Sümela Monastery

Sümela Monastery, Turkey

Sümela Monastery (Mother Mary Monastery, Maçka), the monastery is located 17 km from south of Maçka district on a steep side of the Mother Mary Valley, 250 meters above the valley bottom inside a cave. The monastery could only be reached after a hard and long climbing but the wonderful landscape and spectacle of the monastery worth all efforts for climbing. There are numerous rumors relevant with the initial foundation of the monastery. The most common among these rumors is that the foundation of the monastery was laid by the monk Barnabas from Athens and his nephew Sophrenios. Sümela Monastery had been identified with a Portrait of Mother Mary which was painted by St. Luke since the first foundation period and which is rumored to be create miracles. According to the rumors, Barnabas and his nephew comes to Trabzon having the Portrait of Mother Mary and the childhood of Jesus, which is said to be painted by St. Luke. Here they gather volunteer laborers whom would assist them in the construction of the monastery and then reach to Degirmendere of Maçka district. The monks climb the steepest slope of the Kora mountain and reach to a cave in which water is dripping. The monastery is then founded in this cave as two chambers (A.D. 385). This two chamber monastery founded by the two monks had been accepted as a sacred and holy temple by the Christians both from the Catholic and Orthodox sects after the death of the two monks (around year in 412). After the seperation of İstanbul from Western Roman Empire, the Byzantibe Emperor Justinien (527-568) orders fortification of the Trabzon province and expanding of the monastery. Later he offers a rich libraryas a gift to the monastery.