مجلة السنونو (
العدد الثالث ) -
بلاد الجدود
La patrie des aieux
|
|||
|
دير مار
موسى الحبشي DEIR MAR MUSA EL-HABASHI
|
|||
Geography and History
The ancient Syrian
monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa el-Habashi) overlooks a
harsh velley in the mountains east of the small town of Nebek, 80 km north of
Damascus. It is about 1320 metres above sea level.
Prehistoric hunters and shepherds first inhabited the area around the monastery,
attracted by the natural cisterns and pastures, ideal for herding goats. Perhaps
the Romans or Palmiriens built a watchtower here. Christian hermits later used
the cave for meditation and, thus, created the first small monastic centre.
According to local
tradition, St. Moses the Abyssinian was the son of an Ethiopian king. He refused
to accept the crown, honours and marriage. Instead he looked towards the kingdom
of God. He travelled to Egypt and then to the Holy Land. He later lived as a
monk in Qara, Syria and then as a hermit in the valley where the monastery is
now situated and was martyred by Byzantine soldiers. Tradition says that his
family took his body but a miracle separated the thumb of his right hand and it
was frescos in the context of Syrian European co-operation.
The
new foundation of the monastic community started in 1991.
The Church and Frescoes of Deir Mar Musa
The
church of the monastery was built in 1058 AD. It is a square of about
10x10-metres and divided into two sections. The larger section is a nave, with
two aisles, illuminated by a high eastern window. The second section is the
sanctuary containing the altar and the apse; it is separated from the rest of
the church by a stone and wooden chancel screen.
To
date, three layers of frescoes have been revealed in the church. The first layer
is from the middle of the 11th century AD, the second from the end of
the 11th century, and the third from the end of the 12th
or beginning of the 13th century.
In the
second layer of frescoes, in the northern aisle near the baptistery, rests an
image of the baptism of Jesus with an angel serving as a deacon and St. Simeon
Stylites sitting atop his column. On the southern wall of the nave, on top of
the first pillar, we admire an Elijah from the first layer, ascending in his
chariot.
Other frescoes,
especially older ones, are likely to be revealed in future restorations. The
Syrian General Directorate of Monuments and Museums,
together with the left as a relic-it is now conserved in the Syrian
church of Nebek.
From
archaeological and historical evidence, we know that the monastery of St. Moses
existed from the middle of the 6th century and belonged to the Syrian
Antiochian Rite. The present monastic church was built in the Islamic year 450
(1058 AD), according to Arabic inscriptions on the walls, which begin with the
words: “In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate”.
The
frescoes in the church date from the 11th and 12th
centuries.
In the
15th century the monastery was partially rebuilt and enlarged. The
monastery was abandoned in the first half of the 19th century and
slowly fell into ruin. Nevertheless, it remained in the ownership of the Syrian
Catholic Diocese of Homs, Hama, and Nebek. The inhabitants of Nebek continued to
visit the monastery with devotion and the local parish struggled to maintain it.
In
1984, restoration work began through a common initiative of the Syrian State,
the local Church and a group of Arab and European volunteers. The restoration of
the monastery building was completed in 1994 thanks to co-operation between the
Italian and Syrian States. This Italian and Syrian school for restoration of
frescoes was created at Deir Mar Musa in 1989 and will complete the restoration
of the caused little environmental degradation.
Since
the 19th century, however, the balance between humans and the
environment has gradually deteriorated, with the resulting problems worsening in
the twentieth century. The region has witnessed a strong desertification and the
beginnings of pollution. A rare exception has been the valleys surrounding the
monastery, which have provided a precious refuge for plants and animals.
Unfortunately the valleys are also at risk from the impact of this general
environmental decline.
A very
large increase in population density together with a resumption of agricultural
and farming activities as a result of the economic crisis caused by the Gulf
War, has renewed the urgency of the environmental question. With so many people
and so few resources, this question is no longer a philosophical one, but one
which truly effects ordinary individuals at both an economic and social level.
We are in need of strategies, didactics, and solidarities. Thus, our social
Community of Deir Mar Musa, composed of monks, nuns, employees and guests, has
made this environmental question an integral part of its vision. To have chosen
not to – and allowed the environment to continue to decline – would have
endangered the very possibility of the monastery existing as a place of
spirituality and meditation with a positive social impact. For us, our
Central Institute of Restoration of Rome, will continue to collaborate in future
restorations in the growing context of Syrian European co-operation programmes.
The Environmental, Agricultural, and Social Dimensions
The monastic community of Deir Mar Musa and the inhabitants of the surrounding region lived in a manner which, though rough and difficult, was substantially balanced. The vegetable and animal species have adapted to the presence of humans for many millennia. The presence of humans has changed the environment but not caused drastic upheaval. For example, the traditional methods of gathering and distributing water for agriculture and farming have abroad, particularly of Christian families from towns nearby, puts this dialogue at risk. We feel that the cultural pluralism of this region must be kept and valued. In the past, this area maintained a tradition of common life, and we would like to build on this tradition.
The monastery also helps to restore traditional houses and to build
houses for some young families in the local parish. It is difficult at the
moment for the young to afford to buy or rent a house in order to marry.
There is an urgent need to discern and to offer positive, strong
cultural and moral reasons for local Christians not only to stay, but also to
return.
The community of Deir Mar Musa is deeply engaged, together with Muslim
and Christian intellectuals from this region, in the important work of making
sense of a pluralistic society in which the majority and all minorities are able
to not only live together but positively and dynamically interact as well.
