Open-access Articles from Chronos

Chronos, the history journal of the University of Balamand, has made all of its issues from 2008 to the present open-access online. This journal, which publishes in French, English and Arabic, is  useful for the history of the Levant and the broader Eastern Mediterranean, particularly during the Ottoman period. Below are links to some English-language articles that may be of interest to readers of this blog:


Rand Abou Ackl, The Construction of the Architectural Background in Melkite Annunciation Icons

Spyridoula Athanasopoulou-Kypriou, A Theological Commentary on the Idea of 'Greekness' of the Ancient Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Antonios Chaldeos, The Greek Community in Tunis through 16th – 17th Centuries


Nicholas Coureas, The Syrian Melkites of the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus (1192-1474)

Ionana Feodorov, Rumanian Pioneers of Oriental Studies in the 18th Century: Dimitrie Cantemir and Ianache Văcărescu


Hilary Kilpatrick, From Venice to Aleppo: Early Printing of Scripture in the Orthodox World


Christoph Leonhardt, The Greek- and the Syriac-Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch in the context of the Syrian Conflict

Imad Rubeiz, Protestant Missionaries Perspectives on the Arab Orthodox and Orthodoxy at the Turn of the 20th Century 

Alexander Treiger, Unpublished Texts from the Arab Orthodox Tradition (1): On the Origin of the Term "Melkite" and On the Destruction of the Maryamiyya Cathedrale in Damascus

Alexander Treiger, Unpublished Texts from the Arab Orthodox Tradition (2): Miracles of St. Eustratius of Mar Saba (written ca. 860)


Alexander Treiger, Unpublished Texts from the Arab Orthodox Tradition (3): The Paterikon of the Palestinian Lavra of Mar Chariton

Fr Touma (Bitar): Why Icons?

Arabic original here.

Why Icons?

Today, brothers, the Holy Church commemorates the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council which affirmed the veneration of icons after a long period during which those who venerate them were persecuted and most ancient icons that had existed before the eighth century were destroyed.

What is the importance of icons in the Church? First of all, brothers, we honor icons and do not worship them. For this reason, all that can be said about us worshiping idols if we use icons in the Church is false. There is a great difference between veneration and worship. Worship belongs to God and God alone. But man expresses himself with word and image. Man has senses with which he expresses himself. Thus we use incense. Incense, for us, is a sign of venerating the faithful and of worshiping God in the faithful. So too with the Holy Bible. There are words in it, but these words are only vehicles for God's presence among us. We cannot express ourselves in a non-human way. We are human. Thus we express ourselves with sound, with the written word, with icons, with incense... All of these are languages. However, we need to know that the word of God which is read to us, though it has a human garb is not limited to human words. These words bear a divine presence. Thus we call this book the Holy Bible. It is the Holy Bible because it has a human dimension and another, divine dimension. It is different from every other book in the world. All the books in the world are human books, but the Holy Bible is a theanthropic book. In other words, we believe that the Son of God became flesh, that God became human. He is God and man at the same time. The Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man. For this reason, everything that goes out from God to man is divine and human in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man. The Holy Bible, then, contains human words, but these human words bear the divine presence, just as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from the Virgin Mary, bore His divine presence. God was present in it and they were one and the same. Thus the word of God is a human word and a divine word at the same time.

The same thing can be said with regard to icons. In itself, an icon of course has colors. And of course there are shapes and lines. When we draw something, we place its name over the drawing. If there is an image of someone-- anyone at all-- without a name over it, then we do not regard it as an icon and we in no way venerate it. Then, when we are venerating an icon, in practice we regard the veneration as being directed toward the person depicted in the icon. We have here, for example, Saint Barbara. When we prostrate before Saint Barbara, we are not prostrating to the wall, but before the saint who is in heaven and who is present through the icon that we drew of her on the wall. In the same way, we kiss the Holy Bible. When we kiss the Holy Bible, we are kissing God, who was pleased to give us Himself through these human words. So our veneration is not of colors. It is not of wood. Rather, it is of the one who is depicted on the wood. So we venerate God and His saints in human shapes and human expressions. The Church has held fast to venerating icons because venerating icons is based on the incarnation of God. The icon indicates that the Son of God-- the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity-- became incarnate indeed. He became human in every sense of the word. He became perceptible. God became perceptible in His body. God in the body ate, drank and suffered. So this is something that surpasses human understanding. One cannot understand something like this. But one is allowed to accept this through faith, through this trust that God indeed became incarnate, indeed became perceptible. He who is imperceptible gives us Himself  in a perceptible image in the icon. And He gives Himself in an auditory manner through human words. He gives us Himself through the worship that we perform: through the incense, through the motions, through the words... The priest, for example, is flesh and blood like any human. At some point, this body will become dust. But the Lord God was pleased at the raising of the priest's hand and at his making the sign of the cross in a particular way, to indicate the name of the Lord Jesus. In this way, in practice, he gives the blessing of Christ, who is unseen, in a visible manner. For this reason, people bow, receive a blessing and make a prostration, knowing that this priest is a man like other men. But this man was chosen by the Church, a hand was placed upon him, and God's grace was brought down upon him, that he might become a servant of the Lord God. The priest, when he vests and serves according to the order established by the Holy Church, is not, in practice, the one who is performing the divine service. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is invisible, is the one performing it through him, who is visible, for the life and sanctification of the faithful. In the same way, we prepare the Eucharist. We prepare the bread, the wine and the water, and we sanctify them. In other words, the Lord God, who is invisible, is pleased to rest, by the Holy Spirit, in the bread and wine. They become, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christ's body and blood. This is what we partake of when we partake of the mysteries. When we partake of them, we taste bread and wine, but this bread bears Christ as His body. That is, we receive God who is pleased to give us Himself under the sign of the bread. This is what the Lord Jesus did at the Last Supper. When He was with His disciples, He took a loaf of bread and gave it to the disciples, saying, "Take, eat, this is My body." And He took the cup-- the cup of wine at that time-- and said to them, "Drink of it all of you, this is My blood." For this reason, we do what the Lord Jesus Christ did at the Last Supper. Then, by the Lord's Holy Spirit, this bread and wine become Christ's body and blood whenever we gather together to participate in the Divine Liturgy. I cannot explain it, but I accept it. You cannot explain it. You must only accept with faith. This is a truth that surpasses the human intellect. It surpasses human understanding. But it is a certain truth in every sense of the word.

