Zakrit – Mar Abda

Mar Yaacoub Church, Delbta, Lebanon

Name in arabic:  كنيسة مار يعقوب المقطّع

Year built:  1764

City:  Dlebta

District:  Keserwan

Governorate:  Mount Lebanon

History: 

Our Lady of Ilige, Maifouq, Lebanon

Name in arabic:  سيدة ايليج

City:  Mayfouq

District:  Jbeil

Governorate:  Mount Lebanon

History: 

The 3^rd Patriarchal seat from 1120 to 1440 AD. This beautiful, small church dates to 1121 AD. There’s a tradition that the Monastery of Our Lady of Elij took the place of one of the train stations of the Roman road from Baalbak and the banks of Al Assi River to the North coast of Phoenicia. The apostles used this road during their trips between Antakya and the beaches of Palestine, and turning the place into a Christian one is attributed to them. (The apostles and students of St. Lucas).

The name of Elij is derived from the word “Eel”, from the Aramaic language, and it means “God of soft valley”. But from the Greek, it is derived from the word “Ellios” meaning “Goddess of the Sun”.

According to a Syriac inscription on the church wall (1277 AD.): “In the name of the eternally living God, in the year 1588 of the Greek era, this Jacobi temple was built for the Mother of God who prays for us, by the bishops Mark and John, in 1588 of the Greek era.” A cross was also engraved with a Syriac state “In You we conquer our enemy and in your name, we tread our haters”. There’s Syriac writing on the monastery’s wall: “In the name of the living God, in 1746 A.D, the two monk- brothers Amoun & Ming. It was established by four patriarches Botros, Ermia, Yaacoub, and Youhanna in 1121 A.D”.

The church is known for its ”Elij” icon of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ: while restoring it in 1985, Sisters of karlmalite-Harissa, researchers had found 10 different layers of paint, and the oldest one backed to the 10^th century (every layer is over 100 year).

This monastery is the fourth oldest belonging to the Maronites. It is one of the most ancient Episcopal seats in Lebanon. It was built on the ruins of a pagan temple as mentioned before. It had witnessed all types of persecution and martyrdom for the name of Jesus Christ, in addition to the history and faith, in what it spared miracles and glorification of Virgin Mary. It is not an edifice, but it looks like a grotto, built in the valley amidst old trees, between the mountains and the rebellious course of two rivers, of soil-colored dabachi stones which cannot easily be seen under the walnut trees…

What is left of the monastery today are two floors. The church occupies the greatest part of the ground floor while the first floor contains a small loft and a wide hall. The patriarch lived on the upper floor, in the small loft, which can be reached either by an internal flight of stairs within the church, or by external stone stairs. There is also a secret access from the patriarch’s room to another hidden room or to the outside. A small window was opened in the patriarch’s room facing the Holy Sacrament and the icon of Our Lady of Elij over the main altar. Next to the church on the first floor, there are two rectangular rooms with low curved ceilings, open to each other by a small path on the west side, inside the separating wall.

The church is distinguished by its “Bema” (the throne in Greek), with stairs leading to it on the western side. The bema is a high tribune in the church where the first part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, is celebrated, where the Patriarch sit with bishops. It is the only church in Lebanon that still keeping a bema. There are a number of basements (narrow tunnels) inside the walls used to hide and run during persecution, invasion and war. There is a library containing souvenirs: religious relics, photos, books, documentary, local products.

Smar Jbeil Citadel, Smar Jbeil, Lebanon

Name in arabic:  قلعة سمار جبيل

City:  Smar Jbayl

District:  Batroun

Governorate:  North

History: 

على تلة مشرفة في البلدة ترتفع قلعة عسكرية حصينة. وتعلو القلعة حوالى 500 متر عن سطح البحر ويعود تاريخ بنائها الى ملوك جبيل الفينيقيين الذين اشتهروا بالقصور والقلاع المنحوتة بالصخر، ثم سكنها ملك بابل “بختنصر”. وثمّة تماثيل رومانيّة بأوشحتها المعروفة تدلّ على أنّ الرومان احتلوها وبنوا فيها هيكلًا بأعمدة ضخمة بقاياها مشتتة في نواح عدة من سمار جبيل، وفي الحائط الجنوبي لكنيستها الأثرية. وقد بنى فيها الرومان أيضًا مسرحًا يدعى الراميّة، وهو مفروش بالإسمنت القديم، كما بنوا معاصر موجودة في الجنوب الغربي من القلعة. في القلعة خندق منحوت في الصخر يُملأ بالمياه لمنع دخول الغزاة، وبرج مراقبة وطاقات لفوانيس.
في التقليد القديم يُروى ان مار لوجيوس وهو شفيع العيون والمعروف لدى السريان بمار نوهرا، قصد بلاد البترون للتبشير، ونال اكليل الشهادة بقطع الرأس ورميه في أحد آبار هذه القلعة بالذات. هذا البئر مازال مقصودًا الى اليوم للتبرك بمائه العجائبي الشافي لأمراض العيون.
كذلك يذكر تقليد آخر ان مار يوحنا مارون قصد القلعـة، يوم تعيينه أسقـفًا على البترون سنة 676، واختارهـا حصـناً له بعـد خراب دير مـار مارون في سوريا. ولمّا أصبـح بطريركـًا سنة 685 نُقل مقـرّه الى كفرحي وبنى فيها ديرًا.
بعد سقوط الامبراطورية البيزنطية، تعاقب على القلعة العرب والصليبيون، وأتى بعدهم المماليك ثم العثمانيون. الحكام اللبنانيون قديماً كان لهم نصيب في هذه القلعة، حيث سكنها الشيخ أبو نادر الخازن الذي ولّاه الأمير فخر الدين على مقدّمي البلاد.

Built by the phonecian kings of Byblos on a hill overlooking the coastline, the castle was used by the Babylonian king Baktensar. Later on in the classical period, the romans built a temple inside of it with a large atrium, nowadays the columns of the atrium are scatered all around the village and in the walls of the historical church. The romans also built a theater, and a winery in the western side of the castle. A watch tower and a protective water trench were added in the late classical period for protection.
According to tradition St Logius the patron saint of eye illness, also known as Nohra in the Syriac world, preached in the lands of Batroun. He was sentenced to death during the Diocletian persecution by beheading in the castle patio. His head was thrown in a well nearby, still visited for its miraculous eye healing waters.
According to another tradition, the first Maronite patriarch St John Maroun, and when he became bishop of Batroun in 676, resided in the castle after the devastation of the monastery of St Maroun on the Orontes in Syria. After he was elected patriarch in 685 he moved again to Kfarhay where he built a new monastery.
After the fall of the Byzantine empire the castle was occupied by the Arabs, the Crusarders, the Mamluks and the Ottomans. During the reign of prine Fakhredyn the Second, the first Christian regent of the land Aby Nader Al khazin took hold of the castle and made it his headquarter.