Mar Mattai Monastery

Mar Matti Monastery (Syriac: ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܡܬܝ Saint Matthew's Monastery,Arabic,دير مار متي) is located atop Mount Maqloub in northern Iraq. About 20 kilometers from Mosul, Mar Matti was founded in AD 363 by a Syrian Christian called Matti (Syriac for Matthew) who was fleeing persecution from Diyarbakır to nearby Nineveh in Asuristan (Assyria.) ["Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple" By Lawrence H. Schiffman [http://books.google.com/books?id=VFhwknlb_FAC&pg=PA421&dq=%22Mar+Mattai%22+assyria&lr=&sig=FnfxQZAhAJs_kEJ_UW91zjzrhJQ] ] Matti joined a mostly Nestorian population that had a small Syrian community already located atop Mt. Maqloub. Under his leadership, that community developed a true monastic ethos. It is today recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence. It is further noted for a considerable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts. [Michael Goldfarb, "Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace" (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005).]

The monastery is currently maintained by the Syriac Orthodox Church. Every year, Christians of various church denominations gather in the monastery on September 14 to commemorate the day of Saint Matti's death.

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