So this is our life in Christ. For this reason, icons are very important and we kiss them and make prostrations in front of them. But this kiss that we press upon the icon is directed at the one depicted in the icon. That is, when we kiss an icon of the Lord and Our Lady, we are kissing the Lord and Our Lady, not just the wood. The wood must be there because we have bodies, because we are of this world, and we can only express what is imperceptible through what is perceptible. God is imperceptible in Himself. God is spirit. Nevertheless, He became perceptible when He became incarnate, in order to give Himself to us in a way befitting us. For this reason, these perceptible things that we use in the Church in order for the faithful to be sanctified through them bear God's presence. Thus we must honor with perfect honor these perceptible things that bear God's imperceptible presence. That is, we must consider the Lord Jesus Christ to be present here and now with us. When I give you a blessing, I am not giving it to you from myself. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is giving it to you through me. I become a sort of human instrument in a sense. Through me, you receive the presence of God who surpasses apprehension and transcends time. In other words, it is the same thing that happened two thousand years ago and still happens now. The difference is that at that time, the Lord Jesus Christ lived among the disciples in the body. Then He ascended into heaven and sent us the Lord's Holy Spirit, so that we may persist in the work He did, by the power of the Lord's Holy Spirit, by regarding God as present-- yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever-- as He is active in our life in every sense of the word. And so the icon is a creed: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty..." Then we say: "And in the Lord Jesus Christ," who became incarnate from the Virgin. So the icon points to God having become incarnate and to man's having been granted to enter into a connection with God through the icon, through the word, through incense, through every perceptible, human thing. Man has become capable of talking with God in his human language. When one says, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy," he does not only speak words, but also directs words to the Lord God. He says to Him, "Have mercy on me, O God!" Now, as I am addressing you, am I speaking words without any purpose, or am I speaking in order to enter into a connection with you? Words connect people. It is language that ties people to each other. In the same way, when I use words, images, or anything perceptible as an instrument for bearing God, I am entering into a connection with God. I talk with God, just as you speak with God. Each of us is granted to speak with God, to enter into a relationship with God, into a connection with God, through perceptible, material things. We are human and need these things. Can I address you if I do not speak to you? If I do not lift my voice? If I do not transform this speech that is in my mind into words and sound so that it will reach you, so that there will be a link between my mind and your minds, between my heart and your hearts, between my presence and your presence, and then so God's presence will be in me and in you? All of this makes the icon something absolutely fundamental for expressing the nature of the Christian faith. If this was not so, then Christians at that time would not have sacrificed so many martyrs and struggled to keep icons. Without icons, they seem to say that God did not become incarnate. But God did become incarnate. God became man. God became perceptible. He gave us Himself. At every Divine Liturgy, we sense God's presence. We receive Him in a living form, in a perceptible form, in a human form. But at the same time, He is God and He was pleased to give us Himself in this way. For this reason, we receive and we give thanks and rejoice. We hold fast to the faith of the Church and to what our holy fathers have taught us.

The epistle says something very clear: "The man of heresy-- that is, turn from someone who teaches contrary to the teaching of the Church after having been warned time and again, knowing that he has gone astray-- and he is in sin, having condemned himself in himself." So we turn away from the man of heresy if he clings to his heresy, if he clings to his teaching that is strange to the teaching of the Church. For this reason, we the faithful must hold fast to what what the Church teaches us. There is no question of changing words. Indeed, there is a divine presence in these words. Therefore, let us preserve everything we have received from our holy fathers, transmit it to our children, and continue to transmit it with perfect trust.

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)
Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Silouan-- Douma, Lebanon
October 15, 2017

as-Safir on the History of Antiochian Orthodox Iconography

Arabic original here.

The Arabic Icon... In Athens

by Walid Nasib Elias

Tripoli native Emma Ghorayeb Khoury gave a lecture at the University of Athens about iconography in the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch during the 17th and 18th centuries.

As-Safir met with Khoury in Athens and she spoke about Antiochian iconography, revealing the secrets of the Arabic icon and its home in the Monastery of Our Lady of Kaftoun in Koura. She mentions that it is not possible to talk about icon painting before the 17th century, with the appearance of the art of the Aleppo School of icons which was founded by the family of the priest Yusuf al-Musawwir, who was born in Aleppo in the mid-17th century. He was followed by his son the priest Ni'mat Allah al-Musawwir, his grandson the deacon Hanania al-Musawwir and his great-grandson the deacon Jirjis al-Musawwir.

The iconographer Michael Polychronis transmitted the secrets of the Cretan School of iconography by painting the Church of Saint Nicholas in Tripoli, which contains 120 icons, in 1809 and the Church of Saint George, which was erected in 1862 by a decree from the Ottoman sultan.

She adds that according to the memoirs of her grandfather, Abdallah Ghorayeb, the painter lived in Tripoli from 1809 to 1821 and left a valuable legacy of icons. Thanks to him, the most important icons in the Patriarchate of Antioch were painted, especially those found on the iconostasis of the church in Maaloula.

The painter Hanna al-Qudsi transmitted the art of the Jerusalem School to the Church of Antioch, signing his work "the wretched painter."

According to the author, the most important schools of art in the Patriarchate of Antioch are the Aleppo School and the Jerusalem School, whose icons circulated in most churches and monasteries but whose artistic importance is less than that of the Aleppo School. The icons of the Church of Saint Nicholas resemble those of the Aleppo School and are of an excellent artistic quality. Very old icons are also found in the Church of Saint George in Mina.

