St. Paul Cathedral (Damascus)

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Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Saint Paul in Damascus, 2010
View with the bell tower, 2006

The Cathedral of Saint Paul or Paulus Cathedral ( Arabic كاتدرائية مار بولس, DMG Kātidrāʾīyat Mār Baulus ) is the cathedral of the Syrian Catholic Church in the Syrian capital Damascus . It is located in the Christian quarter at the eastern city gate Bab Sharqi on the south side of Straight Street and is the seat of the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy Damascus .

Church building

The Syrian Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul is about 100 m west of Bab Sharqi , the east gate of the old town , on the south side of Straight Street . The structure of the building dates from the 19th and 20th centuries. The church has massive classical-style concrete columns that, from a distance, give the impression of black basalt.

In the immediate vicinity of the Syrian Catholic Paul Cathedral, the cathedrals of two other churches are: South, seen thus from the straight road behind her is also known as Al-Zeitoun Church known Melkite Greek Catholic Cathedral, while directly from Bāb Sharqi on the south side the straight street the Saint Sarkis Cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church stands.

Syrian Catholic Christians from all over the city of Damascus attend the services in St. Paul's Cathedral. Every year on June 29, the church celebrates the feast of its patron saint Paul of Tarsus , who, initially still a persecutor of the followers of Jesus, came to believe in Jesus Christ at the gates of this city through the Damascus experience and began the message of the resurrection in Damascus to proclaim ( Acts 9: 1–25  EU ).

history

Before the Arab-Islamic conquest of Damascus in 636, a Syrian-Orthodox monastery stood on the site of the neighboring Armenian Apostolic St. Sarkis Cathedral , the church of which was consecrated to the martyrs Sergios and Bakchos and for a long time was used jointly by Armenians and Syrian Christians , but then it was Armenian Church. Later a Syrian church was built on the site of today's St. Paul Cathedral with Moses the Ethiopian as patron saint, which had been controversial between Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholics since 1662 at the latest, when some of the Syrian Christians had united with Rome : sometimes sat here Orthodox and sometimes a Catholic bishop. Leading opponents in the 1660s were the Catholic Ignatius Andreas Akhidjan from Aleppo and the Orthodox Ignatius Abdul Masih I. In 1829 the Syrian Catholic Church finally prevailed in the church on Straight Street, and the Syrian Orthodox Church first had to stand up Building a new church on Hanania Street, later the St. George's Cathedral on Bāb-Tūmā Street. In 1848, under Bishop Jakob Eliani, the old Moses of Ethiopia Church was torn down and a new, larger cathedral church was built in its place, which was no longer consecrated to Moses of Ethiopia, but rather reminded of Paul's conversion . Twelve years later, on July 9, 1860, the church was sacked in the massacre in the Christian quarter of Damascus and the southern part of the building was destroyed, but then rebuilt and reopened in 1863.

bishop

On July 27, 2019, the new Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Damascus, Mor Youhanna Jihad Battah , was installed in the Syrian Catholic St. Paul Cathedral in the presence of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Mor Ignatius Ephrem II Karim . The inauguration was led by the Patriarch Mor Ignatius Joseph III. Younan .

Cathedral of Our Lady

On the Catholic website Gcatholic.org, the Syrian Catholic cathedral on Bab-Sharqi Street appears with Archbishop Youhanna Jihad Battah as "Cathedral of Our Lady" ( Cathédrale Notre-Dame or Cathedral of Our Lady ), which is what the information given to others Stellen contradicts the fact that it is a Paulus church. However, it is also possible that this is a double patronage .

Web links

Commons : Syrian Catholic Cathedral, Damascus  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Diana Darke: Syria . Bradt Travel Guides, 2006. p. 91. The Christian quarter: Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Mar Paulus (St Paul) .
  2. ↑ a b St. Paul's Cathedral (كاتدرائية القديس بولس, in Arabic). Qenshrin.com to http://www.alepposuryoye.com (editor of the encyclopedia of churches and monasteries).
  3. ↑ متري هاجي اثناسيو ، قتيبة شهابي ، 2005 ، اديرة وكنائس دمشق وريفها: (بحث ميداني توثيقي تاريخي اثري)[ Mitri Haji Athanasio , Qutaiba Shihabi : Monasteries and churches in Damascus and their landscape (historical archaeological documentary research). Damascus 2005], pp. 36-37 and 54-56.
  4. ^ A b Installation of the New Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Damascus. Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch , July 27, 2019 (Please note: not the site of the Syrian Catholic Church ).
  5. ↑ Cathédrale Notre-Dame - Cathedral of Our Lady, Damascus, Syria, rue Bab Sharki, Syriac Metropolitan Archdiocese of Damascus. Gcatholic, January 20, 2020.

Coordinates: 33 ° 30 ′ 33.6 ″  N , 36 ° 18 ′ 59.7 ″  E