Posted on 03/03/2016 8:09:52 PM PST by annalex
Sts. Behnam and Sarah were a brother and a sister. Their father was a 4th century Assyrian king of Nineveh named Sinharib, who killed them, because they converted to Christianity.
King Sinharib later converted to Christianity himself. As a penance, he built Mar Behnam Monastery near Beth Khdeda in modern Iraq (or what remains of it). This is how the entrance looked:
The monastery change affiliations between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Syriac Catholic Church a few times. It has been with the Syriac Catholic Church since 1839.
In 1986 the monastery was renovated.
In 2008 the Church of Sts. Behnam and Sarah was built.
The troops of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the monastery in 2014. The monks were expelled . The photos of the monastery destruction was posted by ISIL on March 19, 2015.
More photos of the Church follow, courtesy كنيسة ماربهنام وسارة - قره قوش .
Let us pray.
ishtartv.com
Mar Behnam Monastery
Sinharib
Submitting to your ping lists.
When monarchs fail, often nations fail. When nations fail, liberties fail. When liberties fail, barbarity does very well.
I thought Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C., by a combined force of Medes, Babylonians and Scythians. Who rebuilt it, and when?
Following the defeat in 612 BC, the site remained largely unoccupied for centuries with only a scattering of Assyrians living amid the ruins until the Sassanian period, although Assyrians continue to live in the surrounding area to this day. The city is mentioned again in the Battle of Nineveh in 627 AD, which was fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire of Persia near the ancient city. From the Arab Islamic Conquest in 637 AD until the modern period, the city of Mosul on the opposite bank of the river Tigris became the successor of ancient Nineveh.
βεβαίως!
——barbarity does very well-—
for a while
I sure hope so.
It was a modern church building. It had little historical value. I cannot judge its aesthetic value because it is not in the architectural tradition that I understand. Of course it can be rebuilt, the building, that is, can be rebuilt.
But it was a living church: there were people worshipping inside, babies were heard, singing was heard, prayers. Will that be rebuilt? Can it be?
I am afraid that the loss of Christian population and Christian life in the Middle East is irreversible.
Actually the modern Church building is still there—ISIS just removed the crosses (and did who know what other vandalism).
The ancient tomb is what was destroyed—with much historical value. Fanatical Muslims seem to hate tombs, for some reason. They destroyed the biblical prophet Jonah’s tomb in Nineveh too.
Back in the 1920s fanatical Muslims in Saudi Arabia destroyed the tombs of Mohammed’s relatives too....and of course a Caliph in the AD 1000s tried to destroy Jesus’ tomb (empty though it is...) in Jerusalem.
I was going to ask: the landscape on the photo you posted did not match.
When people leave or a killed, -- the church is destroyed, whether the walls stand or not. Thank you for the clarification though.
Probably not YOUR lifetime, but in the long run? The good Lord knows and we can trust in Him.
Yes. With divine intervention. But what we do with human efforts only made things worse.
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