Pilgrimage Excursion of His Highness Aetolia and Acarnania to Pontus and Constantinopletranslated

A pilgrimage visit to the sanctified and blood-stained lands of the Pontus and to the historic Cathedral of Rome, Constantinople was carried out by the Holy Metropolis of Aetolia and Acarnania, with the spiritual guidance and accompaniment of His Eminence Metropolitan Damascenes, from June 30 to July 7, 2026. The group of pilgrims arrived by air in Samsouda airport, via Constantinople. Sampsouda, the historical Amisos of the ancient Greeks, is an emblematic port of the Black Sea, a stronghold of Hellenism since ancient times, as a colony of the Milesians in the 7th century. B.C. and seat of the once brilliant Metropolis of Amisos, while at the same time this city carries a heavy historical memory, as it was inextricably linked with the most tragic pages and the beginning of the Genocide of Pontic Hellenism.

The tour of the city of Samsoudas, focused on the emblematic quarter of Agia Triada, the once vibrant spiritual, economic and religious center of the city's Pontic Hellenism. There, the pilgrims had the opportunity to see the silent but imposing monuments of Greek education, where the four great Greeks flourished...