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Affichage des articles dont le libellé est shrine. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est shrine. Afficher tous les articles

jeudi 8 septembre 2016

Our Lady of Ainebel -Why the Dahr El-Assi Hill

Our Lady of Ainebel -Why the Dahr El-Assi Hill  
to erect the shrine of the Virgin Mary,
Mother of  Light, Em El-Nour?


Five arguments or reasons to justify our view such an option:


The main reason is drawn from the history and sacred geography.

 A careful reading of the Gospels tells us easily the places where Jesus had traveled in the Galilee and the Decapolis (the pagan cities) which included parts of the current Lebanese areas in South and Bekaa. Several historians, geographers and researchers have discussed issue of concern to Ainebeliotes preparing now to build a shrine to the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Light, Em El Nour. Therefore, according to biblical and geo-historical sources, it is not impossible to follow in the footsteps of Jesus , his disciples and  sometimes his mother Mary , on the Lebanese trails. What a joy for Ainebliotes if their small town, and especially the Dahr El Assi Hill, is situated on the paths of Divine Master and His Mother Mary? The following analysis, based on geo-historical and biblical arguments, tries to provide an answer to this question, following 6 steps:


  I- From Yaroun to Cana and Tyr, urgent to pass by Ainebel and Dahr-El -Assi:

a. Taking the border of Yaroun village as a starting point of the journey of Jesus into Lebanese land, some historians argue that Jesus left Capernaum, a town on the shores of Lake Tiberias, to proceed to Cana and Tyr. It is on the actuel Lebanese soil where Our Lord has shown his first glory, especially during the famous wedding in Cana (read: Jn 2:1-12) and at the Haramoun Mount (read the 2nd Epistle of Peter: 1 .16 to 18, referring to the Holy Mountain)
   b. Between Tyre and Sarafand Jesus healed a Lebanese young girl, called Berenice , daughter of the Canaanite or Syro-Phoenician woman (Mt 15,21-29), called Justa (Adila in Arabic) according to some traditions .Adloun, the Lebanese town situated  between Tyr and Sarafand must have its name derived from the name of this woman whom Jesus had said: "O woman, great is your faith" Mt 25,21-29)?
c. Jesus visited Sidon according the text of the Gospel (Mc 7, 24-31) and Maghdouche -according to some historians, based on the Gospel texts and traditions. From that location He continues his journey to the cities of the Decapolis , more than ten cities in South Lebanon, Bekaa, Syria and Transjordan. Mary would have expected her Son on a hill near the town of Saida. (Al-Mantara) 

  d. At Mount Hermon and its vicinity, held the Transfiguration, rather than in other sites, according to Italian-Lebanese researcher Martiniano Roncalia in his book "In the footsteps of Jesus in Phoenicia / Lebanon” edited on 2004.

   e. In Caesarea Philippi, Banias, near Marjayoun, Jesus, announcing the founding of his Church, said to Peter, "Peter, you are Peter (rock), and upon this rock I will build my Church"

   f. In the former South Lebanon. Jesus would have traveled to the Bekaa region, according to the biblical texts and traditions in the footsteps of the ancient biblical prophets and fathers: Abel, Noah, Shit, Lahia Youshaa, Elijah, Jonah, etc.. Is Ainebel name derived from the name of Abel? Possibly. The Arab Christians called Jesus Abil.



II. Ainebel halfway between Tiberias and Tyr:

In this geo-historical and biblical context, presented above, Alfred Durant and other Biblical Atlas, used to situate Ainebel, even if not explicitly cited ,on the main Halfway that Jesus would take in moving between the region of Galilee and that of Tyr. To join Cana from Yaroun, near Jish or Jiscala, birthplace of the family of St. Paul, Jesus had to pass inevitably through Wadi Yaroun, whether to engage in the paths leading to Wadi el Ouyoune, through  current land of Rmeich and Dibl, Kafra and Yater, or to take the path of Tibnin between Doueir and Chalaboune lands. Has he passed accross Deir Intar near Tibnin (the verb Natara in Arabic means to wait or watch, as well as  Mantara regarding  Maghdoucheh) ? Some traditions underlines this fact. In all case , being raised similar questions are legitimate. Relying on various map and Bible Atlas, edited by eminent scholars, we simply retain the idea that Alfred Durand underlines in his map attached, showing clearly the way of the passage of Jesus on Ainebel land.

