The history of our Monastery

Our monastery is very old and blessed by the blood of over 150 martyred monks. Let’s take a glimpse at its glorious past. Unfortunately we are left with only a handful of historical sources; this because the monastery was practically left to its ruins starting from the 18^th century. When Mother Agnes Mariam discovered this site in 1994 she began studying its history. This article is based on that work and on information gathered by a historian from Qara.

Byzantine Empire: 330 - 1453

The monastery is built on a Roman fortress from the 1^st century A.D. The Roman ruins became a Monastery in the second part of the 6th century, according to the testimony of a coin of Justinian II, found within the walls of the Monastery. Of the foundation of the Monastery itself we know nothing.

A holy Ethiopian hermit, Moses, a king’s son who first became monk in Egypt and in Palestine, arrived here at St. James around 628 A.D. He left the Monastery to found a new monastery in the mountains 30 km to the east, which would later on receive the name of Saint Moses the Ethiopian or 'Mar Mussa'[1]. Although Qara (name of our village) and the whole region had several monasteries, the Monastery of Saint James the Persian became the most famous, visited by a large number of pilgrims from all over. Around the eleventh century a first cycle of frescoes (see picture: on it you can see a man wearing a white robe - Moses) was painted in the church of the Monastery, and a second one 200 years later.

In 1720 the Ottomans, who occupied Syria from about 1500 until WWI, entered the Monastery by cunning: the colonel, with some officers, were welcomed by the monks to spend the night. When darkness set in they opened the Monastery doors to the army who promptly entered and massacred 120 monks. They looted the premises. Some survivors took refuge in Ras Baalbek (40 km to the west of here in Lebanon) in the filial Monastery of Deir Saydeh. From this point on the Monastery never fully recovered until 1994.

In 1750 there was a devastating earthquake. Due to this disaster there was no longer water flowing from the natural spring. The farmlands dried out. The Lebanese Emir Jahjah Al Harfouch then raided the monastery in 1790. During 1760-1800 the monks Manassah, Simeon and Arsene left the Monastery for the Lebanese Monastery of Saint John of the Cherouii order. One year later a fake monk passed by our Monastery and stole the remaining manuscripts. Soon after that a priest and a monk of the Chouerii order came and lived in Saint James, trying to restore what was possible. In 1836 the Patriarch Maximos Mazloum defined the new statute of the Monastery: It would now belong to the Catholic diocese of Homs, Hama and Yabroud. The Cherouii again sent two monks to take care of the place.

There are some uncertain traces of monastic life after that. In 1930 the last priest of the village, who took care of the monastery, died. After that it remained in ruins until 1994 when restoration began under the direction of Mother Agnes Mariam and with the support of the bishop Ibrahim Naame.

[1]P. Paolo dall’Oglio, Il restauro del monasterio di San Mosel’Abissino, Nebek, Siria, p. 11