Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena

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Street view of the church, 2002

The Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena ( Arabic كاتدرائية القديسين قسطنطين وهيلانة) is the cathedral of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Yabrud in Syria . It has belonged to the Archeparchy of Homs since 1849 , but still has cathedral status today. Parts of the building date from pre-Christian times. The church was damaged in the civil war in Syria.

history

In pre-Christian times there was a pagan Aramaic temple on the site of the church , which was dedicated to the god Baal Shamin , the sun god. After the conquest of Syria by the Romans in 64 BC. The building was rebuilt and converted into a Jupiter temple. In the 4th century the temple became a Christian church and was dedicated to the emperor Constantine and his mother Helena , who in 326 had found the true cross of Jesus Christ under a temple of Venus in Jerusalem . The church survived the Islamic conquest. 1260 The entrance area of the building was by bombardment with catapults the army of Mamluks -Sultans Baybars I. destroyed. Under Baibar's rule, the church was closed and its further use was prohibited. So the church fell into disrepair over the centuries. This changed only after Ibrahim Pasha marched into Syria from Egypt in 1832. The Melkite Christians in Yabrud were allowed to restore and use the old church, and so it was able to reopen in 1840.

In 1990 the Melkites built a second, larger church on the northeastern edge of Yabrud, the Frauenkirche Yabrud , in a modern style over the remains of an old church that was destroyed in the 13th century.

During the civil war in Syria , the Cathedral of Constantine and Helena was damaged by tank fire in late 2013.

Architecture and equipment

The Melkite Cathedral of Yabrud is a basilica , so it has a spacious nave supported by columns and large arches and a smaller aisle on each side. The middle ceiling rests on the upper aisles with their raised arches. At the south-western end of the church there is the bell tower with a square cross-section and at the north-eastern end there is the apse with the altar. The stones of the old temple were carved out of the rocky mountains around Yabrud. The lowest areas of the walls are more firmly joined and as such apparently date from the most ancient times. In the upper areas of the building, old stones were reused for the walls. The Melkite priest and church building expert Mitri Haji Athanasio criticizes the fact that some restorations have been poorly carried out since 1840 because some of the original stones were not placed in their original location.

The main entrance is at the southwest end of the church to the right of the bell tower. Above the low, rectangular, two-winged wooden entrance door is a semicircular window and, a little bit above, another arched window. Another door is in the northwest corner. A carving of a chalice for the Eucharist , surrounded by ears of wheat and grapes, the Holy Cross , the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ, the three nails and other instruments of the crucifixion of Christ , as well as the year of the Renewal 1927.

According to Athanasio, the stone of the altar dates from pagan times because it has a channel through which the blood of the sacrificed animals flowed into a well. The altar stone is next to the wall of the bell dome, while the fountain contains the water for baptisms . The wooden pulpit of the church stands on a pillar with a spiral staircase with wooden handrails and eleven ancient icons. Three steps lead to the iconostasis , which has nine large doors with icons, one of which is with Constantine and Helena. There are numerous old icons from the 18th and 19th centuries in the church.

Diocese and bishop

The Greek Catholic Cathedral of Yabrud is co- cathedral of the Cathedral of Mary Queen of Peace of the Greek-Melkitsche Archeparch of Homs , in an expanded form of the name Archeparchy Homs - Hama - Yabrud ( Archidioecesis Hemesena-Epiphaniensis-Iabrudensis Graecorum Melkitarum ). The former Archdiocese of Yabrud ( Archidioecesis Iabrudensis Graecorum Melkitarum ) went on March 4, 1849 in the enlarged Archeparch . Eparch has been Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach, born in 1952, since June 23, 2012 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mitri Haji Athanasio , in: Mai Othman: (مي عثمان): كاتدرائية القديسين قسطنطين وهيلانة في يبرود ..حضارة عمرها آلاف السنين . [The Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena in Yabrud. A civilization thousands of years old.] Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), February 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d 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. 259-262.
  3. ↑ متري هاجي اثناسيو ، 1997 ، موسوعة بطريركية انطاكية التاريخية والأثرية: سورية المسيحية في الألف يلأيل د[Mitri Haji Athanasio: Encyclopedia of the History and Archeology of the Patriarchate of Antioch: Christian Syria in the First Millennium AD Damascus 1997], pp. 1645–1656.
  4. ↑ كنيسة السيّدة - يبرود . [Frauenkirche Yabrud], al-Bishara, accessed on June 6, 2020.
  5. ↑ Christine Marlow: Inside Syria's model town: Peace, until al-Qaeda arrived. The Telegraph , October 5, 2013.
  6. ^ Cathedral of St. Constantine and St. Helen - Yabrud, Syria. Gcatholic.org, May 19, 2020, accessed June 6, 2020.

Coordinates: 33 ° 58 ′ 14.7 "  N , 36 ° 39 ′ 27.6"  E