دير مار موسى الحبشيّ - بلّونهأواسط القرن السادس عشر بنى مشايخ آل الخازن دارًا واسعة في بلوّنه. في هذه الدّار أخفت الستّ نسب التنّوخيّة الأميرين فخر الدّين ويونس معن، عن أعين الدّولة العثمانيّة بعد موت والدهما قرقماز، تحت وصاية الشيخ أبا صقر إبراهيم الخازن، من سنة ١٥٨٤ إلى سنة ١٥٩٠.في ١٤ كانون الأوّل ١٧٨٥ أوقف الشيّخ عبد السلام بن عبد الملك الدّار وكنيسة مار موسى بداخله، ليصبح ديرًا وأثبت هذه الوصيّة البطريرك يوسف أسطفان.تولى رئاسة الدّير المطران يوسف اسطفان الأوّل أسطفان سنة ١٧٨٦، سافر الى روما بالسنة ذاتها، حيث قابل البابا بيوس السادس الذي أنعم بغفرانٍ كاملٍ لكلّ من يقدّس على مذبح الدير بموجب براءة بتاريخ ١٧٨٨.الجدير بالذكر أنّ الكنيسة هي مثال نادر على حفاظها على حالتها الأولى، من الزخارف والمذبح والشعريّة وبيض النعام فوق المقدس.The Monastery of St Moses the Abyssinian - BallounehDuring the mid XVIth century, the lords of the feudal Khazen house built an estate in Ballouneh. In this house Lady Nasab Tannoukh hid her two sons Fakher Ed Dyn and Youness Maan after the assassination of their father. The princes where under the custody of Sheikh Aba Sakr Ibrahim El Khazen from 1584 till 1590.On the 14th of December 1785, Sheikh Abdul Salam Bin Abul Malik el Khazen converted the estate and the chapel inside it, into a monastery by a decree of Patriarch Youssef Estephan.In 1786 Bishop Youssef Estfan I el Khazen was appointed superior of the monastery. He traveled to Rome and met the Pope Pius VI who gave a plenary indulgence to all who celebrate mass on the monastery’s altar in 1788.What is worth mentioning is that the church is a rare example of intact XVIth century church architecture, conserving original elements.
بُنيت الكنيسة سنة ١٧٦٤، وهي عقد مصالب بحنية واحدة وثلاث مذابح. هي كنيسة البلدة الرعائيّة. رممّت للمرّة الأولى ما يين سنة ١٨٩٣ و١٨٩٤ وأقيم فيها المذبح الكبير. أمّا الترميم الثاني يعود لسنة ١٩٧٥. تحوي الكنيسة على مدفن المطران يوحنّا مراد رئيس أساقفة بعلبك (+١٩٣٧). كذلك على مجموعة كبيرة من اللوحات لكنعان ديب إبن البلدة تعود لأواخر القرن التاسع عشر.
The church of St Jacob the Persian - Dlebta
Built in 1764, it is the town’s parochial church. The structure is a crossed vault ending in a single apse with three altars. The church was restored between 1893 and 1894 when the current high altar was brought, and in 1975. In the church is buried Mgr. Youhanna Mrad (+1937) archbishop of Baalbek. The church holds a great number of paintings by Kanaan Dib the son of Dlebta, dating back to the late XIXth century.
تقوم كنيسة مار إدنا في خراج بلدة عين عِكرين. بنيت على عِدَّة مراحل على أنقاضٍ رومانيّة قديمة. فهي بسوقٍ واحدٍ بعقدٍ سريريّ يحتوي على حنيَّة مُكوَّرة، وثلاثة قناطر في الجدار الجنوبيّ. على الحائط الشماليّ، بقايا جِداريّة، تعود الى القرون الوسطى . في الكنيسة لوحة نادرة لمار إدنا مرسومة على النحاس، كما وجد في داخلها بقايا رومانيّة. ومار إدنا هو لقب سريانيّ لمار طراخونبوس وهو شهيد من القرن الثالث وشفيع الأذن.
The church of St Edna - Aïn Ekrin
The ancient church stands in the vicinity of Aïn Ekrin built several stages over roman ruins. It consist of one nave with a crib vault, ending with a semi circular apse. The southern wall consists of three arched windows. The church holds a rare icon of St Edna painted on copper, and many roman poteries. The church also holds a medieval fresco. Edna is a Syriac nickname given to St Trakhonios, a Third century martyr, and the patron saint of ears.
