For the first time since 1922, the Greek Orthodox Church of Agia Fotini was granted the permission to hold its Good Friday Epitaphio Service outside on a public street in Izmir, Turkey.
A wonderful turnout was in attendance, including joint-friendship assistance from the Catholic Archdiocese, where the Epitaphio was taken from the Greek Church and escorted over to the Catholic Church of St. John.
The street was blocked off by local police and the people took the streets in joy.
According to Chrysovalantis Stamelos, who shared the photos from the epic liturgy, it was “a wonderful sight to see in this beloved city. Truly a mind-blowing event to which I am incredibly honored to be a part of…Kali Anastasi to all.”
Agia Photini was once the focal point of Greek religious life in Smyrna, a cosmopolitan city that was majority Greek whose residents were victims of the war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Like much of the city, it was burned during the war in 1922, when tens of thousands of Greeks fled.
The current Agia Fotini is a Dutch chapel from 1920s-era that survived the fires and was donated to the Greek Consul General’s office in order to hold religious services when needed.
For the first time since 1922, the church now runs independently from the Greek Consulate, functioning as a local church for the local Greek community under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Photos by Chrysovalantis Stamelos, a Greek American filmmaker living in Turkey whose film, Hello Anatolia chronicles his journey from New York City to Izmir, in search of his family roots.
6 comments
My father and his family came from Smyrna, my father studying to become a priest, when he fled Smyrna or he would have been inscripted in the Turkish army.When my father was dying he was really not in his right of mind but until he took his last breath he recited and sang all that he learned when he was studying to become a priest it still brings great tears to my eyes. Thank you for showing your photos, I am going to save these. Kali Anastesi! PS are you grandson to Aspe and Andy Pappas, if so your great grandfather was my mother in-laws sister.
My father fled Smyrna in 1922.
My grand parents also fled Smyrna in 1922.
My father came from Smyrna in 1913 when a lot of his family were murdered and had to leave. His father and two brothers were Greek priests.
my grandparents came from Constantinople, but my dad's mom was raised in Smirni. I'm not sure her background was actually from Smirni, but she was a Maniatisa ( from Mani)
My mother Georgia Harhalaki left Smyrna as a Picture Bride to America in 1921.
Her mother and siblings were part of the population exchange and were sent to Volos Greece.