{"id":6516,"date":"2023-04-26T14:17:26","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T18:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=6516"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T18:01:09","slug":"christians-take-heart-after-image-of-unscathed-statue-of-mary-from-syria-turkey-earthquake-is-shared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/04\/christians-take-heart-after-image-of-unscathed-statue-of-mary-from-syria-turkey-earthquake-is-shared.html","title":{"rendered":"Christians Take Heart After Image of Unscathed Statue of Mary from Syria-Turkey Earthquake is Shared"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6615\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6615\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6615\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/04\/Cathedral-of-the-Annunciation-I\u0307skenderun_credit-Antuan-Ilgit-SJ-Facebook-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Antuan Ilgit, SJ \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Turkey and Syria continue recovery efforts after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Syria-Turkey border on February 6th. Over 50,000 people perished during the earthquake and aftershocks, and it is estimated that close to 18 million people in Syria and Turkey have been impacted. People have leaned on their faith in seeing the way small miracles have still occurred despite the devastation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0On the day of the earthquake, Jesuit priest Fr. Antuan Igit <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ilgitsj\/posts\/900103184738153\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">shared an image<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0of the Virgin Mary standing tall in a mass of rubble. Fr. Igit shared that the statue had survived the collapse of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Iskenderun, which is in Alexandretta in the Turkish province of Hatay. In the post, which had been translated from Italian, Fr. Igit wrote, \u201cI brought the image of the Virgin Mary from the Cathedral, this image will be our strength, and with her, we will face everything. Let us continue to trust in God and His Holy Providence.\u201d Despite the devastation, Fr. Igit remained hopeful. \u201cYes, the collapse of the Cathedral is impressive; just yesterday, we celebrated the Sunday Mass there! But now the living stones that need attention and with them with the help of God we can rebuild everything,\u201d he wrote. Fr. Igit also expressed love for Syria. The quake has further exacerbated the effects of a civil war in that country. Turkey is the site of the biggest refugee camp in the region, most of whom are Syrians fleeing the war.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Filgitsj%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0rBP6QxjZf4fZdyfqmAkYfgskcyTLnAKPe6RPZD2GLqqvzvtXD2NY3mC3E6ZCqqUjl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"761\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In speaking about the statue\u2019s survival, Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, told <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/lifestyle\/virgin-mary-statue-withstands-earthquake-turkey-cathedral-collapses-inspiring-symbol-hope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fox News Digital<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0that she is a uniting symbol for Christians and Muslims alike. \u201cThe protection of the statue of Mary is a spiritual testimony to the shared affection of Christians and Muslims for the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are very few religious symbols that are common to Christians and Muslims, but Mary is one of them,\u201d said Fr. Kirby. \u201cIn the Christian tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of hope. The survival of her statue, drawn from the chaos of the earthquake, is a call to faith and confidence in God\u2019s presence and the rebuilding of life after loss and destruction,\u201d Fr Kirby added. Fr. Ilgit spoke with The Society of Jesus, headquartered in Rome, on March 21st, saying he \u201cnever felt alone,\u201d during the earthquake as he relied on communion and prayers. Please pray for the people of Syria and Turkey as they recover and consider ways to\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/donate.worldvision.org\/give\/turkey-and-syria-emergency-response\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">give<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey and Syria continue recovery efforts after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Syria-Turkey border on February 6th. Over 50,000 people perished during the earthquake and aftershocks, and it is estimated that close to 18 million people in Syria and Turkey have been impacted. People have leaned on their faith in seeing the way&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":6615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christians Take Heart After Image of Unscathed Statue of Mary from Syria-Turkey Earthquake is Shared<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A statue of Mary goes untouched after major earthquakes strike Turkey and Syria.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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