After ISIS “Daesh” defeat in Iraq, work began on the restoration of the Mar Bahnam monastery in Nineveh, which was seized by ISIS in 2014, and destroyed many icons and religious symbols of Christianity, in an attempt to eradicate the symbols of the Christian presence in Iraq.
The monastery of St. Mar Bahnam in Iraq is one of the most important symbols and spiritual monuments of Iraqi Christians, a Syriac Catholic monastery, located in Nineveh province in northern Iraq. The monastery is 14 kilometers south of the town of Bakhdida, about 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul.
The monastery was built in the 4th century by a.king named Senchareb as a penance for killing his son Behnam and daughter Sarah after they converted to Christianity
The monastery was renovated in 1986, and was visited by thousands of Christians and Muslims yearly until ISIS took control of the area during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, jihadist troops of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the monastery. The troops removed crosses from the monastery, threatened monks with execution and then expelled the monks with nothing but the clothes on their backs
State released photos showing the blowing up of the historic tomb of Saint Behnam. After more than 2 years of occupation, the monastery and its surrounding area was liberated by Iraqi Security Forces on November 20, 2016.
Currently, the Abbey Church still exists. Fifty meters away, there is the heavily damaged shrine of Mar Bahnam.
Recently, some 20 Iraqi workers, Muslims and Christians, have been busy emptying the shrine of debris from the remains of statues, crosses and others. And are working on the restoration of the dome.
At present, the shrine remains without a roof. For members of the Christian community, the road is still long. They should re-imitate the ancient pilgrimage and restore the symbolic unity of the people surrounding this holy shrine.
