13 August 2006
When at Mar Musa, a must-do day trip is the combo Saidnaya and Ma’aloula outing. These are two important Christian sites in Syria, and seeing as we’re busy working on an important Christian monastery, we thought we’d go visit some more. Saidnaya is a pilgrimage site that has continued to be visited by both Christians and Muslims since ancient times. During the medieval period, it was the second most popular pilgrimage site in the Middle East after Jerusalem. This is because it contains an icon of Mary purportedly painted by Saint Luke who would have actually known what she looked like. It sits in a tiny semi-circular chapel about 3 metres by 3 metres. A nun wrapped from head to toe in black chants prayers by the holy oil standing in front of the icon where people kneel and pray one at a time. The icon itself is obscured by the gifts of necklaces or other trinkets including amulets of body parts that need healing. Despite the fact that you can’t actually see the icon, the air is thick with a powerful sense of spirituality and history. We all left with our very own cotton balls soaked in holy oil, and white strings around our wrists marking our vows of devotion to Mary. We felt very holy.
Around Saidnaya, we also stopped by the Cherubim Monastery which was built in a building originally used as a Roman temple. Big stone blocks. Very impressive. Saint Thomas monastery nearby was also built in a former Roman temple and really looked it…HUGE stone blocks….bigger than me! The temple is almost entirely unchanged except for the added medieval front door and the nave jutting out of the side of the building. Nice caves around there too…some of which were used for making oil and wine.
Ma’aloula came next. It is the only remaining Christian town where they still speak Aramaic (aka the language of Christ). The other two towns are Muslim. We visited the monastery of Sergius and Bacchus...the longest continuously occupied church of a single cult in the world….it’s 1700 years old! Our very knowledgeable guide recited the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic for us which was very nice. Francesca was incredibly excited to see the altar from before the Council of Nicea (it’s got a semi-circular shape rather than the rectangle used now). Personally, I was impressed by their ability to reclaim a 300 year old icon that was stolen and returned thanks to good documentation (museum geek…that’s me).
Next we walked through Thekla’s gap…a crevice in the rock through which Saint Thekla is said to have escaped Roman soldiers who were ordered to kill her for her Christian faith. We followed it to the monastery built around the cave where she spent the next 75 years of her life and where she is now buried (in a room where a nun wrapped from head to toe in black chants prayers by the holy oil). After a nice rest under the tree in Thekla’s cave, we returned to the van and our trusty driver Abu Adib, and returned to our very own monastery, just in time for prayers.
Overall, a lovely mini-pilgrimage and we all felt shiny and holy.
Jovanna