Basilica of Our Lady of Mantara - بازيليك سيدة المنطرة, Maghdoucheh, Lebanon
مقام سيدة المنطرة العجائبي مغدوشة
Maghdoucheh
Saida
South
Our Lady of Mantara is a Melkite Greek Catholic Marian shrine in Maghdouché, Lebanon, discovered on 8 September 1721 by a young shepherd. The grotto, which according to a legend dates to ancient times, was subsequently cared after by Monsignor Eftemios Saïfi, Melkite Catholic bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Sidon. The shrine consists of a tower crowned with the statue of the Virgin and Child, a cathedral, a cemetery and a sacred cave believed to be the one where the Virgin Mary rested while she waited for Jesus while he was in Tyre and Sidon. (Women were not allowed in some cities). Since its discovery, it has been steadily visited by families particularly each year on the occasion of the feast of the Nativity of Mary on 8 September.
Ancient era Many historians agree that the devotion to the Virgin Mary in Lebanon replaced the Phoenician worship of Astarte. Temples and shrines to Astarte were converted to Christian places of worship, honoring the Virgin. This is also true in Maghdouché where within the vicinity of Our Lady of Awaiting are the remains of a shrine to Astarte.
Middle Ages During the reign of Emperor Constantine, his mother, Saint Helena of Constantinople, requested in 324 the destruction of all pagan temples and idols dedicated to Astarte. The Astarte shrine in Maghdouché was probably destroyed at that time and converted to a place of devotion to the Holy Mother.
Since the early Christian era, the inhabitants of Maghdouché have venerated the cave where the Virgin Mary rested while she waited for her son, Jesus to finish preaching in Sidon. Saint Helena asked the Bishop of Tyre to consecrate a little chapel at the cave in Maghdouché. She sent the people of Maghdouché an icon of the mother and child and some altar furnishings. Historians believe that Saint Helena asked the people to name the chapel, and they named it "Our Lady of Awaiting" because it was there that the holy mother waited for her son.[4] Mantara is derivative of the Semitic root ntr, which means “to wait."
Saint Helena provided funds from the imperial treasury for the maintenance of the chapel. The funding continued for three centuries of Byzantine rule in Phoenicia until Khalid ibn al-Walid defeated Emperor Heraclius at the Battle of the Yarmuk.[4] While the caliph Omar, who became ruler of Jerusalem, was a pious and humble man, sparing Christendom's holiest shrines and being tolerant of his Christian subjects, the Arab rulers of the rest of Byzantium were less tolerant of the Christians, especially in the maritime cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Byblos, and Tripoli.[4] After the majority of the Sidonians converted to Islam to receive promised privileges and immunities, the people of Maghdouché withdrew to higher elevation up Mount Lebanon. The caliphate had recognised the Christians of Mount Lebanon as autonomous communities, paying a fixed tax. Before abandoning their village, they concealed the entrance to the cave of Our Lady of Awaiting with stones, earth and vines. The people left the village through obscure mountain paths to the strongholds of Christian Lebanon. The legend of Our Lady of Awaiting was passed down to the exiled generations of Maghdouché for one thousand years.
The people of Maghdouché did not return to their ancestral home despite the arrival of the Crusaders in Sidon. The Crusaders spent most of the 12th and 13th centuries in the shadow of Maghdouché without ever suspecting the sacred cave's existence even though they built a small fort, called La Franche Garde, within meters of the hidden entrance to the cave.
Modern era The people of Maghdouché only returned to their ancestral village during the reign of the Druze Prince Fakhreddin II (1572-1635). The prince, who was considered a tolerant and enlightened ruler of his day and age, believed in equality amongst the diverse religious followers of his Lebanon. To demonstrate this equality, he appointed a Maronite Catholic as Prime Minister, a Muslim as Minister of the Interior, a Druze as Army Commander and a Jew as Finance Minister. His reign was a rare example of non-sectarianism, and it soon became the most prosperous principality in the Ottoman Empire.
It was not easy to relocate the sacred cave even though the men of Maghdouché worked for hundreds of years near the grotto, pulling down the stones of the Crusader fort for building material for their new homes. The cave was finally rediscovered on 8 September 1721 by a young shepherd when one of his goats fell in a well-like opening in the porous limestone. Wanting to save his goat, the shepherd made a rope from vine twigs, tied it to a tree, and descended into the hole, but the rope broke and he fell. When his eyes became accustomed to the darkness of the grotto, the boy saw a soft glimmer of a golden object, which turned out to be Saint Helena’s icon of the Mother and Child. The boy climbed up the stone walls and ran to the village to tell his discovery.
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