كنيسة سيّدة المزرعة - بجّة
كنيسةٌ بيزنطيّة بعقدٍ سريريّ وحنية نصف دائريّة، مبنيّة فوق أنقاضٍ رومانيّة. تقع الكنيسة في موضعٍ أثريّ غنيّ بالنواويس والآثار. رمّمت الكنيسة في القرن العشرين وأُضيفت إليها قبّة جرسٍ.
The Church of Our Lady of the Farm - Bejjeh
The church is a Byzantine church, with its structure consisting of a rib vault and a semicircular apse. The church was built over Roman ruins in a historic necropolis. It was renovated in the 20th century, and a bell tower was added.
في القرن السادس عشر زار البطريرك ارزيفيان روما والتقى البابا بنديكتوس الرابع عشر، وأهداه أحد الكرادلة لوحة لسيّدة الآلام، منسوبة لمدرسة رافاييل تعود لرافاييل سانزيو أو الى غيراريو بار بيري. في رحلة العودة تعرّضت السفينة لخطر الغرق فرُميت اللوحة في البحر ووُجدت تطفو على المياه بشكلٍ عجائبيّ. بعد هذه الحادثة وُضعت اللوحة في كنيسة الدّير فوق العرش البطريركيّ. عام ١٨٠٢ ضربت الصاعقة الكنيسة، وسقطت على العرش البطريركيّ حيث كانت صورة العذراء، من دون الحاق الضرر بالعرش، ولا باللوحة، فبُنيت على إثر المعجزة كابيلا صغيرة ملاصقة للدّير وهي مزار للمؤمنين طالبين نِعم سيّدة الآلام. زارها قداسة البابا بنديكتوس السادس عشر سنة ٢٠١٢.
The chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows - Bzommar
In the XVIth century, the Armenian Patriarch Arzivian visited Rome and met pope Benedict XIV. He was gifted an icon of our Lady of Sorrows from an Italian cardinal. The painting is from Raphael’s school and is attributed to Raphael Sanzio or Gerario Parperi. On the way back the ship was in danger of shipwreck, and the painting was thrown in the sea with other furniture. It was rediscovered miraculously floating several days later. After the incident it was put over the patriarchal chair in the main church of Bzommar. In 1802 a lighting bolt hit the throne and the painting fell down, yet even the glass that was on it was miraculously preserved. A chapel adjacent to the monastery was erected to enshrine the miraculous icon. The chapel was visited by pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
The convent’s ancient origin is attached to a legend. A rich man of the region committed adultery; filled with remorse, he attached a padlocked iron chain to his ankle and threw the key into the sea-shore and survived on the fish brought to him by local fishermen, who called him the guardian of the cavern. One day, a fisherman brought him a fish, in whose entrails the hermit found the key of the padlock. He knew then that God had delivered him from his suffering, and he built a convent above the cavern. He dedicated it to The Mother of God, but it also took the name of the Guardian.
The daily life of the convent is regulated by the flow of visitors who come to fulfill vows and make prayers. Sister Catherine al-Jamal is the principal resident of Dayr al-Natour, and she has done everything within her power to restore it.
According to the Crusader document, the Monastery of the Presentation of Our Lady Natour was built by Cistercians. Indeed, the Church interior resembles that of the Cistercian Church of Balamand, built in 1157. Otherwise, the history of Dayr al-Natour is hidden in obscurity, although it is said that the local Orthodox community took it over after the departure of the Crusaders. Its name is almost unmentioned by historical sources during the Mamluk and most of the Ottoman period, although it is reported that French corsairs attacked the Monastery at the beginning of the eighteenth century and killed a monk.
In 1838, the Ottoman authorities gave permission to the Monastery to be rebuilt. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it contained several monks and a superior, and it possessed fifteen dunums of land. During the First World War, it was bombarded by a Russian ship. A few years later, the Monastery lost its last Superior, Basilios Debs, who became Archbishop of Akkar. After his departure, monastic life ended at Dayr al-Natour.
During the twentieth century, the deserted monastery became a refuge for shepherds from the neighboring regions. In 1973, Sister Catherine al-Jamal moved to Dayr al-Natour and began to restore it from its ruin.
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