A photo exhibition, with the theme “Mariupoli: the bloody history of the City of the Virgin Mary”, was inaugurated a few days ago in Kythnos, in the presence of Greek refugees from Mariupoli.

“The exhibition includes photographic documents, in which moments from pre-war life, but also from the period of the Russian siege are captured and are a memory of the lost homeland” said the president of the Federation of Greek Associations of Ukraine, Alexandra Prochenko.

For the opening of the exhibition, a delegation of Greeks from Mariupoli, who because of the war are living in Greece, went to the island.

Kythnos, the special hometown of Saint Ignatius

Kythnos is the special homeland of the spiritual leader of the Greeks of Mariupol, Saint Ignatius, who three hundred years ago managed to flee the members of the Greek community of Crimea, passing them to the Azov region, where he granted them – through the Patriarchate – a virgin territory , founding the current city of Mariupoli, in which he is worshiped as a patron saint.

“The exhibition, which we opened on August 24 (Ukraine’s Independence Day), is visited daily by residents of the island, as well as vacationers,” explains Kythnos Deputy Mayor Antonis Kokiasmos, speaking to APE-MPE. “Through the photographs”, he notes, “we live the drama of the people, to whom we feel very close. Mariupoli is a city we have visited twice before the war. We are fraternized because we are connected by Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Mariupoli, who was born in Kythnos, and at the age of 17 was ordained a monk at the Vatopedi Monastery of Mount Athos and in 1769 was sent by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Crimea, in order to exercise his priestly duties to the Greeks of the region, who were going through various hardships from the Tatars and Turks of the region, and therefore he took the decision to transfer about 50,000 Greeks from the Crimea to the vast steppes of Azov. For this reason he was known as “Moses of Mariupoli”” points out the deputy mayor of Kythnos.

“We are happy to have come to Kythnos, our spiritual homeland, which connected us, the Greeks of Ukraine, with Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Mariupol. Today, Mariupol is under Russian occupation. The war in Ukraine is now one of the bloodiest tragedies of the Ukrainian Greeks. We do not forget those tragic events of the spring of 2022, when the “City of the Virgin” was destroyed during the violent battles and the continuous bombardment of the civilian population,” says Mrs. Prochenko, speaking to APE-MPE. She herself left Mariupoli a month after the invasion. All the previous time she was hidden in a small basement of a single-family house, together with 20 other people.

“The bloody history of the “City of the Virgin” (Mariupoli), through this photo exhibition, is important to us, since Kythnos is not just a beautiful Greek island but is twinned with Mariupol. We have had close contacts since 2016,” points out the president of the Federation of Greek Associations of Ukraine.

Mariupol photographers Lina Komarova, Angela Bilondid, Maximos Sagaidak, Viktoria Dedova and Lev Santalov participate in the exhibition.

The exhibition operates in the Municipal Council Hall of the Municipality of Kythnos and is scheduled to last until September 15. However, according to the deputy mayor, Mr. Kokiasmosno, it may be extended until the end of September.