The Mar Musa monastery reopens its doors to visitors

After years of isolation due to the war and then the pandemic, the community founded by Father Dall’Oglio once again welcomes pilgrims and visitors. “We are an oasis of spirituality and fraternity in a context that continues to be very hard,” explains the abbot, Fr. Jihad Youssef.

Milan (AsiaNews) – After years of isolation due to the war and then the Covid-19 pandemic, the Syrian monastery of Mar Musa has reopened its doors to welcome pilgrims and visitors. This was announced by the community of this place nestled between the mountains and the desert, a hundred kilometers north of Damascus. Founded in the 1990s at the initiative of Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the site became a center for dialogue between Islam and Christianity.

“It is an important sign, because the abbey represents a spiritual oasis of peace and friendship for many Syrians of different confessions and religious denominations,” says Friar Jihad Youssef, abbot of Deir Mar Musa Al Habashi (Saint Moses the Abyssinian), one of the oldest monasteries in Syria, where precious frescoes, an 11th-century church and wall inscriptions in Arabic, Syrian and Greek are preserved.

Following the start of the war in 2011, fierce fighting between opposition groups and government forces also affected the neighboring city of Nabek. Then, between 2015 and 2017, the Islamic State took control of a surrounding region, where kidnappings of Christian inhabitants also took place. For the community, however, the hardest blow was the disappearance of Father Dall’Oglio in 2013, in the Raqqa area, controlled by the jihadists. Since then, the whereabouts of the religious are unknown.

However, its spirit is strongly felt within the ancient stone walls, whose silence is only broken by the chants of the monks during prayer hours. “There is no Internet connection here, our guests can enjoy a break from the hectic city lifestyle, and dedicate themselves to meeting with God, with themselves and with us, in an atmosphere of friendship that transcends religious differences”, explains the abbot of the fraternity, ecumenical and mixed.

A “prophecy of a global friendship” that is especially significant in a context in which, despite the fact that there are no more shots fired, daily life is still very hard: “More than living, people survive. We are going through a serious economic crisis, our currency is no longer worth anything, employment is precarious and poorly paid, and the prices of everything are through the roof”

Although discouragement prevails, the locals welcomed the news of the reopening of the monastery to hospitality with great joy: “For a long time, many friends asked us when we would receive visitors again. They told us: ‘We need you, to pray, to rest, to contemplate nature and walk in the mountains'”. From the beginning, the link with the creation and care of the environment has been one of the special characteristics of Deir Mar Musa. Monks and nuns work the land and oversee projects to improve local biodiversity. And the guests -in addition to devoting a space to reflection and using the huge library- can share moments of manual work.

In recent years, the community has worked hard to support the displaced and the poor. It has done so both in the Nabek area and in the Homs governorate, where the Mar Elian monastery is located. The latter was semi-destroyed by the Islamists in the summer of 2015 (they also kidnapped Father Jacques Mourad, who was held prisoner for five months). Father Mourad himself announced a long time ago that they are going to rebuild the building and that they will replant their vineyards and olive groves.

Now, the reopening of Mar Musa is a new sign of hope: “The groups have already returned: we had 110 people in one day, while from Aleppo, a priest accompanied 35 women from the parish fraternity to an overnight retreat, and then thirty young people,” says Father Jihad. And he adds: “For the next few months, our agenda is already full.”

The pilgrims are mainly Syrians, because it is still not easy for foreigners to obtain visas to enter the country, but “everyone is welcome”, confirms the abbot. “For us, hospitality is sacred: every person who arrives comes to visit the Lord. By receiving them, we receive Jesus, in the name of Jesus. It is always God who receives and who is received.”

The Mar Musa monastery reopens its doors to visitors