We'd reported earlier last year in May that one of Christianity's most ancient and hallowed monasteries was being threatened by the Turkish government. Amazingly, they're destroying the place by increments, using the legal system and the usual arbitrary despotic pretenses.
It looked like a fait accompli then despite the outcry from Europe's politicians.
This is one of the reasons why we (Catholics) went on Crusade in the first place.
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, JULY 12 - The Mongolians failed to destroy it 700 years ago despite the massacre of 40 friars and 400 Christians. Yet the existence of the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, the fifth century Mor Gabriel Monastery in the Tur Abdin plane (the mountain of God's servants) near the Turkish-Syrian border, is at risk after a ruling by Turkey's highest appeals court in Ankara.
Founded in 397 by the monks Samuel and Simon, Mor Gabriel in eastern Anatolia has been the heart of the Orthodox Syrian community for centuries. Syriacs hail from a branch of Middle Eastern Christianity and are one of the oldest communities in Turkey.
Today the monastery is inhabited by Mor Timotheus Samuel Aktash, 3 monks, 11 nuns and 35 boys who are learning the monastery's teachings, the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and the Orthodox Syriac tradition.
Link to ANSA...
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