How
is it possible to sum up the four hundred years
of history covering this site and this school with
its illustrious past, tormented yet fertile in culture
and humanism? How can one describe Aintoura, The
Mountain Spring? It is a village ensconced in one
of the most beautiful regions of Kesrouan, heart
of the Lebanese mountains, Maronite for the greater
part, haven of peace and of welcome. From its hills
and valley rise sparkling streams to water the terraces,
the kitchen gardens, and the groves of almond and
olive trees, vineyards, and stands of carob and
pine.
Aintoura borders on Zouk, so one may count belfries,
churches, convents, priories, silk looms, local
pastry bakeries and artisan workshops by the score.
Aintoura was one a cluster of a few houses around
a central street, a convent of cloistered nuns,
and a religious house destined in due course to
become a college and one of the most distinguished
schools in Lebanon and the whole Middle East.
Founded in 1625 by the Jesuits from their foundation
in Aleppo, like the other mission in Damascus, Aintoura
is an oasis of peace in the mountains of Lebanon,
thanks to the generosity of Sheikh Abu Nawfal Khazen,
a great friend of the missionaries and Consul of
France in Beirut. It was intended as a house of
repose and as a parish center under the patronage
of Saint Joseph, whose stature still adorns the
frontal façade.
After scouring even the most distant regions, the
Reverend Fathers would come back here to have some
rest and to recuperate their energy, at the same
time carrying on extensive activity in the region
around, teaching, giving lessons of catechism, preaching
retreats, doing work of different kinds, helping
with the First Council of Lebanon at Louaizeh in
1736, founding seminaries, religious houses, and
confraternities of the Holy Rosary, right up to
21st July, 1773.
The house was abandoned but then taken over by the
Lazarist Fathers in 1783 by a decree in 1783 of
King Louis XVI of France. The first Lazarist period
lasted until 1834, when the mission was reorganized
and the present school created by the father superior
Monsignor Leroy with the help of the famous Consul
of France Monsieur Guy.
Aintoura was the first secondary school in the Levant,
the first lay college, the first ecumenical school
taking in pupils of every religion, and the first
international college in the East taking in the
young from all the surrounding countries. During
periods of civil war, massacre and Ottoman occupation,
the doors of the college remained always open, while
thousands of refugees and destitute persons were
welcomed and cared for.
Aintoura become one of the first centers where education
flourished, producing individuals of great talent,
physicians, men of letters, clergy and politicians,
all having studied in this lighthouse of learning.
All the prominent personalities strove to place
in it their most gifted children. The Lazarist Fathers
formed the future citizens and under the mandate
of the “Mutassarif” governors prepared the generations
of the Lebanon that was to come.
Total illiteracy was rare in Lebanon and even before
Aintoura there were simple but lively schools teaching
the basics under the spreading branches of oak trees
and on the benches of the churches. All, or nearly
all, the children passed some time acquiring a little
learning, while some were able to continue their
education in church seminaries or under the guidance
of “Masters”.
But Aintoura was more than a school. It was a meeting
ground for travelers and orientalists, for all the
diplomats, men of religion, delegates, military
men of rank, consuls, pashas and princes. It was
a place of pilgrimage open to the young, to scholars
of every religion, a center of outreach and of activity
and of formation, it was a college with a soul,
a heart beating to the rhythm of all that went on
in Lebanon. It was a college that was bound up with
all the stirring life of Lebanon, and at Aintoura
all were at home in a tolerant climate of nonpolitical
openness, where one breathed the air of freedom,
love and charity.
All orientalists and learned voyagers were drawn
to visit there on their way. If one wanted to take
note of all the names, the list would be too long,
but one may mention at least Volney, Jean de Roque,
Robinson, Lamartine, Gérard de Nerval, Poujailat,
Renan, le Comte de Paris, Barrès, Henri Bordeaux,
Pierre Benoît, Dubamol, Beaufort, Gouraud
and Weygand.
As the first secondary seat of learning in all the
Middle East, by the education it gave it rivaled
the greatest schools of France itself, forming the
greatest men of the nation in every domain, members
of parliament, ministers, men of prominence in their
communities, and the sons of consuls and diplomats.
Documents, manuscripts, books and papers concerning
Aintoura abound.
Since 1834 and particularly since 1950 to the present
day, Aintoura Village has spread in all directions
and flourished, with its houses now forming one
agglomeration with those of Zouk and Jounieh, for
in fact all Kesrouan now has become one suburban
sprawl.
On the north side of Aintoura is the famous convent
of Hrash for cloistered nuns. To the northwest there
is the Maronite Patriarchate, while in the surroundings
there are many religious houses, among them that
of Saint Elias for nuns who used to be strictly
enclosed. Originally the people of Aintoura were
few, and the present inhabitants have come from
far and wide, from North Lebanon, from Beirut, from
Jbeil, and from the heights of Kesrouan.
The famous Tanios Shahine, leader of the Lebanese
Peasant Revolt of 1850, was inspired by Aintoura
after having tended the property of the Lazarist
Fathers at Reyfoun, as well as being inspired by
the French Revolution.
Today this famous scholastic establishment has been
enlarged and brought up to date; with a day-school
having its fleet of buses and vans, it covers the
region and has 3,800 pupils, 350 teachers, 135 workers
and 75 drivers, all under the direction of the dynamic
young Father Nakad.
Joseph Matar
Translation from the French: K.J. Mortimer
- Aintoura School: >> View
Movie << (2012-03-01)
- Aintoura School: >> View
Movie << (2012-03-01)
