The Monastery of Mor Efrem (St Ephrem) in Mardin, southern Turkey, an area which was once the heartland of Syriac Christia-nity, has once again opened its doors to believers.
Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan, head of the Syriac Ca-tholic Church, presided over the re-consecration of the building, and celebrated its first Divine Liturgy in a hundred years.
Founded in 1881, the Syriac monastery was seized by the Turkish army during the First World War. It briefly returned to the Church after the war ended, before being transformed into a military hospital in 1922. In more recent times, it had served as a prison and a warehouse.
Patriarch Younan consecrat-ed the church according to the Syriac rite on 13 October, anoint-ing the altar, walls, and doors with oil of chrism, before cele-brating the Divine Liturgy.
The ceremony was attended by Syriac Catholic prelates from across Turkey and the Middle East, the Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey, and Syriac Orthodox bishops and clergy.