Sakellaropoulou expresses shock at ‘desecration’ of Trabzon monastery

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou has expressed her shock at the “desecration” of the World Cultural Monument of Panagia Sumela in Turkey in the wake of footage showing a DJ playing electronic music at the historic monastery in the mountainous Trabzon region.

Inaugurating the exhibition “For Faith and Homeland: The Contribution of the Church to the Struggle of 1821,” at the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens on Tuesday, Sakellaropoulou described the museum as a place of art and memory, an ark not only for simple artifacts religious faith but also national symbols.

One of those symbols was the icon of the Panagia Sumela, which she said she needed to single out due to the “the recent desecration of this World Heritage Site.”

The Panagia Sumela icon is one “that Hellenism, especially Pontic Hellenism, considers an integral part of its identity, as it depicts the Mother of God, their guide and protector in the painful experience of uprooting and refugeedom,” the president said.

Source: ekathimerini.com