With the coming to power of the Russian Empress Catherine II in the 17th century, iconography started to decline-- after having been at its apex-- because she preferred the tradition of Italian painting and so iconography changed and was no longer as authentic as before.

The rarest and most important icon in the Patriarchate of Antioch is found at the Monastery of Our Lady of Kaftoun and dates to the 13th century. It has numerous distinct features that are different from other icons depicting Theophany. The icon has two sides. One side is an icon of the Theotokos and the other is an icon of Theophany. Its importance is due to three texts written in three languages: Arabic, Syriac and Greek.

Despite the lack of any book on the subject, the writer stresses that its painter is unknown because originally icons were not signed. They only started being signed in the 17th century. For example, the famous icon of the Holy Trinity painted by the Russian Andrei Rublev was not signed.

Khoury mentions that Greek influence on Antiochian art is very clear because of the presence of Greek bishops and patriarchs in positions of ecclesiastical authority up to 1850 [in fact, until 1899]. People from Aleppo would go to Mount Athos and the Greek islands, including Crete, bringing with them the style of iconography that does not differ from the eastern, Antiochian style.

[...]

A Wealth of Arab Orthodox History, for Free!

Parole de l'Orient and its predecessor Melto is one of the most important journals for the study of Arabic and Syriac Christianity. Fortunately, its entire run up to 2009 is available in pdf's free online. Below I have linked to all the available articles dealing with  Orthodox Christianity. Anyone interested in the history of Arab Orthodoxy would do well to browse through this literature........



In English:

Brock, Sebastian- A short melkite baptismal service in syriac (1972)

Makhlouf, Avril Mary- The trinitarian doctrine of Eutychius of Alexandria, 877 - 940 A.D. (1974)


Griffith, Sidney- Free will in christian kalam : the doctrine of Theodore Abu Qurrah (1987)

Sepmeijer, Floris- The book of splendor of the believer by Abdallah Ibn al-Fadl (1990)

Swanson, Mark- Some considerations for the dating of Fi tatlit allah al-wahid (Sin. ar. 154) and al-gami wuguh al-iman (London, british library or. 4950)  (1993)


Griffith, Sidney-  Reflections on the biography of Theodore Abu Qurrah (1993)

Sminé, Rima- The miniatures of a christian arabic barlaam and joasaph, Balamand 147 (1993)

Portillo, Rocio Daga- The arabic life of St. John of Damascus (1996)


Walbiner, Carsten-Michael- Accounts on Georgia in the works of Makariyus Ibn al-Zaim (1996)

Eid Bualuan, Hayat-  Mikha'il Breik, a chronicler and historian in 18th century Bilad Al-Sam (1996)


Sahas, Daniel- Why did Heraclius not defend Jerusalem and fight the arabs ? (1998)

Griffith, Sidney-  The Qur'an in arab christian texts : the development of an apologetical argument : Abu Qurrah in the maglis of al-ma'mun (1998)

Nassif, Bassam- Religious Dialogue in the Eighth Century : Example from Theodore Abu Qurrah Treatise (2005)

Khalifeh, Elia- A Project on the Antiochian Chalcedonian Orthodox Manuscripts : Syriac, Arabic, Cpa and Greek (2006)


Wannous, Ramy-  Abdallah Ibn al-Fadl Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (2007)


Varsanyi, Orsolya- The Role of the Intellect in Theodore Abu Qurrah's On the True Religion (2009)

Righi, Davide-  The Dialog Attributed to Abraham of Tiberias : new Research of his historical Environment (2009)

Nasry, Wafik-  Is there a Relationship between Al-Mugadalah and Gami Wuguh al-Iman ? (2009)
 
Bualuan, Hayat el-Eid-  The Rise of Druzism in Tarih bin Said al-Antaki Silat Tarih Utiha  (2009)

Youssef, Youhanna Nessim-  Melkites in Egypt According to Abu al-Makarim (XII Century) (2009)


Bahkou, Abjar-  Kitab al-kafi fi al-mana al-safi, the Complete Book of the Proper Meaning : the Christian Apology of Gerasimus (2009)


Kaidbey, Naila- Melkites in the Writings of Muslim Historians of Bilad al-Sam (2009)


Walbiner, Carsten-Michael- Preserving the Past and Enlightening the Present : Macarius B. al-Zaim and Medieval Melkite Literature  (2009)



After the jump, articles in French and a few in Italian and German:

Christians of the Holy Land: Between the Hammer and the Anvil

The Russian original, with pictures, can be found here.

Christians of the Holy Land: Between the Hammer and the Anvil

By Maria Senchukova

Gavriil Nalbandian lives in Jerusalem. By day he paints icons in a small apartment by the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in the Old City, two steps away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At night he returns home, to his wife and children. There is nothing unusual in this lifestyle, but among the pilgrims and the local clergy Gavrill and his family have become a kind of celebrities.

A few years ago, on the eve of the Dormition of the Theotokos a procession went from the Holy Sepulchre to the tomb of the Theotokos. Among the crowd of pilgrims was a student from the Sechenov Medical Academy, Daria Kozlova, and, as they say in the old books, it was pleasing to God that she meet a young man in a choir robe, singing the stichera for the feast in the procession. That was Gavriil.

Now they have two charming sons, in whom is mingled Arab, Russian, and Armenian blood. On the surface, they do not resemble any one people and from birth they have heard a number of different languages.

Gavriil himself comes from a mixed family—his father is Armenian and his mother is an Orthodox Arab. The combination is unusual for us, but here it is not uncommon. Gavriil’s own choice appears exceptional: baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church, he consciously adopted Orthodoxy and entered the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.

The Miracle of the Icon

He bears an Armenian name. As of recently, he possesses Israeli nationality. He prays in Greek. With his parents, he speaks Arabic and with his children and wife, Russian. He hangs a Russian flag in his car and is thinking about moving to Russia.

For many years, Gavriil—at first single and then with his wife and oldest son—lived in his workshop. But with two children in 15 square meters including the kitchen and bathroom, it was already cramped. Now Gavriil only works here, doing metalwork and painting and restoring icons.

In the workshop it smells of wood and paint. Along the walls there are icons, and there are portraits of the current patriarchs Theophilos of Jerusalem and Kyrill of Moscow and the previous patriarchs Diodore of Jerusalem and Alexei of Moscow.

Gavriil labors below the face of the Savior. I sit beside him and watch.

--Is it really so well-preserved? He shows an icon of Saints Cosmas and Damian that is cracked with age.

I nod approvingly—the better part of my knowledge of art is not enough.

The iconographer smiles mischievously and tells his secret:

--In fact, it is a forgery. A pastiche. Only the board is old. I painted it myself.

--Do you make your work materials yourself?

--No. I order the paints in Greece and Russia. I know the method for making them. Unfortunately, there is no time for making the paints myself. I buy the boards, but I prepare them myself. Oak is the best of all, but oak is expensive. Now I paint on walnut.

--Where did you learn iconography?

--At first with my father, from the age of 11, starting in 1986. In 1997 I was sent by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem to study on Athos and then in Thessaloniki. After that, once I was married, I studied for a year in Moscow, in Saint Tikhon University.

--You learned Russian there?

--I started studying Russian even earlier, in Bethlehem, in annual Russian courses. After studying for two months, I knew the grammar and wrote, but it was not enough practice. But then I married Daria, and the practice appeared.

--Do you usually work to order, or by the call of the heart?

--To order, but also by the call of the heart. This is also an icon.

--Who are your main customers?

--All kinds of people. I work in churches and monasteries. For example, I painted the Church of Saint Gregory in Ramla and the icons there are mine. I worked at the order of the former hegumen of the Tomb of the Theotokos.

The Russian Ambassador (we are often in communication) ordered four icons: for himself, Medvedev, Lavrov, and, it seems, Putin.

Sometimes, I paint as a present. A few years ago, I painted an icon of Saint Alexei of Russia especially for Patriarch Alexei. Patriarch Kyrill is coming on an official visit. If it is possible, I will try to also paint something for him.

The Path to Orthodoxy

--In what faith were you brought up?

--My mother would take my brothers and me to the Orthodox church, but I was baptized in the Armenian Church because my father belongs to them and my parents’ home is located by an Armenian monastery. It is assumed here that one baptizes and raises a child in the father’s confession.

A mixed marriage here is something ordinary. Almost no one understands theological differences and those rare people who do understand do not think about it. My father, for example, is very serious about the faith and about dogmatic theology… but he tries to forget about it.

--Why did you decide to go over to the Greeks?

--I read the holy fathers. I thought. I wanted to become a monk. I wanted to enter the Lavra of Saint Savva. But that did not come about (again Gavriil smiles widely) since I got married.

But such a moment was decisive. I vacillated for a long time. I read the holy fathers over and over again. I did not yet have confidence. Then I started to pray to God, “If the truth is in Orthodoxy, give me a sign so that I will have confidence within myself that I am not mistaken.” In 1992 I was with friends in Ramallah. There they told me that there was a myrrh-streaming icon of the Theotokos. I went to venerate it, and I saw that it was my icon. And I understood that that was God’s sign.

My father also paints icons. He also taught me. (In fact, the Armenians are iconoclastic, but there is a strong Greek influence). He is a very strongly-believing person. He prays very much, but he does not have wonder-working icons. It is because he is a heretic (in the basic, churchly understanding of the term), but I am not.

--How did your father respond to your decision to change confessions?

--For a long time he resented it. Up to now, he considers me a traitor. He says that understanding theology is not our affair. The important thing is to believe that Christ came to save us and the rest is not important.

--Among the Orthodox is there also such a naïve theology?

In different ways. The Greeks, the majority of whom are more or less educated clergy, are well-versed in theology.

As for the Arabs, I can give an example. Many Orthodox Arab children go to Catholic schools. There they have to go to the Catholic church or else there are big conflicts. Theology is not anything for anyone. In one day they can go to both the Catholic and the Orthodox church. They think it is even necessary to do this—you receive more blessings.

--How did they Greeks accept you?

--Very well. They taught me the Greek language and Byzantine music. I did what I wanted to do. I had an excellent relationship with the former patriarch Diodore. The former Patriarch Irenaeus helped me very much—it was through him that I obtained this workshop.

Between Israel and Palestine

--So you speak several languages fluently: Arabic, Armenian, Greek Russian, Hebrew…

--No, Hebrew not fluently. I studied Hebrew in order to obtain Israeli citizenship. It was necessary for me in order to travel easily. Then we went to Russia and I forgot a lot of it. But I speak it alright.

--Tell me, how do Palestinian citizens travel? Since they can never leave through Israel…

--For ten years now they cannot. They travel through Jordan—there are no borders between Palestine and Jordan. Before, there had been an airport in Gaza but they bombed it a long time ago.

--Do the Arabs who live in Israel, such as your mother, have a citizenship status? Does she not want to live in Palestine, in her country?

--It is all the same to those like my mother. She was born in Beit Sahour. She got married in Jerusalem. She does not think about politics. All her family members live in Palestine and she can go and visit them—she has a Jordanian passport.

Palestinians are worse off. Some of them have an entry permit into Israel three or four times a year, for holidays. There are people who live in Bethlehem who have not been to Jerusalem for twenty years, even though it is fifteen minutes away.

Before, it was easier. If there was a marriage between an Israeli citizen and a Palestinian, the Palestinian received a residency permit for Israel. Now that is not possible.

Christians between the Hammer and the Anvil

--How are the relations between Christians and Muslims in Palestine?

