Greek genocide novel Tamama.

“We all went up, it was magnificent, we spent a whole day there, and then the group moved on, we had some priests there with us so we stayed and went back for the second day,” he said “On the second day the clouds descended below the church so we were in the clouds, apart from it already being a magnificent luscious green with non-stop flowing water, it was almost like time stood still,” he said.

During this visit to Panageia Soumela Mr Eleftheriadis said he was fortunate to be travelling with a monk and two priests who conducted a short Greek Orthodox service in the monastery, which he described as a significant experience.

Mr Eleftheriadis said his second visit was even more magical than his first, as it was snowing at the time.

Weather conditions made the monastery difficult to access as his Jeep was sliding on the hills and the internal part of the church was impenetrable due to too much snow, he said.

“But it’s actually become very touristy, to the point that you pay for a ticket to get in, they’re making a killing on that,” he said, adding that time limits of 15 to 20 minutes are imposed on visitors.