#summery 2017

[a-queer-seminarian]

These are snaps from last night. I’ve been oxygen-deprived because even when I loosen this binder I have to wear I can’t seem to get enough air (don’t worry, it’s fine!), and this is what happens haha

I cannot get over how kind this church is

[oneshipress]

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...Here comes LOMACK!

[a-queer-seminarian]

A Mary for Muslims and Christians

Last week, my Intro to Islam professor began class with an anecdote that offers a glimpse into the close ties between Christianity and Islam in some regions of Syria since the earliest days of Islam in that land.

Our Lady of Sednaya (/ Saidnaya / Sadnaya) is one of the oldest monasteries in the world, run by Greek Orthodox nuns in Syria. The town of Sednaya is, incidentally, one of the only two in which Aramaic (the language of Jesus) is still spoken. The town has always been predominantly Christian. And so when my professor went there some years ago, he was surprised to find many Muslim families also visiting the monastery.

Along with many other relics, the Monastery holds one of the most revered relics in Middle Eastern Christianity: the Shaghoura. This icon depicts Mary Theotokos -- the “God Bearer” -- and is said to have been painted by the Apostle Luke himself.

(You can read a description of what the Shaghoura under the readmore -- I’m pretty sure none of the photos in this post are of the Shaghoura; apparently it’s almost never shown to visitors so I doubt they allow photographs.)

It is this icon that Christians and Muslims alike come to see. But why would a Muslim -- being of a faith that does indeed honor Mary, but as the mother of a prophet rather than of God, and which prohibits venerating icons -- journey to Sednaya to pray before the Shaghoura?

The simplest answer my professor found, upon asking them, was that “our families have always done this.”

The Shaghoura is said to have miraculous powers of healing and fertility, and   Muslim families seek this healing just as Christians do. After all, many of the Muslims of this area have Christian ancestors from the deep past, and so they too believe in the power of Mary, as stories of the Shaghoura’s miracles -- particularly her aid to couples struggling to conceive -- are passed down through their line.

My professor was intrigued by this syncretism of faiths, and did more research. How long, he wondered, had Muslims been visiting the monastery? Ever since Islam came to the region, was the answer. One chronicle by a French crusader tells of seeing many Muslim families when he visited the monastery all those centuries ago.

In other Syrian villages, many Muslim families get their babies baptized in Christian churches, despite having every intention to raise their baby Muslim and despite their imams and other Muslim leaders/scholars telling them not to. These imams also speak against revering images, but again, the everyday Muslim sees no reason to stop. It seems tradition -- knowing that their families have been getting baptized and visiting Our Lady of Sednaya through the centuries -- is more influential than the instructions of scholars in situations like this.

Things are, of course, different in the Syria of the past few years. Our Lady of Sednaya Monastery has been damaged in the Civil War, and tension between Muslims and Christians is high. But still, up through the very recent past we have proof that the people of these two faiths got along for hundreds of years -- not only coexisting but even sharing in each other’s traditions, inviting each other into their holy spaces and praying together.

Those who argue that Christians and Muslims must naturally be at odds with one another would do well to read about these little Syrian villages, and about Our Lady of Sednaya.

To learn more about the history and current life of the convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, see this webpage.

For more images from the convent, see this webpage. 

Descriptions of the above images plus one more image and some quotes from that first link can be found under the readmore.

Image descriptions:

The top image is of an icon of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Both figures have brown skin. Mary is in red with an orange-ish brown head covering, and Jesus is in orange-ish brown robes. Both have halos that are peeling a little, revealing the metal beneath; figures of angels praying are also carved into the metal.

The second image is also of Mary and baby Jesus, with figures offering gifts in the upper corners. The image is painted on golden metal; much of the paint is worn away. Mary and Jesus wear rich robes and appear to be enthroned.

The final image is of a wall of other icons in the monastery.

A description of the Shaghoura (taken from this page):

“The Shaghoura icon is never shown to visitors.  However, a number of descriptions by medieval visitors have survived.  The first was left by a pilgrim named Giraud in 1175: ‘In this church, I saw an image painted on wood, an ell in length and half an ell in width, in a window of the sanctuary and strongly guarded by an iron grill.  It was an image of the Blessed Virgin.  But now, wonderful to tell, the painting is incarnate upon the wood, and oil more fragrant than balm streams from it without cease.  A multitude of Christians, Saracens, and Jews have been cured of various illnesses by this oil.  And note that this oil never diminishes, no matter how much is taken.  No one dares to touch this painting, but all can see it.  The oil is religiously conserved, and when one takes it with devotion and faith, in honor of the Holy Virgin and with due reverence, one obtains unfailingly whatever one asks for.  On the days of her Assumption and her Glorious Nativity, all the Saracens of the surrounding areas throng to this place in order to pray there with the Christians and to offer their gifts in devotion.’”

Some more info about the chapel that holds the Shaghoura, because I think it’s really interesting:

“The winding road leading to the convent terminates at the base of the cliff.  Two modern symmetrical staircases zigzag upward, forming a pattern of three ascending lozenges.  At the top of the staircases stands the convent wall, whose entrance door is only one meter high.   This leads into a winding rock-passage reinforced in places with masonry walls.  Here a contemporary mosaic pictures Justinian and Theodora offering the model of the convent to the Virgin and Child.

The passage gradually ascends towards the small interior courtyard of the convent, from which a small arched door leads through a vestibule towards the Shaghoura.  The visitor must remove his shoes in the vestibule.  The Shaghoura chapel is plunged in semi-darkness.  It is a small room with a low, vaulted ceiling and walls covered with icons, most of them blackened by the smoke of candles.  Gold and silver-plated lamps are suspended from the ceiling.  The ancient icons are mostly revetted in silver, with carved frames of gilded wood.  Dozens of candles, the only source of light, flicker on a table and in the chandeliers.

  A white curtain screens a little niche closed by a silver grill hung with gold and silver chains, bracelets and necklaces, and many crosses – all gifts offered from the most ancient of times.  Behind this grill is the famous miraculous icon of the Virgin, reputed to be the work of St Luke the evangelist.  In Syriac, Shaghoura means ‘the renowned’ or ‘the illustrious’.  It can also mean ‘the source’, a fitting attribute of the Mother of God since the Christian religion was transmitted to mankind through her.”