Church of Our Lady of Damascus

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The Church of Our Lady of Damascus ( Arabic كنيسة سيدة دمشق) is a church of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus . It is one of the largest churches in Damascus and is known in Syria for its large church choir " Choir of Joy ", in which several hundred members from churches of different denominations in Damascus sing.

Location

The church is located in the district of al-Qusūr (القصور, "The palaces") within the Sārūdscha administrative district (ساروجة) in the eastern section of Abd-al-Karim-al-Chattabi Street ( Arabic شارع عبد الكريم الخطابي Shāriʿ ʿAbd al-Karim al-Chattabi , DMG Šāriʿ ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḫaṭṭābī ) on their north side near Abbasid Square (ساحة العباسيين, DMG Sāḥat al-ʿAbbāsiyyīn ), a large roundabout with an integrated car tunnel. The Abbasid Stadium is directly southeast of the roundabout , and the arterial road to Harasta and Duma is not far . The Jubar district begins a few hundred meters to the east (جوبر), which was the stronghold of the Islamist ar-Rahman Legion for several years .

history

With the growth of the capital Damascus in the 1960s, the Christian Melkite population also increased in the otherwise predominantly Muslim- Sunni villa district of al-Qusūr. The Melkites from this neighborhood, which was too far away to regularly visit the cathedral in the center , opened on the ground floor of a building built in 1961 on Ibn Qutaiba Street (شارع بن قتيبة) a first provisional church. However, the number of Melkite Christians continued to grow, and so in 1970 a plot of land was purchased on Abd-al-Karim-al-Chattabi Street under the patriarch Maximos V. Hakim . The old villa on this property was demolished in 1972 to make way for a large new church with rooms for youth work and other activities. The construction work was financed by donations from the community, but construction was delayed for financial reasons.

The Church of Our Lady of Damascus was opened on April 7, 1975 by Patriarch Maximos V. Hakim. The first fathers were Gabriel Maalouf, Elias Zahlawi and Michel Hallaq. Of these, Elias Zahlawi devoted himself entirely to youth work and founded the “ Chor der Freude ” in 1977 (جوقة الفرح). At that time, about 600 families belonged to this parish, but the number increased to around 1200 families by 2010, with which the church was regularly overcrowded, according to Father Mitri Haji Athanasio .

During the civil war in Syria , the church was close to the front line and therefore repeatedly exposed to mortar shell fire, but survived this with rather minor damage that did not prevent further services. The first hit on the roof of the church was on July 10, 2013. However, there was only relatively little damage to property. There was a surprise visit by President Bashar al-Assad with his wife Asma al-Assad on December 19, 2015, when the church choir also performed. This happened when in the area several mortar shells from Dschubar ( ghouta were taken).

The church choir ("Choir of Joy")

The church choir (جوقة الفرح, DMG Ǧawqat al-Faraḥ , "Choir of Joy", also Jawqat al Farah ) was founded by Father Elias Zahlawi in 1977 with 55 children. The choir members come not only from the Melkite congregation of Our Lady of Damascus, but also from other churches of different denominations in Damascus. The first service this choir sang was held on December 24, 1977 in the Church of Our Lady of Damascus. In 2010 the choir had 500 members aged 7 to 70 years.

Architecture and equipment

The church has a rectangular floor plan and flat, light-colored concrete façades. The side of the main entrance is completely taken up by a porticus with a large round-arched passage and three slightly smaller, also round-arched passages on each side, to which a wide staircase leads from the entrance at the fence. The flat gable above bears a cross that can be illuminated at night. Behind the seven arches of the porticus are on the level of the mezzanine floor in the middle the rectangular wooden entrance door and on each side three smaller arched windows as well as additional doors on the outside. Above the entrance door in the middle is a rose window on the higher floor and three narrow, high arched windows on each side at a greater distance than the lower windows. To the left of the entrance there is a small apse and - on the northwest side of the building - the bell tower with a square cross-section, also adorned with a luminous cross. The numerous narrow arched windows on the upper floor on both side walls let a lot of daylight into the interior of the church. Inside, the church is equipped with galleries on three sides at the height of these windows, which are supported by white, ribbed round columns and whose railings are decorated with images of saints. In the apse of the church there is a mosaic depicting Our Lady of Damascus with the baby Jesus. In addition, a copy of the icon of Mary that was brought to Malta in 1530 is kept in the church.

Patronage

The title of Our Lady of Damascus dates back to 1203. At that time a wonderful oil came from a picture of Mary in Damascus, with which the blind Sultan of Damascus got his eyesight back in 1203. As a thank you, the Sultan left an eternal lamp burning in front of the picture. The icon was brought to Malta in 1530 by the Knights of Saint John , where it is now kept in the Greek Catholic Church of Our Lady of Damascus in Valletta . The Greek Catholic Christian Myrna Nazzour - the apparition of Our Lady of Ṣūfāniyya - had a similar appearance on a picture of Mary in her apartment on November 22, 1982 in the Damascen district of Ṣūfāniyya (northeast of the old city gate Bāb Tūmā , i.e. outside the old town) . At this point in time the Church of Our Lady of Damascus in the al-Qusūr district already had its name in memory of the apparition in 1203. The church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Damascus on November 21 every year.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 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. 57-58.
  2. ↑ ثلاثون عاماً من التألق لسيدة دمشق Esyria, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c Church of Our Lady of Damascus (كنيسة سيدة دمشق, in Arabic). Qenshrin.com to http://www.alepposuryoye.com (editor of the encyclopedia of churches and monasteries).
  4. ↑ سقوط قذيفة هاون على سطح كنيسة سيدة في دمشق العباسيين بدمشق-عملية نوعية للجيش بدوما تسفر عن مقتل ارهابيو ما يسمى كتيبة البراء . October 7, 2013.
  5. ↑ Syrian Leader Makes Rare Visit to Damascus Church Near Front Line. Voa News, December 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ الكاهن المؤسس لجوقة الفرح , 2010, accessed on June 1, 2020.
  7. ^ Nicholas Joseph Santoro: Mary in Our Life: Atlas of the Names and Titles of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Their Place in Marian Devotion. iUniverse, Bloomington (Indiana) 2011. Our Lady of Damascus, p. 405.
  8. ^ Robert Joseph Fox: Light from the East Miracles of Our Lady of Soufanieh. Fatima Family Apostolate, 2002. Waite Park, Minnesota, 15–15.

Coordinates: 33 ° 31 ′ 27.7 ″  N , 36 ° 19 ′ 1.6 ″  E