Middle East - Anthony Ham [409]
Ascend the four flights of stairs (or take the lift), duck through the low wooden doorway, then pass to the courtyard on the right. Just off the courtyard is the pilgrimage shrine containing the famed relic, in a small dark room lit by candles amid the murmuring of the prayers of the devout and an aura of the sacred. Before entering, remove your shoes and ensure you’re modestly dressed. The Feast of Our Lady of Seidnayya is held on 8 September each year, and the spectacle is worth attending if you’re in the area. The main celebrations begin on the night of the 7th.
Travellers generally visit Seidnayya on a day trip from Damascus. There are regular microbuses to Seidnayya (S£40, 40 minutes) from Maalula Garage in northeastern Damascus. It’s possible to combine Seidnayya with a visit to Maalula, although public transport between the two is infrequent.
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MAALULA
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In a narrow valley in the foothills of Jebel Libnan ash-Sharqiyya, Maalula is a picturesque village huddled beneath a sheer cliff. If arriving by minibus, alight at the main village intersection, where there’s a traffic island and the road splits. Head right up the hill, and at the top head right again; the road switches back, climbing steeply to the small Convent of St Thecla (Deir Mar Teqla), tucked snugly against the cliff. From here there are pretty views of the village.
Thecla was a pupil of St Paul and one of the earliest Christian martyrs. As one legend has it, after being cornered against the cliff at Maalula by soldiers sent to execute her, Thecla prayed to God, lightning stuck the cliff and a cleft appeared in the rock face, facilitating her flight. The shrine, beneath a rocky overhang at the top of the convent, is the highlight of any visit here. Otherwise, the convent, a sanctuary for nuns and orphans, is of minor interest, but ahead lies the legendary escape route, St Thecla Gap. Cut through the rock by run-off from the plateau above the village, this narrow, steep-sided ravine resembles a modest version of the famed siq at Petra.
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THE LANGUAGE OF CHRIST
The mainly Greek Catholic village of Maalula is one of just three villages where Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, is still spoken – the other two, Jabadeen and Sarkha, are nearby although they’re now predominantly Muslim. Aramaic was once widely spoken in the Middle East and is one of the oldest continually spoken languages in the world, reaching its zenith around 500 BC. It bears similarities to both Arabic and Hebrew. The number of speakers has been steadily dwindling and remains under threat, but interest in keeping the language alive has increased dramatically.
Pilgrims from all over the world can study religion in Aramaic at St Ephrem’s Clerical Seminary, in Seidnayya, while the Syrian Government recently established an Institute for Aramaic, and new texts and language-learning materials are being written in the ancient language which was, until recently, an oral language only; many of Maalula’s Aramaic speakers cannot write it. In Maalula’s Monastery and Church of St Sergius, Aramaic is proudly alive and well. Local worshippers all speak Aramaic (although the 7.30am liturgy is conducted in Arabic because the service has a written base), accounting for around half of the world’s Aramaic speakers.
The language is being kept alive by Maalula’s Aramaic speakers, who pass it along to their children; classes in local schools are taught in Arabic. So was the Aramaic spoken in Mel Gibson’s epic, The Passion of the Christ, accurate? Maalula’s locals say that although they could understand some of the words, it was actually a dialect known as Syriac, which is much more widespread than Maalula’s brand of Aramaic. Locals claim that theirs is the true language of Christ.
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At the end of the canyon, head to the left and follow the road for picturesque views of the village and valley, and the Byzantine Monastery and Church of St Sergius (Deir Mar Sarkis or Convent of Sts Serge & Bacchus). Built in AD 325, it