Deir Mar Musa, a Monastic Community Devoted
to Inter-religious Communion
In 1982, during a period of suffering in this region, a Roman young
Jesuit student of Arabic travelled to the ruins of Deir Mar Musa. Here in the
mountains east of Nebek, Fr. Paolo remained for a ten-day spiritual retreat.
Through contemplation, he discovered three
environment has to be protected and also valued : spiritually, aesthetically,
biologically, socially and economically.
At
Deir Mar Musa, we are nurturing the following projects:
1-
a scientific interest in the characteristics of this
natural context;
2-
programs for the reintegration of flora and fauna;
3-
the experimental development of sustainable goat
farming;
4-
the sustainable development of agricultural
activities, particularly fruit trees; and
5-
the gathering of water sources through various
projects, particularly the building of a small dam.
Recently the monastery has collaborated with a number of local and
international institutions. We are working towards establishing a protected
environmental area in the valley of the monastery, so as to create an oasis of
silence and beauty available to everyone. We hope to realise a larger project
for the entire region, with local stakeholders actively participating, beginning
with transforming the waste heap on the road to the monastery into a
biodiversity garden.
On a social level, the community of Deir Mar Musa works to develop
services which facilitate inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue and
harmony. However, continued immigration
always considered hospitality to be a sacred activity based on a virtue
always considered divine in this region. So the monastery must be understood as
a place of meeting in which specific identities are deepened and not forgotten.
We are not seeking to closet ourselves in cultural ghettos; on the contrary, we
seek to give up a culture of separation in order to build, gradually, a culture
of communion. This means also that the Christian community of Deir Mar Musa
wishes to underline the ecumenical inter-Christian dimension, without losing the
significance of the Syrian identity of the monastery and of its Catholic links.
The perspective, then, is that of building a positive Christian-Islamic
relationship. This relationship has not always been easy in the past and is
still difficult in many places. It, therefore, constitutes an essential aspect
of the spiritual vocation of all monks and nuns at Deir Mar Musa. The choice of
the Arabic language for the social and liturgical life of the monastic community
is deeply tied to this vocation.
This
perspective of deepening inter-cultural and inter-religious collaboration has
received the help of the European Commission, the Orseri Foundation of Rome, the
Solidarite Orient of Brussels and others. A growing library has been established
at the monastery featuring classical texts on Christianity and Islam and also
works of psychology, sociology, priorities, within the horizon of
Islamic-Christian communion.
In
1984, he was ordained a priest in the Syrian rite. On the basis of his three
priorities, summer camps of work and prayer were established at the monastery.
On the same basis he, together with Deacon Jacques from Aleppo, initiated a
monastic community in 1991.
The
first priority is the rediscovery of spiritual life as an absolute. Prayer and
contemplation are not instruments or means to an end; they are an end in
themselves in full gratuity. The ruined monastery offered a strong witness to
the value of spiritual life in this region and, paradoxically, showed the risk
of losing this value. It must be emphasised that the ancient oriental monastic
life is an essential element of both the Christian local soul, and of the
cultural, symbolic and mystical world of Islam. Therefore, the community of Deir
Mar Musa must first and foremost create an ambience of silence and prayer for
both the personal and social life of its monks, nuns and guests.
The
second priority is that of evangelical simplicity, a way of living in harmony
and full responsibility with Creation and the society around us. This
necessitates a rediscovery of the value of manual work together with that of the
body and of material things in an aesthetic of justice and gratuity.
The
third priority is that of hospitality. The ancient monks perceived over
centuries as an insoluble and stainless fact and a source of anguish, tensions
and wars. To overcome this as believers we want to scrutinise attentively the
mystery of “otherness”. This is in order to prime and develop processes able to
create a shared culture based on values such as peace, deep respect and both
inter-personal and inter-community interaction. This will facilitate the
diffusion and strengthening of important conquests of contemporary global civil
society. For example, the significance of the dignity of individual conscience,
the enormous impact of the emancipation of women on both anthropological and
social levels, the inviolability of human rights as individuals and groups and
finally the fertility of cultural pluralism in itself. A monastery in the desert
is also all this. philosophy and anthropology in order
to deepen our understanding of an inter-religious human context. A special
section is dedicated to Louis Massignon, a major scholar in oriental studies,
whose meditation and exemplary life continues to inspire to our monastic
community. The monastery is also engaged in organising workshops and seminars,
which will assist the exchange of experiences and ideas. By the same token, the
monks and nuns of Deir Mar Musa have recently assumed responsibility for the
monastery of Mar Elian in Qaryatein, 50km north-east of here. Their hopes and
dreams are far-reaching and will open lines of communion to numerous parts of
the Islamic World. A virtual monastery is being built in cyberspace.
It soon became apparent that we had insufficient space in the monastry. It
has been necessary to build some rooms in a traditional manner to house both
monks and male guests. These have been built north of the monastery, using a
number of ancient caves.
An important new building is being constructed with old and recycled
materials, south of the monastery; so as to have more space for cultural
activities, spiritual retreats and more rooms for nuns and female guests. This
will leave the old monastery for communal life and to welcome tourists.
The presence of the Other as other in front of me has been
|
|||
|
WEBMASTER : AA-ALSAAD
|
|
This Web Site Programmed and
Written By ABD ALMASSIH JAMIL ALSAAD
..... Copyright 2003 (C) SCOPNET All
Rights Reserved
|
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق