Awtel

Awtel
Mar Awtel, Kfarsghab, Lebanon
Mar Awtel
Born	250 Magdal, Lycia, Asia Minor
Died	327 Lycia
Honored in	Eastern Orthodox, Oriental and Catholic Churches
Major shrine	Kfarsghab
Feast	Jun. 3, Aug. 27
Attributes	Monk and Hermit
Patronage	The Village of Kfarsghab, Lebanon

Saint Awtel, also known as Mar Awtel, Mar Awtilios, Saint Aoutel, Saint Autel is a monk of the 1st centuries of Christianity venerated in the Middle East. He is celebrated on the 3rd of November (by Maronites particularly), and on the 9th of October. A church is dedicated to him in the village of Kfarsghab in North-Lebanon where his feast day is celebrated on the 3rd of June and also on the 27th of August.

Life

There are several versions of the life of Mar Awtel. This is the version of the Maronite book of saints (Sinksar) along with the versions presented by Youakim Moubarac.^[1]

Saint Awtel is celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Jacobites and the Maronites. His place and date of birth vary according to the sources. From an unknown place in modern Turkey for the Maronite Sinksar and born in the 3rd century AD, he is from Lycia for the other sources and he lived during the 6th century AD. His feast day varies also according to the different traditions. But most sources have corroborating deeds: he escaped a forced marriage arranged by his family, spent some time in Byzantium, delivered his fellow passengers during a severe storm, went back to his place of birth after the death of his parents and finally became a monk then a hermit.

Version of the Maronite book of saints (Sinksar)

The main entrance of Mar Awtel church built on the ruins of a pagan temple

Mar Awtel was born in the middle of the 3rd century. As a youth he was converted to Christianity and baptised. He pledged his virginity to God but his father wanted him to marry and thereby break his pledge of celibacy. To escape he left for the city Byzantium.

While travelling on route in a boat he encountered a severe storm endangering the boat and all on board. He prayed for deliverance and the boat was saved and as a consequence those on board were converted to Christianity and baptized.

He remained for 20 years in Byzantium until his father died, whereupon he returned to his home and became a monk. He performed many miracles, one of which was the cure of a pagan man. This cure was the reason for the conversion and baptism of ten thousand pagans. After being a monk for 12 years he became a hermit until he died in 327.

Version of Fr. Louis Cheikho

Father Youakim Moubarac presented the following version of Father Louis Cheikhô :^[2].

Father Sheikho found some information about Mar Awtel in the Jacobites book of saints, in a handwritten copy belonging to His Beatitude the Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani. It is also mentioned in the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemani and in the calendar of Çlîba the Jacobite, on the dates of October 9th and June 3rd.

Of all those references, he concluded that Awtel or Awtilios was born in a city called Magdal or Magdaloun in the land of Lycia in Asia Minor, in the 6th century A.D. His two parents were pagan but he was converted very young, became Christian and ran away from the paternal home to avoid marriage. He boarded and ran away to the city of Moumista (probably al-Maççîça) delivering his fellow passengers from a tempest where they would have perished. He came to Constantinople, led an ascetic life in one of its monasteries, then came back to his fatherland before spending some time in the region of Antioch^[3], then back in Lycia. There, he converted the pagans of this region, christened them and ended his life in the desert in a monastery which he built nearby and where he lived till his death. In the calendar of the antiochian Church of al-Bîrûnî a martyr called Uwaytilyos is mentioned on the date of September 23rd. But it is not proven whether it is Mar Awtel or another saint.

Additional Information

Father Cheikho ^[4] found also that the Byzantines would have called Saint Awtel, according to Fr Peeters, Agios Attaros and that they celebrated his feast day between the 2nd and the 7th of June. He delivered his fellow passengers who wanted to make him a slave by capturing him. According to the Jacobite book of saints, he remained 20 years in Constantinople, went back home after the death of his parents, spent some time in Seleucia^[5] and in Antioch before reaching Lycia. There, he joined the monastery of Mar Âba, became monk and made miracles. He left the monastery because he did not want to be elected superior. He was served in his ultimate retirement in the desert by a man whom he had cured from the bite of a snake.

See also

The village of Kfarsghab, Lebanon

References

1. ^ Moubarac, Youakim - Pentalogie antiochienne / Domaine Maronite - Tome II - Volume I - pages 17-18 - éditions du Cénacle Libanais - Beyrouth - 1984
2. ^ This article is based on the work of the great historian Father Louis Cheikho sj and especially on his work Awliya" Allah fi Lubnan edited in Beirut in 1914. Youakim Moubarak translated it to French and enriched its contents and published it in his Pentalogie Antiochienne / Domaine Maronite - Tome II - Volume I - year 1984 - Editor Cenacle Libanais - Beirut - Lebanon.
3. ^ The city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (modern Antakya) is located in what is now Turkey. Located on the eastern side of the Orontes River, it was founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, who made it the capital of his empire in Syria. Seleucus I had served as one of Alexander the Great's generals, and the name Antiochus occurred frequently amongst members of his family.
4. ^ magazine Al Maxreq, year X, 1907, page 672-672, Beirut, Lebanon
5. ^ Seleucia in Syria functioned as the sea-port of Antioch and lay near the mouth of the Orontes. Paul and his companions sailed from this port on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:4). This city was built by Seleucus Nicator, the "king of Syria." It is said of him that "few princes have ever lived with so great a passion for the building of cities. He is reputed to have built in all nine Seleucias, sixteen Antiochs, and six Laodiceas." Seleucia became a city of great importance, and was made a "free city" by Pompey. It is now a small village, called el-Kalusi.

External links

• (English)/(French) The tradition of Mar Awtel, saint patron of Kfarsghab

Persondata
Name	Awtel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	250
Place of birth	Magdal, Lycia, Asia Minor
Date of death	327
Place of death	Lycia