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COVER STORY<br />
Rabban Hormizd Monastery was carved out of the mountains about two miles from Alqosh, 28 miles north of Mosul. This 1,600-year-old monastery survived the<br />
atrocities of ISIS, mainly due to its geographic location. It was the official residence of the patriarchs of the Eliya line of the Assyrian Church of the East from 1551<br />
to the 18th century, and after the union with Rome in the early 19th century, it became a prominent monastery of the Chaldean Catholic Church.<br />
The Monastery<br />
of Mar Mattai<br />
(St. Matthew) is<br />
recognized as<br />
one of the oldest<br />
Syriac Christian<br />
monasteries<br />
in existence.<br />
Located atop<br />
of Mount Alfaf,<br />
20 miles from<br />
Mosul, it contains<br />
an extensive<br />
collection of early<br />
Syriac Christian<br />
manuscripts. The<br />
monastery was<br />
founded in 363<br />
by the hermit Mar<br />
Mattai who had<br />
fled persecution<br />
in Amid under<br />
the Roman<br />
Emperor Julian<br />
the Apostate.<br />
According to<br />
Syriac tradition,<br />
he was involved<br />
in healing the<br />
sister of Mor<br />
Behnam and<br />
converting the<br />
brother and<br />
sister and forty of<br />
their soldiers to<br />
Christianity.<br />
22 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>FEBRUARY</strong> <strong>2022</strong>
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