Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus

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View of the Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, 2008
View of the Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, 2005
Hotel Safir next to the monastery, destroyed in September 2013

The Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus ( Arabic دير مار سركيس وباخوس, DMG Dair Mār Sarkīs wa-Bāḫūs or Dayr Mar Sarkis for short , Arabic دير مار سركيس, DMG Dair Mār Sarkīs ) is a monastery of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from the 4th century, which is located on a hill above the predominantly Christian village of Maalula in Syria . The building was badly devastated during fighting in the Syrian civil war in 2013 and 2014 and as a result of wanton destruction and looting by rebels from the al-Nusra front . In 2016, basic repairs were carried out so that visits to the monastery are possible again. However, most of the earlier facility with its historical art treasures no longer exists. The associated hotel no longer exists either.

General

The monastery stands on a rocky hill above the town of Maalula at an altitude of over 1500 meters.

The monastery is the early Christian saints Sergius and Bacchus ordained that under the Roman emperor Galerius the martyrdom suffered. The monastery is subordinate to the religious order of the Basilian of the Most Holy Redeemer . The rite is Byzantine , the liturgical language is Greek and the language of sermons is Arabic .

Behind the iconostasis of the monastery church is an altar plate that is said to date from ancient times, when the building was still a pagan temple. In it there is a channel through which the blood of the sacrificed animals could drain. The altar plate was broken in two by the Islamists in 2013/2014, but after the Islamists were driven out, the villagers stuck it together again.

Next to the monastery church was the large Safir Hotel, which was used by Christian pilgrims and tourists, but served as the base for the Islamist rebels during the civil war in September 2013 and was razed to the ground during the fighting.

history

The 4th century monastery church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is one of the oldest churches in the world and was probably built on the walls of an older pagan temple in the years 313 to 325 under the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great . The wood of the oldest ceiling beams was dated to the time around the year zero . The associated monastery was founded around the year 500. Despite the Islamization after the Battle of Jarmuk 636, the monastery was able to hold its own over the centuries.

During the Syrian civil war , Islamist rebels from the al-Nusra Front took the Safir Hotel at the monastery in September 2013 and used it as a base for attacks on the village of Maalula. The Syrian army counterattacked the hotel in its entirety, but the Islamists located there managed to retreat in the meantime. Several dozen people died among the Christian population of Maalula. Six young Christians were kidnapped and executed by opposition fighters. Three of the executed Melkites were buried on September 13, 2013 in the cemetery of the Al-Zeitoun Church in Damascus. On December 3, 2013, the opposition forces took the place completely and deliberately destroyed the Christian symbols such as crosses and icons or stole them as far as possible in order to bring them into illegal trade. One of the lost objects is a unique icon from the 13th century depicting the martyrs Sergius and Bakchos. The walls of the monastery suffered severe damage from the bombardment, but overall withstood it. On April 14, 2014, with the support of Hezbollah and local Christian volunteers, the government troops succeeded in retaking Maalula and driving out the Islamists.

In 2016, fundamental repairs were carried out on the monastery complex, but without being able to replace the loss of the historical interior. While the monastery and church can be visited again, the Safir Hotel no longer existed in June 2019. By then, 190 destroyed houses had been rebuilt in Maalula, but 130 buildings were still in ruins or were just being reconstructed, and of over 3000 believers (both churches present in the village) before the war, only 800 lived in Maalula.

Web links

Commons : Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maalula - a village in the Qalamun Mountains. Sachmet - A website for Egyptologists and globetrotters. WordPress / Nisarg, accessed April 30, 2020.
  2. ↑ The struggle for survival of the Syrian Christians. Bayerischer Rundfunk , December 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ La Croix , September 9, 2013, p. 3.
  4. ^ A b Daniele Rocchi: Syria: the challenge faced by the Christian population of Maaloula, where there's no more time to look back. SIR Agenzia d'informazione (Agensir.it), June 18, 2019.
  5. ^ Funeral of Christians killed in Maloula takes place in Damascus. Orthodox Christianity, September 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Mar Sarkis and Mar Bakhos). Aid to the Church in Need, ACN International. (With pictures of the destruction, from May 2015). Christians of Syria, ACN Syria, accessed April 28, 2020.
  7. ^ Syria rebels driven from Christian town of Maaloula. BBC News, April 14, 2014.

Coordinates: 33 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  N , 36 ° 32 ′ 0 ″  E