--Very tense. The Muslims consider us to be pagans. I do not want to generalize—We rented a house in an Arab neighborhood and with our neighbors, wonderful people, we visit each other and have very warm relations. But if there is an Islamic government, we cannot live here.

--But does Israel protect the Christians?

--Up to a point. You know, this is how cats play with mice. If there is here Israel without Palestine, it would be the end for us. We are not necessary for them. Here they will build a purely European state. If there is an Islamic Palestine without Israel, this would also be the end for us. They will just destroy us.

--But there are many examples of coexistence. In Hebron, for example, there is a Muslim population, all the women are veiled, but it is calm there.

--In Hebron there are very many radically-minded Muslims. There are simply no Christians there. This is why it is calm. There is only a Russian monastery and the locals think that the Russians are only there temporarily.

The most offensive thing is that no one is concerned with the Christians’ problems. Do many people know what is happening in Gaza? A few times they have burned churches and killed Christians. They prohibit the Orthodox Arab women from going out with their heads uncovered.

There is a Christian bookstore in Gaza. They went to its owner and said, “Either you close this shop or we kill you.” He responded, “No, I will not close it. We are Christians and we live here just like you.” They cut off his head on the spot. Did any of the media talk about this?

Even in Bethlehem (!) you cannot eat and drink in public during Ramadan—they will beat you for it.

Beside Bethlehem is the Monastery of Saint Theodosius. The abbot was beaten several times and they tried to drive him out of these places. He remains there. If only there was someone to intervene! The Palestinian Authority takes no action. Understand it as you like.

When there were hostilities between Israel and Palestine, they fought like this: they would go into Christian homes and from there they would shell Jewish neighborhoods. Of course, the Israeli soldiers would respond by shelling the Christian homes. They also do not care about the Christians.

From the Jewish side, the treatment is no better.

When I had only just met Daria, we went to a Romanian monastery. To get there, you have to go through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. When a child saw us there, he noticed Daria’s cross and started throwing rocks at us. I myself did nothing.

Everyone has heard about the murders of Archimandrite Philoumenos and Matushka Anastasia.

The Christians here are not a political force. For this reason no media report about our problems. No one is interested in us. Here there are religious fanatics of all stripes, and we are between them, like being between a hammer and an anvil.

Fr. Pandeleimon (Farah) on Icons

This sermon was given by Archimandrite Pandeleimon (Farah), abbot of the Monastery of Hamatoura on October 11, 2009. The Gospel was Luke 8:5-10. The Arabic original can be found here.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages, amen.

St. Luke focuses on the fact that those who bear fruit, bear fruit with patience. They do not grumble, but rather stay firm in their struggle and offer the best that they can for the love of Christ. So they bear fruit with patience and do not bear fruit hurriedly. As for those who want great results quickly, they act recklessly because the spiritual life does not come so randomly and hurriedly. It comes slowly and conscientiously, through the harmony of the work that God gives and the effort that man offers. In the second passage which we read, we hear him say: those who bear fruit also, they bear fruit exactly because of that cooperation between the grace of God and their effort. They live in accordance with that word and are made holy in it. They can only see in the Lord’s light what the Lord wants and what exactly His will is in their life, and how they should behave.

In this life we sometimes go through hard times where we are asked to do things we are not yet prepared to do, but which are nevertheless asked of us. What is the attitude that we must take? When we read the Gospel, our minds are illumined and we are lifted up to heaven and we try to apply these saying that we hear and learn. When we apply them, the affairs of our life and the people around us oppose us, but God has the power at that moment to illumine our minds if they are truly directed towards Him and to teach us what is the good way and the helpful words that should be said at that moment. Let us not fear, rather let us stand firm in our struggle and in our works and most of all in our patience, until we bring forth good fruit. “The one who does good and teaches it, he is called great in the kingdom of God.” But the one who grumbles is speaking from his mid while his heart does not yearn for God and so his actions do not correspond to his words, or one can say that he teaches what he doesn’t do himself. So he enters into matters of which he has no experience and consequentially does not bear good fruit because he does not pour out his heart, he does not offer his efforts, but rather he reads in books and says what he read or what he heard from other people. But his personal experience is completely foreign to all this, and so he does not bear fruit. He is hasty because he gives solutions and offers analysis that does not come out of his experience and which he did not learn from being in harmony with God’s will and teaching, and so he sins. His words are in vain because he is not accurate, he is not beneficial, and he does not build. Even if he uses holy words, his words are in vain because they do not help him, they do not build himself and others up.

And so we must be patient. Patience does not mean that we stay idle. It means that we continue in our work and do not consider it to be a routine that strangles and kills us, but rather as a field for our daily self-examination. Every day, we ask ourselves, do we know the Lord’s will? Do we love the Lord’s will? Do we do it with yearning and love? For example, the monk who first comes to the monastery, no matter what he read about monasticism or self-sacrifice and the spiritual life and service, he read it from a distance. So very quickly he is surprised once he is in the monastery that he is not able to be obedient, for example, that he cannot sacrifice. If he is hasty, he does not stand firm and does not bear fruit and he leaves himself to boredom and despair, and departs. The one who knows himself perfectly, that he cannot be obedient, that he cannot be humble, that he does not possess true virtues, in his patience and his harmony with monastery’s order and discipline, becomes holy because he acquires these virtues with patience and he bears good fruit. Then, when he talks to you about discipline, you can understand something. If he talks to you before having gained experience, before having reached this point of brokenness, sacrifice, and obedience in all humility, he cannot talk to you because all you hear out of his mouth is gibberish and incomprehensible words, since they do not spring from experience. For this reason it says: they bear fruit with patience, that is that they persist in this every day. Virtue does not come so quickly and we do not quickly become great saints, because it’s not magic and it’s not just a button that we push. It takes the whole life and sacrifice until death in order to bear good fruit.

And so, my beloved, on our celebration today of the Holy Fathers who gathered at the Seventh Ecumenical Council and affirmed the correct belief that we should venerate icons, they teach us that they are signs which draw us in to the presence of Christ and the saints. They are not Christ Himself nor are they the saints, but they are signs that show us the presence of the saints and the presence of the Lord Jesus. Likewise, the sign of the Holy Cross is not magic, but it raises our minds up to the event of the Lord’s death upon the Cross and the salvation that comes from this death and the Resurrection. At the same time, we do not bow down to them because they are a god, but because we express our respect through this humility because we are certain that the grace of God and the Holy Spirit is present in this icon, because grace is found in this person whom the icon represents. We honor it because it bears grace and is not simply a decorated wooden board. It bears the grace which God gives this saint in his life and struggles and toils and which is present in all his goals, in everything he undertakes, and in everything he gives attention to. This divine grace is also present in icons, because through them we are made aware of God’s presence and the presence of the saints with us. We keep icons in our homes, but not in just any place, but in a fitting place where we give them honor and respect, because through this we express our love for Christ and for His saints. We express our respect for our Lord and for His saints through whose presence he gives blessings and among whom His name is magnified. When we find ourselves surrounded by those saints, we feel rest in our toil and our daily struggles and we are filled with blessings and joy because we participate with them. We become a community with them, as though we are one with them. They come down to us and we raise our minds up to them. We come to be on the same level when we are aware that we struggle for the sake of the love of Christ. And so we bear fruit and His name shines within us.

Let your light shine before the people, so that you do not just venerate icons but so that you yourselves will become icons which will show the presence of Christ and will make all creation draw near to Him. When they see you, they love the God Whom you represent and Whom you bring to them and so you make yourselves and all creation holy. May the Holy Lord bless your life on this blessed morning and may He make every one of you a shining light which will show the life of Christ and His salvation and may it bear good fruit through holy effort, with firm patience, through which it may be established in the Paradise of the Lord, amen.

Our Lady of the Wind

The Arabic original, by Jirji Sassine can be found here.

Our Lady of the Wind

Patron of the Church of Our Lady of the Wind, Enfeh al-Koura

The nuns of Our Lady of Kaftoun painted this icon in December 2001, at the request of the parish of Enfeh, and after having shown preliminary designs to fathers and theologians who gave their blessing. It is an offering from Michel Faiz Touma, for his parents the reposed Faiz and Nejmeh. It measures 90cm by 60cm and it was consecrated by Fr. Zakhour Nimeh, the parish priest of blessed memory. The feast of Our Lady of the Wind is the Feast of the Annunciation, where it takes the place of the icon of the Annunciation, and below it most of the image is the sea and fish (the Feast of the Annunciation is connected to permission to eat fish despite the fast).

An explanation of the icon “O Virgin, calm the tumult of our passions and quiet the storm of our sins…” (from the Paraklisis to the Theotokos).

This is the message of the icon of the Theotokos, Our Lady of the Wind and what is written underneath it. She is lifting up the prayers of the faithful who are drowning in the sea of sorrows and the tempest of temptations to the Lord Jesus who is always present and watching from heaven, which is represented by the sky-blue circles amidst the golden background. He blesses with both His hands in response to the intercession of His mother the sailors who struggle amidst the waves that toss about the fishing boat (and the boat is a symbol of the Church). He leads them to the shore, the place “below the wind” north of Ras Qal’at Enfeh where the church of Our Lady stands. They seek refuge under her serene protection, far from the storms and whirlwinds coming from the sea (a symbol of death and the world of darkness where the dragon plays (the psalm of vespers). The whirlpool which appears along our coasts in the winter is still called “the dragon” by local fishermen and this is reflected in the icon by depicting the storm in this form), from the southwest across from the cliff, but the Theotokos Our Lady of the Wind is standing next to her church, lifting up her left hand in supplication to her divine Son to preserve her children, while with her right hand she repels from them the storm coming from afar.

The icon goes from nature to the site of the church of Our Lady where the bay “below the wind”, which during most of the days of the year is protected from the southwesterly winds which cause storms and batter the cliff. The icon goes from the calm bay which forms a natural harbor for fishermen to the spiritual reality where Our Lady takes those who seek her intercession under her protection.

In the details, the waves appear as a spiral of the colors of the sea and the sky, and this is in imitation of the style of the extant mural icons in the church of Our Lady of the Wind, which probably go back to the twelfth century. They reflect the ambiance of the local sea and among them are fish, so often mentioned in the tradition of the Church.

Likewise palm trees, which decorate the coastline since Phoenician times, are mystically connected to the Virgin (in the Song of Songs and the Akathist) surround the church.

She is the Virgin Lady, the Theotokos who is honored by the faithful in the village and the surrounding region. And here are the ancient churches forming a ring around her church: from the right St. Simeon, St. Michael, and St. Katrina and from the left St. George and the Monastery of St. John the Baptist. Likewise she is surrounded by her monasteries: Deir al-Nouriyyeh drawn at the top of the cliff in the background along with the site of the ancient monastery in the middle of the mountain where Abd al-Masih al-Enfawi practiced asceticism and from which the light of the Virgin shined forth, according to the tradition of the monastery’s name. At the end of the peak is the church of St. Simeon the Stylite. As for the monasteries and shrines to Our Lady in the region for which there was not room to draw in the icon, they are present in a hidden way, and to complete the list they are: Our Lady of the Seas in Batroun, the Horshiyyeh Cave in Hamat, the shrine of al-Rihaniyyeh in Hari, al-Za’tariyyeh in Shaka, al-Zurou’ in Kfarhazim, Sayyidat Fi’, Our Lady of the Spring (al-Na’oura), Sayyidat al-Bazizat (the Nursing), Sayyidat al-Qutrubiyyeh in Enfeh, Sayyidat al-Khazaib in al-Harisha, the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, and Deir Sayyidat Natour, where the perspective of one looking at the icon stands.

She is the Virgin who herself saves through her intercessions all those sailing through the storms and waves on the sea of life.

She is the Lady of all places—land, sea, and air and is constantly present and protecting all who honor her. Through her intercessions, O Lord, have mercy on us and save us, amen.

Melkite Icons

The following article is about Orthodox and Greek Catholic iconography in the Middle East is taken from the November/December 1971 Saudi Aramco World, of all places. Actually, though, being Saudis, they like to throw their money around, so if you send them a request, they'll subscribe you to their magazine for free. It's worth it just for their photography, though sometimes they'll also have a good article.

Arabs and Icons

by Karen Lewis

When most people think of icons they think of delicate Greek triptychs or the fabulous jeweled icons of Russia locked deep in the vaults of the Kremlin. Yet for almost three centuries, Arab artists, usually members of Christian religious orders, made icons in the Middle East. Icon is a Greek word meaning 'image' but on the basis of funeral portraits found in Fayyoum, Egypt, scholars have suggested that the iconic form itself may be Middle Eastern.

The Arab icons are called "Melkite" icons because they were painted by Arab artisans who belonged to the Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic Church. Virgil Candea, a Rumanian scholar, first used the term when he was consultant for an exhibition of icons from Lebanese and Syrian collections produced by the Sursock Museum of Beirut in May 1969. His source was the derisive expression "Melkite" used by heretic Nestorian Christians to refer to communities which remained loyal to the Byzantine State Church after the early theological disputes over the nature of Christ. In the 18th century, after reuniting with the Roman Catholic Church, Greek Catholics used the term to distinguish themselves from their former Greek Orthodox brethren.
According to Sylvia Agemian, the discovery of the Melkite icons is very important scholastically. Mrs. Agemian, a researcher at the Sursock Museum and possibly the only specialist in Melkite icons in the Middle East, says: "For the first time it is being recognized that there were schools of iconographers in the Middle East which followed the Byzantine or Greek iconic tradition with the addition of Islamic elements."

Icons are an integral part of the religious life of Eastern Orthodox Christians. Like statuary and Gothic carvings they are seen as holy objects to be venerated, not merely appreciated as decoration. Yet just as decoration they are unique. Icons—original icons—are images painted onto a gold veneer applied to a smooth coat of plaster on a wooden board. Usually they were placed on a screen in front of the altar for the congregation to contemplate during the services.
Because the first icon was thought to be the image of Christ left on St. Veronica's veil which she had given him to wipe his face with when he was carrying the cross to Calvary, the early Church decided that portrayal of the divine could not be left to the imagination of the individual artist. Up to the 17th century, traditional Byzantine icon painters were forced to follow instructions in a church manual which decreed that holy persons must be as other-worldly as possible. To achieve this the artist imposed geometric molding on the body to make his subjects appear almost fleshless, and minimized any hint of the sensual by swathing them in heavy draperies. Since the saints were blessed with the Beatific Vision and therefore exuded an inner holy light, the artist painted fine white lines on the saint's cheekbones and hands to suggest the light.
As part of the formula to emphasize holiness, the artist also gave his saints heads that were disproportionately large, and formally molded beards and hair. Even colors were specified by the church guide. The Virgin's maphorion, a veil which covered the head and shoulders of all female saints, was always an ochre red to symbolize the tragic fate of her son.

If they appeared, mountains and buildings were highly stylized, bearing almost no relation to reality. But they didn't appear often. On orthodox icons divine persons were pictured against a background of gold with no terrestrial elements other than those associated with the particular saint: books for the Evangelists and Patriarchs, swords for martial saints such as St. George.

Melkite artists probably learned the form of the icon from icons brought to the Middle East by Byzantine Greek and Russian patriarchs and pilgrims, and from Greek artists who lived and worked in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. But the Melkite craftsmen also knew the Cretan works of the 14th and 17th centuries. On an icon of the Archangel Michael, which he did in 1726, the artist Hanna al-Kudsi, who worked in Syria and Lebanon during the first half of the 18th century, put an inscription saying it was based on an earlier Cretan icon. Melkite icons, however, differ from their Greek and Russian counterparts more in detail and treatment of subjects than in form. General traits like decoration, the faces and bodies of the subjects, the frequency of certain themes and, of course, Arabic inscriptions, distinguish the Melkite icon.

In the early days, Melkite artists naturally looked to the Byzantine Greek models for guidance. But as they matured they quickly began to express their own tastes and feelings. Although the Byzantine elements prevail in the majority of the early paintings, the presence of markedly Arab characteristics is apparent. All the faces painted by the Melkite artists—not just Middle East saints, but Christ and his angels too—have Arabized complexions. There is a more natural oval to the faces and a softer expression than in the Byzantine icon. The bodies are fuller and rounder with less of the modeling which is characteristic of traditional icon painting. In addition, there are Arab costumes, contemporary furniture and daily household objects—all in sharp contrast to the other-worldly and awe-inspiring Byzantine saints. In one early 18th-century Melkite work, for example, the baby Virgin Mary is rocked in a cradle still common to Syria and Lebanon today. In others, Abraham, preparing to sacrifice his son, wears a turban, John the Evangelist writes at an Arab writing desk and St. George brandishes an Arab sword.

The earliest Melkite works are characterized by sumptuous decoration which the Christian craftsmen borrowed directly from Islamic art. The intricate decorations found on brasswork, on Persian carpets, and on the brocades and wood panels of Damascus are all found on Melkite icons. The whole surface of the icon was covered with floral, vegetable and geometric designs; bent leaves, lotus flowers, pomegranates, lilies, tulips and palms are scattered on the borders, the halos and the clothing of the saints. This is not to say that all Melkite icons are ornately decorated; the 19th-century ones are often simple in the extreme.
L
ike European artists, the Melkite painters were influenced by their environment when they chose themes to illustrate. Local saints and legends that are typically oriental or have an oriental setting were popular: St. George, who, legend says, fought his battle with the dragon near Beirut, St. Saba, who headed a monastic order outside Jerusalem, St. Simeon Stylites who stood on his pillar in Syria for 60 years, St. Mary the Egyptian, the Virgin Mary in the Garden of Jesse and the Prophet Elie beheading the priests of Baal.

