Historic Mass at St. Maron’s Shrine in Syria revives ancient Maronite site after 15 years, drawing pilgrims amid hopes for religious tourism revival.
Newsroom (10/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a poignant symbol of resilience amid Syria’s long civil war, the Maronite Church celebrated a solemn Mass at the ancient shrine of St. Maron in the village of Brad, northwest of Aleppo, for the first time in over 15 years. The liturgy, held at one of the region’s most revered Christian sites nestled among the archaeological wonders known as the “Dead Cities,” marked a tentative return to sacred traditions disrupted by conflict.
Organized by the Maronite Scouts, the pilgrimage attracted more than 80 participants, spanning generations of the faithful. They gathered under tight security to pray at the shrine dedicated to St. Maron, the fourth-century hermit whose ascetic life laid the spiritual foundation for the Maronite Church. Father Ghandi Mahanna, who presided over the Mass, emphasized the enduring presence of divinity in human lives. “The true presence of God is found in every human heart,” he told worshippers, calling on them to embody faith through acts of love.
The event extended beyond the shrine itself. Pilgrims also explored the nearby ruins of St. Simeon the Stylite’s Church, a fifth-century basilica famed for its association with the pillar-dwelling ascetic, and the cave chapel of hermit Toufic Ajib, which sustained partial damage during the war. Escorted by security forces to navigate lingering risks in the area, the group expressed optimism for Syria’s future. “Syria was beautiful, and still is,” participants affirmed, voicing hopes that such pilgrimages could herald a revival in religious tourism.
St. Maron, born around 350 AD in Cyrrhus—approximately 70 kilometers northwest of Aleppo—embodied a life of extreme devotion. According to his sole biographer, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, in the fifth-century Historia Religiosa (also known as A History of the Monks of Syria), Maron transformed a pagan temple on a rugged mountain midway between Cyrrhus and Aleppo, once dedicated to the god Nabo (from which the nearby village of Kfarnabo derives its name), into a Christian sanctuary. He embraced open-air asceticism, enduring harsh elements while fasting, praying, and healing ailments of body and soul.
Theodoret dubbed him “Maron the Divine” for his miraculous intercessions, which drew seekers from afar, including a letter from St. John Chrysostom seeking prayers during his exile. Maron’s influence extended through disciples who formed a monastic-hermitic school, emphasizing “the philosophy of an open-air life.” Though he founded no formal order or writings, his followers established the Monastery of St. Maron on the Orontes River in 452 AD under Byzantine Emperor Marcian, becoming a bastion of Chalcedonian orthodoxy in Syria Secunda (encompassing Hama and Homs).
This monastic community, known as Beit Maroun, expanded across Roman Syria and into Mount Lebanon, where disciple Ibrahim of Cyrrhus evangelized pagans along the Adonis River (later renamed Nahr Ibrahim). Following the Arab-Muslim conquests, the Maronites elected John Maron as Patriarch of Antioch in the late seventh or early eighth century, solidifying their identity. The Maronite rite, one of 22 Eastern Catholic rites in full communion with Rome, uniquely bears the name of a person—St. Maron.
Debate persists over Maron’s exact death (traditionally 410 AD, before Theodoret’s 423 episcopal appointment) and burial. Theodoret points to Brad, where a grand fifth-century church housed a sarcophagus likely containing his remains. Maronite tradition holds that disciples relocated his skull to the Orontes monastery, then to Kfarhai in Lebanon’s Batroun district around the eighth century. There, Patriarch John Maron enshrined it in an altar for healing. By 1194, it reached Foligno, Italy, where a silver statue was crafted; fragments returned to Lebanon in 1887 via Bishop Youssef el-Debs. The relics now reside at St. Maron’s Monastery in Kfarhai.
Global recognition came in 2011 when Pope Benedict XVI unveiled a 15-foot, 55,000-pound statue of St. Maron—sculpted by Marco Augusto Dueñas—on St. Peter’s Basilica’s outer wall, the final niche available. Holding a miniature Maronite church and inscribed with Psalm 92:12 in Syriac (“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon”), it stands near St. Peter’s martyrdom site. Accompanied by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the Pope imparted his Apostolic Blessing.
The Brad Mass, echoing the Hoosoyo Prayer for St. Maron’s feast—“Praise, glory and honor to the Lord who… rendered him perfect through the divine virtues”—underscores a broader Christian resurgence in Syria. As war scars fade, such gatherings signal not just spiritual renewal but potential economic revival through heritage tourism in the Dead Cities, a UNESCO-listed expanse of late antique ruins.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA and
Maronite heritage texts, including Theodoret of Cyrrhus’s Historia Religiosa
Related Images:
