(AUTHOR PHOTO)
When thunder shook the Heavens that night, frightened Jesus Christ's disciples rushed to the Last Supper Room in the house of the evangelist Mark’s mother. The Holy Spirit descended to them trembling with fear, and commanded to wait for the Teacher. On Sunday Christ came to this house.
It is the story unusual for Christian tradition, as well as the place. Both the Catholics and the Orthodox believe that the Room of the Last Supper was on Mount Zion. This is a small church in the Old City of Jerusalem adjoint to Jewish, Armenian and Muslim quarters. Sister Justina telling this story, is not an ordinary nun, but mother superior at the St. Mark's Convent of Syrian Orthodox Church, one of the most ancient and authentic churches of the Middle East. Constructed at the site of a Byzantine basilica of the 7th century the Convent was repeatedly destroyed, but every time restored. Today here is the residence of the Syrian Bishop in the Holy Land.

 

"It was the house of Mary, mother of Apostle St. Mark", Mother Justina told me with inspiration. This legend received firm confirmation: in 1940 during the repair works in the Monastery the Syrian inscription of the 6th century was discovered. It reads: "This is the house of Mary, mother of John, called Mark. Proclaimed a church by the holy apostles under the name of the Virgin Mary, mother of God, after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. Renewed after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in the year A.D. 73." The column with the inscription is placed in the northern part of the church.
"The Holy Spirit appeared here", she continued with passion, showing the church altar with the gilded throne of the Patriarchy, "And it is no mere chance. This place was selected to be sacred".
Justina showed the grotto of St.Peter in the courtyard of the monastery and the iron gates at the entrance. According to the legend, St.Peter passed through them after his miraculous escape from prison.
She escorted me to the cellar of the church: "The Last Supper took place here", she told fervently, "It is from here that He went to Mount Olive, was detained and executed. He ordered his Apostles to wait for Him here”.
Justina's life is unusual. A teacher of mathematics in the Iraqi city of Ninevia, she once went on pilgrimage to Jordan, and it changed her life. She became a nun, and came to the most sacred for the Syrian Christians place, St.Mark's church in Jerusalem.
"We are Semitic people and the most ancient church", Justina spoke with pride. "Up to now we have been praying and speaking Aramaic, the language of Abraham and Jesus ".

From Tamerlane till Nowadays

The Syrian Orthodox Church is the oldest of Christian denominations. Hundred years ago the Syrian Christians became monophysites and proudly opposed to the Greek Orthodox nobility and Constantinople.
One of the most important figures in the history of the Syrian Orthodox Church was Bishop of Edessa Jacobus Baradaeus (the 6th century). He made Syrian Aramaic the official language of the Church, ordained bishops, contributed to strengthening of monophysitism. The Church is called Jacobite Syrian in his honor.
For a long time the Church persecuted by Orthodox Byzantium, had been in disgrace. It revived only with the victory of Arabs. On its peak the Church totaled 20 archdioceses and 103 eparchies, its influence reached Turkestan. Due to their aspiration for education Syrian Christians were greatly respected by the Moslems. Many of them served to caliphs: were doctors, astrologists and historians.
The invasion of Syria by Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century became the first powerful blow to the Jacobite Syrian Church. The majority of churches were destroyed, many believers converted to Islam, the rest of them escaped to India.
The second, not less fatal blow, the Syrian Church received after the First World War when persecutions and slaughter of Christians started in Turkey. Thousands of the Church adherents fled to Lebanon, Baghdad, Europe and Northern America. Only about 250 thousand believers remained from once the largest Christian confession of the Middle East, mainly in Syria and Iraq.
The latest tragic events in Iraq and Lebanon have created a difficult and sometime intolerable situation for Jacobite Syrian Christians. This third wave of persecutions has threatened the very existence of the Church in the region.

The Icon that Shows Marvels

The Church strictly abides by the rules established by Jacobus Baradaeus. Monachism is encouraged, monks are greatly respected. Mary Virgin has a special status in the Syrian Church. That is why the Church of St Mark is extremely sacred. Inside there is the stone silver plated font in which Virgin Mary was baptized, the Syrian Christians believe. The icon above the baptistery is thought to have been painted by St.Luke the Evangelist.
"It is a miracle-working icon", Justina believes, "I've seen it make miracles happen".
… Once, Justina recollected, a group of tourists from Bulgaria came to the church. "A woman approached me and started speaking Bulgarian. I noticed that she was keeping her hands on her belly. The guide explained to me that she had a malignant tumor and had dreamt of visiting the Holy Land. The woman asked me to bring some anointing oil. I did and drew a cross with it on her belly. Suddenly she seized my hand and put it on the sore. I felt a hard lump the size of a chicken's egg.
We faced the icon, and I prayed passionately to Virgin Mary. Suddenly I was burning with vehement heat, and felt that the tumor started splitting and falling to pieces. The woman said she needed go to the toilet immediately. When she came back, she told me with tears in her eyes that the tumor came out in parts together with blood.
Later that day the group left for Tel Aviv. Two years later the woman told me what had happened there. That night she was awakened by a soft light coming from nowhere. She heard a voice saying: "Saint Virgin Mary sent me to you. You will be cured”. The next day she flied to Bulgaria and her husband took her to the doctor. Imagine the doctor’s amazement when he found no trace of cancer. This woman visited the church several more times. Every time she prayed in front of the icon because she knew that Virgin Mary had saved her by means of my hands”.

On ancient ruins

In the middle of the last century about fifteen thousand families of the Jacobite Syrian Christians lived in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee, Justina told me.
Today only a handful of believers remained of that amount: about 150 families live in Jerusalem, 400 in Bethlehem, and only 50 in Galilee. The majority of "Syrians” left Jerusalem after 1967, having sold their houses to Jews who were actively building up the Old City. Bethlehem citizens leave because of the atmosphere of instability, humiliations and hopelessness.

 

Many families moved to the West. In Arab countries and Turkey Syrian Christians are considered to be second -rate citizens. They have neither cultural autonomy nor educational programs in their native language. However, they prosper in the West. There is for example a Syriac (Aramean) TV channel broadcasting in Sweden. There are only a few Syrian churches and monasteries in the Holy Land besides St. Mark's monastery: the Church of the Virgin Mary, chapels in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity.
The majority of former churches and monasteries were appropriated by Arab families. Some were destroyed; others converted to mosques and even cafes (like the Al-Bashoura Church in the Old City).
The ruins of the Syrian churches can be found across all the Holy Land. They are the remnants of the ancient and once great branch of Christianity, which in the nearest future can completely disappear from the cradle of a Christian civilization.