Christian relics found in Iraqi church previously ransacked by Islamic extremists

by Will Tubbs

Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

 

It’s always uplifting when the Lord provides reminders that His power outstrips even the vilest and most violent efforts of man to destroy his Church. Recently, such a reminder emerged when archaeologists in Iraq discovered Christian relics in a church that only recently was desecrated by members of ISIS.

According to the Christian watchdog group International Christian Concern, best known for managing Persecution.org, Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Mosul had been treated with absolute hatred by the Islamic State when the extremist group went on a quest to destroy Christian places of worship and items related to Christianity.

However, the extremists missed about a dozen artifacts that could prove useful in better understanding the early church.

“The discovery of the hidden relics at this church is another encouraging development in the broad effort to restore and protect Christian cultural heritage in Iraq after the damage done by the Islamic State,” ICC said in a release.

Many of the relics are related to early leaders of the Church who have been venerated under Catholicism and are well known in protestant circles – ICC listed Saint Theodore, Saint Simon, Mor Gabriel, Saint Simeon, and “other well-known figures” among those connected.

The Jerusalem Post reports that some relics have a connection to the Apostle John.

Saint Simon, perhaps better known to some readers as Simon the Zealot, was one the Twelve Disciplines and an apostle in the early church. Simeon famously encountered the infant Jesus at the Jewish Temple, having previously been told he would not die before seeing God’s Christ.

Theodore was a Roman soldier who was beheaded for having converted to Christianity. Mor Gabriel, far less known in contemporary Christian circles, was a bishop who served during the 6th and 7th centuries.

According to the Jerusalem Post report, the relics include manuscripts that were found secured in glass bottles and six stone containers covered in Aramaic inscriptions. The manuscripts were written in Syriac and Aramaic.

Neither the ICC release nor Jerusalem Post report contained details on where the relics were found in the church or how they came to be in the church. The Jerusalem Post wrote “it is possible that before they fled priests from the church hid the relics to protect them from destruction by ISIS.”

The Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church itself has an deep history. It was built during the 7th Century on the site at which it was believe the Apostle Thomas lived while he served in Mosul.

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