The Massabki brothers, “martyrs of the faith”, will be canonized

“A Christmas present. It is in these terms that the Maronite Church welcomed during the weekend the announcement made by Pope Francis, Saturday on his birthday, to canonize the three Massabki brothers: Francis, Abdel Moati and Raphael.

These “martyrs of the Church” had been assassinated in Damascus on July 10, 1860 at the Franciscan convent during the infamous massacres of 1860, under the reign of the Ottoman governor Ahmad Pasha.

The eldest, Francis, a wealthy merchant with integrity, was the father of eight children. The youngest, Abdel Moati, taught at the Franciscan school and had five children. Raphaël, the youngest, was single and helped his brothers. Between the Massabki family and the Franciscans, the ties were not only good neighbours, but also of common spirituality. They always began their day with prayer in the convent before going about their business.

On the tragic day of July 10, when the massacres of Christians had begun in Damascus, the Massabki went to the Franciscan convent near Bab Touma, after learning that a fire had broken out in the Orthodox quarter.

They refused to deny their faith

The aggressors attacked the convent and entered it. They grabbed Francis first. The latter had lent money, 8,000 piastres, to Abdallah el-Halabi, sheikh of the ulemas and one of the instigators of the violence. They offered him on behalf of their master to become a Muslim. He answered them: “Sheikh Abdallah can keep my money. You can take my life. But my faith, no one can tear it away from me. I cannot deny my God. (…). I am Christian. They began to beat him with daggers and axes. His flesh was scattered throughout the church. His brothers also refused to deny Christ. They were also killed in a barbaric way. Abdel Moati in the church courtyard and Raphaël inside the convent. The fate of the Franciscan monks was no better.

According to tradition, all these victims were buried together in the convent. Thus, “have mingled, in the same crucible, the blood of the children of Saint Maron, from the East, with that of the spiritual sons of Saint Francis, who came from the West: in this same and supreme testimony of fidelity to

Jesus Christ, and in happy and glorious elevation, forever inscribed in the memory of the centuries”, according to the words of the Archbishop of Damascus, Mgr Bechara Chemali, during his presentation of the case of the Massabki brothers in 1926 before Pope Pius XI.

Both inside and outside the city, crime was increasing. The Russian, Dutch, Belgian, American and Greek consulates were ransacked and burned. A large number of Christians took refuge with the Emir Abdel Kader al-Jazairi who later helped a number of them to flee to Lebanon.

In total, nearly 20,000 Christians died in Lebanon, particularly in Zahlé, and in Syria, including four to six thousand in Damascus between July 9 and July 18, 1860. Eleven churches and three convents were destroyed in the Syrian capital, and between 1,500 and 2,000 houses and 200 shops reduced to heaps of stone.

Beatified in 1926

The three Massabki brothers had been beatified by the Catholic Church on October 10, 1926, along with eight Franciscans (seven Spaniards and one Austrian), who also died in the convent. According to the Vatican’s announcement, the three “blessed” are considered “martyrs among the saints”, without the need for proof that they performed a miracle, because they are “martyrs of the faith”.

What characterizes the spirituality of the Massabki brothers is the simplicity of their life and their availability to God’s calls, even giving up their lives without any hesitation. They were neither religious, nor monks, nor priests, nor consecrated lay people, but simple believers with a deep and rich faith, people of their milieu, men of duty to their work and to their family. Their devotions were based on a constant practice of Christian virtues in their daily life until martyrdom.

Before the war, the left altar in the Maronite Saint-Georges Cathedral in Beirut was dedicated to them. In front of a large painting, representing the three martyrs, many faithful came to pray and light candles, but the painting disappeared with the restoration of the cathedral.

The Maronite Church celebrates the Massabki brothers on July 10 each year. At the same time as the Orthodox Church of Antioch honors on this day one of its priests killed, Father Youssef Mhanna el-Haddad, while the Catholic Church commemorates the memory of the eight Franciscan religious, who all suffered martyrdom during the same massacres in Damascus. Despite this unity of date, each of these three Churches commemorates its martyrs independently of the others.