Near the village of Kastania Panagia Soumela, the spiritual center of the Pontian Hellenism, is found. The building complex comprises of two churches, guesthouses and a restaurant in the service of the pilgrims.
An important relic of the rich museum collection of the Foundation is the Cross, which contains a large part of wood from the Holy Cross, and belonged to the Comnenoi imperial treasury. The Cross was donated to the monastery in the 14th century by emperor Manuel III Grand Comnenus. Other relics include a Manuscript Gospel, dated to 644 AD, an embroidered epitaph dated to 1738, and a number of holy vessels, vestments, and ecclesiastical books which are found in the museum collection of Panagia Soumela.
The glorious history of Panagia Soumela begins when Luke the Evangelist paints the miraculous icon in 56; the icon was placed in a church in Athens and remained there until 380. In 386, time of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Great, the icon “chooses” to move to the region of Pontos in a miraculous way. The Hellenism of Pontos, with the erection of the Holy monastery at the heart of Mount Mela, gains a particularly valuable symbol. The Athenian monks, Varnavas and Sofronios, followed the course of the icon and became the founders of the Holy monastery. Panagia Soumela played a leading role in the history of Pontian Hellenism, until 1922, when the monks abandon the monastery due to the uprooting of the Greek population. In 1924 the icon, together with other important relics is buried at the chapel of Agia Varvara, one kilometer from the monastery. In 1931, Archimandrite Amvrosios Soumeliotis, following certain actions by Greek refugees from Pontos, transfers the relics to Athens where they are kept in the Byzantine Museum. In 1951, the icon of Virgin Mary is given to the Panagia Soumela Society, and the construction of the monastery on Mount Vermio begins. Since 1952, Panagia Soumela is promoted to a Holy Symbol and meeting place for all Greeks, in particular those of Pontian origin, who visit the monastery in thousands on August 15.
