Monastery

Meteora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime, especially during Easter.

With the storm over the planned legislation for same-sex marriage having subsided - at least on the surface - the tranquil monastic community of Mount Athos welcomed its new civil administrator at the start of this week. All the proper honors were observed with utmost formality as Anastasios Mitsialis officially took office on his inaugural visit to Karyes.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has announced that Turkish authorities have granted permission for a divine liturgy to be held at the former Orthodox Christian Sumela Monastery, located in the mountainous Trabzon region known to Greeks as Trapezounta, on August 15, feast day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

In line with a project, a "hidden chapel" unearthed during the restoration of the Sümela Monastery, one of Turkey's religious tourism centers in the northern province of Trabzon, will be revived.

A 76-year-old monk in Mount Athos died of Covid-19 last Saturday while six monasteries on the peninsula have been placed in quarantine, the monastic community's civil governor said on Wednesday.

The Sümela Monastery, located in the Maçka district of the Black Sea province of Trabzon, has been visited by around 45,000 local and international tourists since being reopened to worship on July 28, local officials have said.

The administration of the Mount Athos monastic community in northern Greece decided on Wednesday to continue prohibiting the admission of pilgrims and other visitors until April 20 as part of the measures against the coronavirus epidemic.

The only people excluded from the measure are employees and other "necessary professionals" the administration said.

Being invisible to the subject is one of the greatest virtues of the good photographer. And thanks to this quality, Stratos Kalafatis gives his audience a glance into the world of the monastic community of Mount Athos. The exhibition, "Athos: The Colors of Faith," has already been shown at 25 venues in different parts of the world.

The Kuştul Monastery has been clinging to pillars of sheer rock overlooking a valley in the Black Sea province of Trabzon's picturesque Maçka district for many centuries. Worshippers, throughout the centuries, seemingly had to trek a difficult route to get to the monastery.

Located on a route connecting the Black Sea to Central Anatolia, the rock-cut Virgin Mary Monastery is now hosting guests amid the start of the summer season.