The first service to take place after 88 years at the Soumela Monastery in northeast Turkey was described on August 15th as a "historic and important" event by Premier George Papandreou, who watched Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew preach to some 1,500 pilgrims, most from Greece and Russia.
"After 88 years, the tears of the Virgin Mary have stopped flowing," said Patriarch Bartholomew, at the 4th-century monastery where the last service was held in 1922. 

The Patriarch said the event was imbued with symbolism. He added that this monastery is the bequest of a civilization which embraced the coexistence of various cultures.