Blat Byblos – The church of St Elias

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St Elias Church, Blat, Lebanon

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كنيسة مار الياس

Blat Jbeil

Jbeil

Mount Lebanon

كنيسة مار الياس - بلاط جبيل الكنيسة في الأساس مبنيّة بحجارة معبدٍ رومانيّ بُني في زمان الإمبراطور انطونان التقيّ كما تشير النقوش اليونانيّة على جدرانها. تحوي الكنيسة على عدّة آثار من المعبد القديم كتمثال صنمٍ في آخرها. في القرون الوسطى تزيّنت الكنيسة بمجموعة من الجداريّات ما زال قسمٌ منها ماثل. الكنيسة كناية عن بناء بنمط بازيليكيّ بثلاث أسواقٍ وعقدٍ سريريّ. في عهد المماليك إستُعملت هذه الكنيسة كخانٍ للمُسافرين، وفي بداية العهد العُثماني إستُعملت إسطبلاً للخيل في قسمٍ منها، وفي القسم الآخر أُنشئت معصرة للزيتون. وآلت ملكيتها لمشايخ آل حمادة الشيعة. وفي أوآخر القرن الثامن عشر قَدَمَ الشيخ وهبه الدحداح الأول من كسروان وإستملك بلاط، فَحوَّل الإسطبل الذي أصبح من أملاكه الى كنيسة على إسم مار الياس وأعاد ترميمها، فكرَّسها المطران يوسف المريض في 4 كانون الأول ١٨٧٠. وفي العام ١٩١٩ ضربتها صاعقة، فأعاد الشيخ إسكندر كنعان وهبه الدحداح ترميمها. وفي العام ١٩٧٨ قامت المديريّة العامّة للآثار بترميمها على الشكل الذي تقوم عليه الآن. تضمّ الكنيسة لوحةً لمار الياس من عمل كنعان ديب الدلبتاوي. The church of St Elias - Blat Byblos The church was built with the spolias of an ancient roman temple built during the reign of the emperor Antoninus the pious. The church holds many remanences of the temple : greek inscriptions and an idol. The church’s structure is a three naved basilical plan with a crib vault. It used to be covered with frescoes some of them can be seen today. During the Mamluk’s era the church was converted into a caravanserai. Later on it was converted into a stable and an olive pressing mill and remained so during the Ottoman era when it became property of the Shia lords of the Hemade family. The church was bought by the Sheikh Wehbe el Dahdah when he came from Kesserwan and bought the village of Blat. The church was reconsecrated and dedicated to the Saint Elias the Prophet by bishop Youssef el Marid of the 4th of december 1870. It was damaged by a lightning stroke and restored in 1919 by Sheikh Kanaan Wehbe Dahdah. The church was renovated by the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities in 1978. The church holds a painting of Elias by Kanaan Dib.

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The hill of Sharfe was a property of the Khazen feudal lords. In 1754 the parcel of land was sold to the monk Joseph Maroun from Tripoli to build a school. After he was elected Syriac patriarch in Mardin, Mor Ignatius Jarwe proclaimed communion with the Roman Catholic Church. For this, he was then persecuted and obliged to leave his homeland. He finally settled in Charfe and bought the old school transforming it into a patriarcal seat bringing in an icon of Our Lady of Deliverance from Jerusalem. Since then the monastery became a patriarcal seat with a school and a seminary.

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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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The first church was built in the early XIXth century, and rebuilt in 1910. The structure consists of a crossed vault ending with a semi circular apse. The altar is made of a local yellow limestone in 1912. After the civil war the town’s maronite population left in great numbers and the church became partially abandoned. The Patriarch Bechara el Rai visited the church in the summer of 2011.