Adult students from the St Sophia & Three Daughters Greek Language School in NSW visited the grave of Katerina Crummer nee Plessos, the first known free Greek woman migrant in Australia.
The students and their teacher Stella Sorotou visited Waverly Cemetery with Fr Irenaeus, who performed Trisagio for her eternal memory.
Katerina arrived in Australia on September 29, 1835 and passed away in Sydney in 1907.
Before coming to Australia she was engaged by her mother to Ioannis Kolettis (later a prime minister of Greece), and she then left to pursue her freedom.
She met Lord Byron during the Greek War of Independence and later married Major James Crummer in 1827 on the island of Kalamos where Crummer, the island’s commandant, met the young refugee from the Greek independence wars.
“We admire her courage, and we feel grateful for her brave decision almost two centuries ago, which changed Greek Australian History,” the St Sophia & Three Daughters Greek Orthodox Church said on a Facebook post.
The group said they were most likely the first official visit to her grave by a Greek school.