Even the dedicatory inscriptions on Melkite icons take on a distinctly Middle Eastern literary flavor. Whereas Greek and Russian inscriptions are succinct, those on Melkite works are long and flowery. For example, an icon of St. Spiridon given to a Rumanian church in 1749 by Sylvester, the Patriarch of Antioch, has not only the giver's name and the occasion but blessings and salutations covering about one-fourth of the icon.

Most of the early Melkite icons were made in Aleppo, where a family of Syrians and their students produced some of the finest examples of Melkite work. The priest, Yusuf al-Mussawwir; his son, Ne'meh; grandson, Hanania; and great grandson, Girgis, span two centuries, from the 17th to the 18th, with their works. The greatest of this family of iconographers was Ne'meh, who developed the Aleppo style. Though he did not completely break with the traditional Byzantine manner of icons, he preferred a stylized naturalism. Ne'meh's angels and women have more pronounced oval heads than in Byzantine painting, his young people have rounded faces and his men have large heads with bulging foreheads, prominent cheekbones and hollow cheeks. While their noses retain the slenderness of their Byzantine prototypes, his saints have the fine almond-shaped and heavily lashed eyes found among Arab people. Ne'meh, moreover, personalized his icons with alternating green and red borders covered with gold decoration.

The influence of the Aleppo School lasted until the late 18th century with an astonishing continuity and abundance. Shukrallah ibn Yuwakim, also from Aleppo, Kyrillos al-Dimashki and some anonymous painters belonging to the Basilian religious order adhered to Ne'meh's physiognomic types, general ornamentation and the characteristic green and red borders that mark the Aleppo School of painters.

Although anonymity remained the general rule among icon painters outside the Aleppo School, several independent Melkite craftsmen do emerge. Hanna al-Kudsi, who painted during the early 18th century, did mostly restorations and reproductions of earlier works, including some of Ne'meh's. His own works are closer to traditional icon painting. Mikhail al-Dimashki, who worked in Damascus about the same time as Hanna al-Kudsi did in Jerusalem, painted traditional icons of a popular nature with elements taken from western painters.

The works of Sylvester, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, though made in the Middle East, are strictly Byzantine in form. They attest to the controversy between the Eastern Church and the Church of Rome. Sylvester spent most of his life fighting Cyrillus V, the Patriarch of Aleppo and some of Cyrillus' bishops who, under the influence of Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries, left the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the Roman Catholic doctrine. Sylvester's paintings are formally Byzantine because he was countering the spread of doctrines like the Immaculate Conception, which is not a precept of the Eastern Church.:

By the 19th century, the demand for smaller, more popular icons, and the larger prosperity made personal ownership of icons a possibility. At the same time, however, individuals had less money to use on the ornamentation of an icon than did the church so instead of etching their subjects on gold, artists took to painting directly on the wood. With the increased demand for icons, especially from the newly established Greek Catholic churches, the artists had less time, so the elaborate ornamentation of earlier Melkite icons gave way to simpler decoration and by the second half of the 19th century decoration completely disappears. Instead of intricate designs which cover the surface and borders of the icons in works from the Aleppo School, there are simple clusters of flowers. Stylized bodies and faces totally disappear and the painters break completely with dogmatic artistic restraints.

In these later icons, Middle Eastern villagers and peasants are prominent, particularly in the works of Butros 'Agaimi, a Lebanese priest who worked during the beginning of the 19th century near Deir al-Kamar. His icon of St. Jean Climaque pictures the saint with a large fleshy face, a wide nose, big eyes, and rough workman's hands. He could just as easily be a Lebanese or Syrian laborer as the sixth-century priest who lived in Sinai and wrote a famous book of virtues. There is no gold at all used in this icon and the colors are earthy browns and grays.
A mid-19th-century Melkite painter who also favored the simple style is Ne'meh Naser from Homs, Syria. His works are characterized by their roughness. He worked directly on the wet plaster and the grooves are visible even through several layers of paint.

Although the influence of the Aleppo School dies out in the 19th century, in the middle of the century another school of painters appears in Jerusalem—the Kudsi. A group of three Melkite artists, Mikhail Mhanna, Yuhanna Saliba and Nicolas Theodorus, must have had a kind of assembly line workshop because they have so many icons of the same subject done in the same manner. Their works are characterized by large brush strokes and simplicity. Their saints have heads as round as oranges and faces that are touched with a sweet serenity.

The biggest influence on Melkite painters in the 19th century came from a Cretan painter, Michael Polychronis, or Michael the Cretan, who lived and worked in Damascus from 1809 to 1821. Almost every church of any significance in the Middle East has an icon done by Michael. Although his icons have Byzantine and Italianate elements, his works, which are done in oil, include decorative themes from the woodwork panels of Damascus in the draperies of his saints and so are classified as Melkite. The draperies of the robe are magnificently molded and his saints retain the fierce spirituallity of expression of the Byzantine world. Michael's significance is not confined to his achievements but to his influence on the average artist of his day. Outside the primitive painters like Butros 'Agaimy, every Melkite painter tried to imitate Michael's occidental style.

With the attraction of things western at the turn of the century, artists abandoned the local style. For decades the knowledge of Melkite icons was the privileged information of only a few Lebanese and Syrian collectors. With their rediscovery a valuable addition has been made to art and religion. Scholars are hoping, although the study of Melkite icons is still germinal, that they will provide new insights into the lives of the Arab Christians.

Karen Lewis is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, a former Peace Corps teacher in Ethiopia and a former reporter for the New York Post. In Beirut she has contributed to the Washington Post and does news broadcasts for ABC radio.