I was just seven or eight years old in 1943-1944,
when I was sitting astride the back of a donkey that
my mother had hired to take us far, very far, into
the valley. A taxi had put us down in a small village.
All well and good. From there on it was a four-legged
beast that was to take us down a rocky and tortuous
way, passing terraced gardens one after another. It
was only later that I learnt that we were in the Holy
Valley and that our destination on the road was a
monastery, one named Saint Anthony Qozhaya. A great
Cross dominated enormous boulders, plunging cliffs
and a churning torrent.
This monastery was well integrated into the site;
one might say that it had been carved out of the rock.
For a long time it had been the shelter, the inaccessible
refuge, for the Christians of an earlier age. Caves
in this region abound. The church itself is hewn in
the rock, and its three belfries cling close to the
cliff. Inside the church there are several paintings,
the Apostles, bearded Fathers of the Church, the Holy
Virgin and hermits, in an art which is naive, simple
and not without charm.
A well-guarded treasury is also to be found there,
with some rare items which escaped the looting of
the monastery by Ottoman soldiers in July, 1866. There
is a crosier inlaid with mother-of-pearl, copes and
chasubles threaded with gold, mainly gifts of the
kings of France, and even a dish engraved with the
words, “In thanksgiving to the monastery of
Qozhaya in the year 1100.”
A few paces away from the church is Saint Anthony’s
Grotto, marking the earliest beginning of Qozhaya.
There victims of insanity used to spend the night,
attached with heavy chains, and in the morning were
found to be cured. One may also see there the first
printing press of the whole Middle East and Arab world,
dating from the seventeenth century, one which supplied
the Maronites with liturgical books for more than
two hundred years. This monastery was founded by disciples
of Saint Anthony the Great, the Father of Monks, and
it was here that monks began to take vows. The monastery
has harboured many holy hermits, even down to the
present day. In the church there is one altar dedicated
to Saint Anthony and another dedicated to the Holy
Virgin.
Now roads have been cut through and the monastery
can be reached over an asphalted route. It has become
a centre of pilgrimage, prayer and tourism.
Joseph Matar
- Saint Antoine Qozhaya: >> View
Movie << (2004-01-01)
- Saint Antoine Qozhaya: >> View
Movie << (2013-01-15)
- Saint Antoine Qozhaya: - Interior of Church: >>
View Movie
<< (2013-01-15)
- Saint Antoine Qozhaya: - Interior of Grotto>>
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<< (2013-01-15)
