Ten years after the Islamic State: the extinction and the rebirth of a former Syriac Saint

The monastery and the tomb of the ancient saint had seen numerous desert looters in the last 16 centuries. When the Muslim conquerors first appeared in the seventh century, Mar Elian (“sea” means holy in Syriac), near the desert Syrian city of Al-Qaryatayn, he had at least two centuries of ancient times. Soldiers sent by Muhammad, by the “guided caliphs justly”, by the Umayyas and Abasíes, would have gone through this sanctuary and water point for caravans on numerous occasions and followed their path, leaving the site intact.

But at the beginning of August, 10 years ago, these Muslim looters were different. On August 6, 2015, the Islamic State took the nearby city of Al-Qaryatayn and kidnapped several hundred Christians while others fled. Before, they had kidnapped the local priest in Mar Elian, Fr. Jacques Mourad, whose whereabouts was unknown and It was feared to be dead.

On August 21, the Islamic State (ISIS) spread photos and videos of propaganda showing its combatants destroying the Syriac Catholic monastery of Elian Sea and the tomb of the saint using bulldozers and dynamite. Some of the images showed bones scattered on the ground among the shattered remains of an ancient Roman marble sarcophagus decorated with carved crosses.

Many Western media reported on this atrocity at that time, although many did not understand who Mar Elian was or the history of the place. The Homs governorate in Syria has not one, but two Santos Elian (“Elian”, not Elijah or Elijah). The city of homs itself houses the tomb of Sea Elian (San Julián de Emesa), a Christian doctor of the third century – one of the “SANTOS NON MERCENARIOS”– which was martyred in the year 284 under the numeral emperor.

Eighty kilometers away, Elian Sea whose sanctuary was desecrated in al-Qaryatayn was Elian the hermit or Elian the old mana siríaco, ascetic and maker of miracles originally from the city of Ephesus (today Urfa in Turkey), who died in 367 and was a teacher of San Efrén El Sirio, one of the doctors of the Church. San Efrén, the “harp of the Holy Spirit,” wrote a series of poems about his holy teacher Elian.

This disaster – a priest and hundreds of kidnapped faithful and in the hands of terrorists, an old monastery and sanctuary destroyed – exactly 10 years ago this month, was only a small part of the horrors of the war in Syria and the suffering of the Syrian, Christian and Muslim people, since 2011.

The Domain of ISIS in the area lasted less than a year, recovered by an offensive of the Syrian army backed by Russia in April 2016. Almost all the kidnapped Christians in Al-Qaryatayn, after suffering terrifying humiliations and repeated threats by their captors of the Islamic State, were finally released. Some elders died for natural causes and a few were killed in air attacks.

Surprisingly, the bones of sea Elian were recovered and some initial works were done to restore the monastery and the sanctuary, a place that once attracted Both local Muslims and Christians. Fr. Mourad was able to escape from captivity with the help of local Muslims after five months of kidnapping. Since 2023, he has served as Catholic Syriac of Homs.

In an interview with ACI Mena by Ewtn News, Archbishop Mourad reflected on the tenth anniversary of the terrible events of August 2015. It was on August 12 of that year when his captors transferred him to the capital of ISIS, Raqqa, and met with his kidnapped parishioners. Later that month, all were authorized to return to Al-Qaryatayn, under close surveillance and monitoring of ISIS, and the additional fear was now to be bombarded by the Syrian or Russian Air Forces.

“On the third or fourth day after our return, we decided to celebrate a secret mass in an apartment in the city center. It was my first mass after four months, and it was an extraordinary feeling for me and for believers, since the tears of joy mixed with the fear of being discovered,” the archbishop recalled. “Despite fear, we all feel a sense of courage, and I attribute that to the Virgin Mary, since the prayer of the Rosary did not abandon me from the moment of my kidnapping until the day of my escape, giving me an inner peace that exceeded fear.”

After the expulsion of ISIS in 2016, the slow recovery work began.

Elian sea bones and local monks were recovered and sent to Homs for custody until they could be returned.

“In 2021, we decided to restore the monastery, return it to how it was,” explained the archbishop. Not only was the destruction caused by ISIS, but thieves, under the coverage of military security, had talked hundreds of olive trees and other trees that had been planted a decade earlier. “We began to cultivate the earth again; and then in 2022, we began to restore the monastery and the sanctuary of the saint. In his party day, in a celebration attended by the metropolitan archbishops of Damascus and Homs, both orthodox and Cathol Al-Qaryatayn procession, a very emotional scene ”.

Archbishop Mourad added that “there are only about 25 Christians left” but that “we hope that if the situation stabilizes in the country, we can completely restore it so that it is a place of pilgrimage and spiritual retreats.”

In Syria, much has been lost and much is in danger. Both congregations and sacred sites are at risk. But as Mar Elian has been recovered and the slow work Restoration, Archbishop Mourad recently said that, despite the tremendous difficulties and dangers, “Jesus wants his Church to remain in Syria. And this idea of Syrian empty of Christians is certainly not the will of God.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.