March 12, 2011
Romfea.gr
The entire island of Mykonos gathered for a three-hour walking litany with the icon of Panagia Tourliani from the Monastery in Ano Mera in Hora to enthrone it in the parish Church of Saint Kyriaki, where she will remain until the Saturday Lazarus. This is an old custom of the island.
The processional parade, nine kilometers long, was led by Metropolitan Dorotheos, the priests of the island, the Mayor of Mykonos, the Harbor Master, the Deputy Governor of 6 MSEP, students from the elementary school Ano Mera, the municipal band, flags and banners of patriotic associations and local clubs.
Metropolitan Dorotheos said the following at the Church of Saint Kyriaki:
"... Our Panagia, our Mother, made us worthy again today to accompany her on the annual holy pilgrimage from Ano Mera in Hora, of the blessed island of our nation in Mykonos, because she gave us a bright and sunny day after the snowstorm of the previous three days!
Who ordered you to walk for three-hours to bring you here with us? No one! The voice of internal intention and disposition served as our companion! And God sees this and rewards!
This is what our parents passed on to us, what we deliver to our children today, the hundreds of which spontaneously processed with us... And let us inform those who criticize Mykonos, because they do not really know that here lives a people who do not depart from faith and tradition, and who does not allow anyone to change the Orthodox Cycladic identity and steal from the tabernacle of its heart the precious jewel of the faith of the Church and its tradition ... "
