Twelve Relics of Ancient Saints have been discovered during restoration work on a Church in Iraq, destroyed by Islamic State.
Newsroom (04/08/2022 19:10, Gaudium Press) In 2016, the Islamic State group left the Syriac Orthodox church of Mar (St) Thomas in Mossul in ruins.
Recently, restoration work is being carried out on the ruins of the church. A team consisting of archaeologists and restorers are working on it.
During the services, the archaeologists made the discovery of about a dozen relics and other historical objects in the basement of the church.
Among the objects are scrolls written in Syriac and Aramaic. In addition, six stone containers with inscriptions in Aramaic contained relics of saints.
The relics are of St Theodore, St Simon, St Simeon, St John the Evangelist, among others.
One of the containers contained relics of St Theodore, a 3rd century Roman soldier and martyred for converting to Christianity.
Another relic was of St Simon the Apostle, known as Zealot. There was also a small urn with relics of St Gabriel, a late 6th century bishop from the mountainous region of Turkey.
Relics of Saint Simeon the Wise were also found. St Simeon was the one who welcomed the Holy Family on the occasion of the circumcision of the Baby Jesus. (FM)
With information from Asia News.
Compiled by Florence MacDonald
