Jad Ganem- Victims of Terrorism: Has the Time Come for the Church to Recognize their Sainthood?

 Arabic original here.

 

Victims of Terrorism: Has the Time Come for the Church to Recognize their Sainthood?

On Sunday, June 22, 2025, as the Greek Orthodox Church of Mar Elias in Dweilaa, Damascus welcomed its congregation during the evening Divine Liturgy, a terrifying scene interrupted the prayers: a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the church and the criminals accompanying him opened fire on the faithful in the house of God.

The scene is not new to the Christians of Antioch and All the East. This sort of bloodthirsty targeting has become a tragic part of their reality, recurring time and again, and with each recurrence there come canned statements of international condemnation which fail to prevent death, preserve life, or deter aggressors.

But what is more painful than the crime itself is that the martyrs are generally buried amidst official silence, without explicit recognition of their martyrdom by the Church. The churches hesitate, refrain and avoid declaring the sainthood of these martyrs. They avoid describing their martyrdom as it really is: dying for the sake of the faith, being systematically targeted because of their Christian identity, in an atmosphere of rampant religious terrorism.

This hesitancy might be due to fear of further violence, out of a desire to preserve a fragile “coexistence,” or out of complex political concerns. But, before this blood spilled on the altar of prayer, there is no place for courtesy or ambiguity. The blood of the innocent, which has been mixed with oil, incense and the Eucharist, which has covered icons and walls, allows for no equivocation. It cries out demanding truth, recognition and dignity.

Martyrs, as Metropolitan Georges (Khodr) says, “do not need human testimony. Their blood attests that the Spirit is in them. Through love they have transcended the body of dust and have become pillars of light. God will not judge them on the Last Day. They have passed through judgment into glory. They do not need a human statement to reveal their power. If we declare their sainthood, we only do so out of obedience to the One of whom they are worthy. They are in the company of Christ, as Paul says. They have hope for the highest glory in what Orthodox theology calls paradise. However, only the martyr crosses all the heavens and settles on the thrones of glory. We belong to him as he belongs to Christ.”

Therefore, the Antiochian Church is called today to take a bold and prophetic step. The time has come for the Holy Synod to declare the sainthood of these martyrs and those who preceded them along the same path, and to recognize them as “martyrs of religious extremist terrorism.”

In this context, it is likewise requested of the Christian churches in the Middle East to rise above their differences, having been united by the martyrdom of blood, and to designate a common feast for all the Christian martyrs who have fallen because of religious terrorism throughout the Middle East.

Such a recognition is not intended to stir up resentment or fuel hatred. Rather, it is an act of truth and justice, an expression of loyalty to those who “loved unto death,” and proof that the Church, despite her wounds, still preserves the deposit of the martyrs, repeating with every new generation, “Blood is not forgotten and holiness is not defeated.”

The martyrs who fell in the Church of Mar Elias, like other martyrs, were not killed randomly, but because they were praying in Christ’s name. This alone is enough for us to raise up their icons, to seek their intercession along with the saints, and to cite as examples when the history of the Church is recounted, ever defeating death by faith, defeating hatred and malice by love.