The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch/Volume 1/Part 1/Book 1/Section 13
Sect. XIII.
Constantinople.—Bosphorus.
On Monday, the twenty-ninth of Teshrin the second, we left Constantinople on board a caïk; and came to Νεοχώρι, or Yeni Keui, to hire a vessel, and proceed, by the Black Sea, to Moldavia: for the voyage by land to Adrianople was difficult for us, for two reasons: one was, that it would require for expenses and hire of carriages more than five hundred piastres; the other arose from the cold, and abundance of snow and rain. This Boghaz, or throat, of the Black Sea was opened in ancient times, by Alexander; and the passage along it is very difficult. From Galata to Neochori, both right and left, are farms and houses, and palaces and seraglios belonging to the Emperor; and gardens and vineyards, walks and baths, and so forth. We alighted at Neochori, at the house of Dadyan Raïs, surnamed Kalokari, and Theodori; and his son is called Yazgaki. May God perpetuate their existence, and prolong their lives! for their generosity and kind actions to us, and to strangers in general, cannot be expressed by mortal tongue.
On Sunday, the third of the Fast of the Nativity, which was the fifth of the month Canon the first, fell the celebration of the Feast of St. Saba; and our Lord the Patriarch performed mass in the Church of St. George and St. Saba, for the aforesaid village; and again, on the Monday, he performed a second mass in the Church of St. Nicholas, it being the day of his festival.
In the afternoon of Monday, after the fourth Sunday in Advent, our Lord the Patriarch performed Funeral Service at Vigils, according to our Ritual, for the deceased Mira, wife of Hajji Abdallah, son of the Canon Mansor, in presence of her children, in the Church of Our Lady; and said mass for her on the morning of Tuesday the fourteenth of Canon the first. They made a breakfast for her, of boiled meat, coloured with wine and bread, according to their custom.
Afterwards, we embarked our luggage on board the ship, upon the rising of a favourable wind, called Νότος, or the South Wind, which the vessels bound for the port of Galata, in the Black Sea, had been waiting for: and in the afternoon of the afore-mentioned Tuesday, they sailed with us in two boats, to take us to the ship, which was anchored in a place named Cara Dash, in Turkish; and in Arabic, Sakhr Alaswad, or the Black Rock; near to the entrance of the Black Sea, and the mouth of the Bosphorus, above the second of the forts which the Turks have erected in this channel: for before you come to Neochori, you see, on your right and left, two large forts. Here again are two other forts; and above them, on the top of the hill, are two ancient castles, of considerable size, and now in ruins, which Alexander is said to have built. Higher up is a convent, dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, and called, in Greek, Μοναστήρι τοῦ Μαυρομώλου, or Convent of the Black Rock, which I went to visit. It is upon the top of the hill, is inhabited by forty Monks, and contains a large and ancient church; outside of which is a holy well, with a copious spring of water, very sweet, and a cure for the sick. Over it, upon the wall, is a picture of Our Lady Panzanasa, which works miracles, and is famous for the cure of diseases. Inside the church is another Ἁγίασμα.
We had now mounted on board the ship. The sky was perfectly serene; the stars glittered; and the captain had determined to set sail at midnight: when, of a sudden, there arose a violent wind, and a dreadful storm came on, with a heavy fall of snow, which lasted from that night till the next. In this time four ships, which had ventured out of the Bosphorus, were wrecked; and it was by the guidance of the Almighty, and dextrous manœuvres, that we returned back with our vessel, from the place where it was, to the village called Terapia[1], above Yeni Keui, where we anchored. Here we found many ships at anchor; and alighted in a house belonging to the Christians, who have one hundred and twenty houses here, and have not a single Turk among them: for in the village is a church dedicated to Saint George, who is a present observer in his miracles; and whenever any one of them departs from his faith, he destroys him. This is the reason no infidel dwells among them.
On Friday, the seventeenth of Canon the first, our Lord the Patriarch said mass in the above-mentioned church of Terapia, and prepared (شال) Μύρον, or Ointment, though it was excessively cold, and there was a severe frost. Also, on the eve of Sunday of the Relation, we assisted at Vigils there, and he performed mass the next day, and made the holy oil. We read four Gospels, according to our custom, in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and Greek; and there was a multitude of persons present, from the ships at anchor.
On the eve of Friday, and Παραμονὴ (Vigil) of the Feast of the Nativity, Kyr Païsius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, sent to the Patriarch of Antioch, and invited him by address, in a Συστατιϰὸν from him, and for the most part from the heads of the Clergy—for they loved our Lord the Patriarch with great affection, and had little observance for their own Patriarchs, or for each other—that they, the two Patriarchs, might perform the mass together. For they said: "Fortunately for us, the Antiochian has been delayed, till he perform mass amongst us on the Feast of the Nativity, and we receive on that day the sacred mysteries from his hands."
- ↑ "The beautiful village of Therapia, on the Bosphorus, was no less distinguished for its healthy situation, as its name implies, than for the manners of its inhabitants. They were entirely Greeks; and the gay, festive, cheerful habits of the people, enlivened by music, dancing, and social intercourse, formed the strongest contrast with the dull and repulsive aspect of every other village in the vicinity." Dr. Walsh's Narrative.