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Armenians Make Visit-Pilgrimage To Magaravank Monastery

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  • Armenians Make Visit-Pilgrimage To Magaravank Monastery

    ARMENIANS MAKE VISIT-PILGRIMAGE TO MAGARAVANK MONASTERY

    PanARMENIAN.Net
    May 17, 2010 - 14:07 AMT 09:07 GMT

    The Office of the Representative of the Armenian Community of Cyprus,
    Vartkes Mahdessian, in co-operation with the Armenian Prelature of
    Cyprus have made their third visit-pilgrimage to the Sourp Magar
    Monastery (Magaravank), Famagusta Gazette reported.

    The first visit came in 2007, when Armenian Cypriots made the journey
    to the occupied Armenian Monastery as a community after 33 years.

    According to the Representative's Office, around 200 Armenian Cypriots
    visited the monastery on Sunday, some of whom came especially from
    abroad.

    The monastery was founded by Copts around the year 1000 AD and in
    1425 it was inherited by the Armenians.

    The Armenian Monastery had been for centuries a popular pilgrimage for
    Armenians and non-Armenians and a place of recuperation for Catholicoi
    (Patriarchs) and other clerics from Cilicia, Jerusalem and Armenia,
    as well as a popular centre for local and foreign travelers and for
    pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. Furthermore, the monastery was
    used as a summer resort, where Armenian scouts and students would
    camp, including students of the Melkonian Educational Institute,
    many of whom were orphans of the Armenian Genocide. A large number of
    exquisite and priceless manuscripts, dating back to 1202, as well as
    other valuable ecclesiastical relics were housed there. Fortunately,
    in 1947 some of them were saved when they were transferred to the
    Cilicia museum of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

    The Magaravank is the only Armenian monastery in Cyprus and together
    with the church of the Virgin Mary in occupied Nicosia, it is the most
    important Armenian church monument on the island. It was occupied in
    1974 during the Turkish invasion and ever since it remains at the
    mercy of nature, silent, ruined, desecrated and deserted, awaiting
    for its rightful owners to return.
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