{"id":3739,"date":"2022-07-15T09:57:46","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T13:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=3739"},"modified":"2022-07-15T09:57:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T13:57:46","slug":"christian-relics-discovered-inside-damaged-islamic-state-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2022\/07\/christian-relics-discovered-inside-damaged-islamic-state-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Relics Discovered Inside Damaged Islamic-State Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to reports, archeological workers restoring the historic Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Iraq\u2019s capital Mosul, have discovered about a dozen ancient relics and parchments connected to several saints. The church was heavily damaged by Islamic State fighters almost four years ago.<\/p>\n

The relics include manuscripts in Syriac and Aramaic as well as six stone containers wrought with Aramaic inscriptions. Some relate to Saint Theodore, Saint Simon, Mor Gabriel, Saint Simeon, and other well-known figures, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog\u00a0International Christian Concern\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

One of the stone containers carried an inscription relating to Saint Theodore, a Roman soldier born in the province of Corum, Turkey, in the third century CE and beheaded for having converted,\u00a0The Jerusalem Post<\/em>\u00a0said<\/a>, citing a report by AsiaNews.<\/p>\n

Some containers are related to Saint Simon \u201cthe Zealot,\u201d a first-century apostle of Jesus; Mor Gabriel, bishop of the Tur Abdin hilly region situated in southeast Turkey from 593 to 668 CE, the Post continued.<\/p>\n

The discovery also includes \u201crelics of Saint Simeon the Wise from the first century CE, who, according to Christian tradition, welcomed the infant Jesus in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem. Workers also found relics of Saint John, one of the first apostles of Jesus, also known by his Hebrew name Yohanan ben Zavdi, and relics of celebrated writer and Syrian Orthodox Regional Primate Saint Gregory Bar Hebraeus, who served in the position from 1264-1286 CE,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\"mosul
Reuters\/Alkis Konstantinidis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe discovery of the hidden relics at this church is another encouraging development in the broad effort to restore and protect Christian cultural heritage in Iraq after the damage done by the Islamic State,\u201d ICC added.<\/p>\n

The watchdog noted that the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, collaborating with the Iraqi government, put $328,000 toward the project, which began last year to repair the damage done by IS in the battle of Mosul. \u201cReviving the Spirit of\u00a0Mosul,\u201d a\u00a0restoration plan<\/a>\u00a0by UNESCO, is also underway, ICC said, adding that it involves more than $100 million.<\/p>\n

ICC commented, \u201cPerhaps workers will uncover more undiscovered pieces of history as they sort through the archeological remains of Christianity\u2019s long history in Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Iraqi militiamen, who took control of the ancient city of Hatra from Islamic State fighters, found that the terror group had destroyed relics dating back more than 2,000 years.<\/p>\n

Hatra is a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site and considered an archeological jewel of Iraq and the capital of the first Arab kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sculptures and engraved images are destroyed, but the walls and towers of the kingdom of Hatra remain standing,\u201d\u00a0Voice of America\u00a0quoted Marwa Rashid, a spokeswoman for Iraq\u2019s Shi\u2019ite Popular Mobilization Forces militia, as saying at the time. \u201cThere are many holes and scratches on the walls of the kingdom due to IS bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a video released by IS after Hatra\u2019s occupation, its fighters were seen damaging sculptures with sledgehammers and destroying images and artifacts on ancient walls with assault rifles. As per Iraq\u2019s 1987 census, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, but their numbers dramatically decreased to 141,000, according to a\u00a0recent report<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to reports, archeological workers restoring the historic Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Iraq\u2019s capital Mosul, have discovered about a dozen ancient relics and parchments connected to several saints. The church was heavily damaged by Islamic State fighters almost four years ago. The relics include manuscripts in Syriac and Aramaic as well as six…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":3745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,18,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-holy-site","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Relics Discovered Inside Damaged Islamic-State Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archeological workers restoring the historic Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Iraq\u2019s capital Mosul, found about a dozen ancient relics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Relics Discovered Inside Damaged 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