III-A panoramic view: North portal of Ainebel, Dahr El Assi also offers a panoramic view:

At North-East, Haramoun, Jabal El Sheikh, so long  sung by the poets and the Bible, stands with all its majesty, its summits crowned with snow during the four seasons .It is visible from the Dahr El Assi Hill ;the book of Psalms says: "The north and south, Thou who created them, Tabor and Hermon have shouted your name for joy" .About the same mountain the book of "Song of Songs" says: “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana,from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions' dens  and the mountain haunts of the leopards.” (4.8);

At the west , like a beautiful painting, hills and valleys of Jabal Amel are spread ,joined to one of the purest horizons surrounding the legendary City of  Tyre, with all its cultural and glorious image , to Naqoura Cape;


At the south ,rises gradually chain of mountains beginning from Rass El Naqoura, through Alma, Mansoura, Jish and kfar Berim until Jarmaq or Mount Meiron, the highest peak in Palestine-Israel (1200 m);



At the East, the haze often hides behind Yaroun and Maroun El Rass, the mysterious region of Houla welcoming streams from Haramoun and feeding the Jordan River where Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist. At Houla visible from Dahr El Assi, we can see the beginning of the first milestones of the deepest geographical depression on the face of the earth ,and finds its the deepest point on the shores of the Dead Sea , with 394 meters below the level of the Mediterranean sea.


IV-" El-Assi" ,"against the current, inaccessible”, qualification and  name imported from the Quadisha valley and El-Assi River :

 In addition to geographical and biblical arguments mentioned above, Dahr El-Assi draws its name in ainebliote traditions dating back to the time of the foundation between 1597 and 1602, when the Emirs Maan had consolidated the borders of their area power, based largely on Christian allies. The first arrivals to Ainebel originating Hadath El Jebbeh in northern Lebanon, had baptized by the name of "El-Assi" the highest hill in their farm because of its western inaccessible slope . Furthermore, originally, El-Assi River takes its source in northern Lebanon and opening into the sea near Antioch (City, now in Turkey, where the first Christians had receive for the first time their  name ) ."Inaccessible , against current” ,El-Assi, as a name given by the first inhabitants of Ainebel is also one of the cave "El-Assi" overlooking the Quadisha valley (Holy Valley) , the ancient seat of the Maronite Patriarchate, symbol of identity ,National Sanctity and peaceful resistance to the conquerors of all times. Quadisha is the kernel of the idea of independance and sovereignty of Lebanon and its coexistential culture. Historians report that in the "El-Assi" cave, a small group Hadath El Jebbeh population fled ,under Mamluks (14th century) to escape the massacres perpetrated by the occupiers against the local population ; but discovered by the enemy, the habitants found a tragic death; Six centuries later ,the speleologists (cavers) discovered in the last thirty years (1977)  the mummies of the cave El-Assi victims. Is there any relationship between these El- Assi cave victims and the first inhabitants of Ainebel? If such an act came  to be uncovered by historians, it will can better explain the strong attachment of ainebliotes to this hill so full of memories ,so associated to their heritage, known or unknown, past and present. In fact, they are attached to this site , even unconsciously, as a very precious treasure.


"Inanimate thing, do you have a soul attached to our soul and strength it to love?  "Said the romantic   poet, before such a situation.


V-Site of memories touching the bottom of the collective ainebliote spirit:

 In addition to the memories and events so laden with symbolism surrounding the Dahr El Assi hill, for both the ancestors and the current ainebliote generations , we have to accumulate , over the years, other memorabilia relating to the collective ainebliote soul, alternating joys and sorrows, bravery and disappointments, fears and hopes, faith, sometimes rebellion, but always passion to live.

For all these reasons, away from any tendency, Dahr El Assi Hill, loaded with many sweet and nostalgic ainebliote memories, remains the privileged, the most appropriate and most suitable on all levels, biblical, historical, ecological and poetic, to house an object as valuable as that of the shrine  of the Virgin Mary: Gift of Heaven for humanity, and gift of Lebanese Galilean territory for Heaven.






Joseph Khoreich


Beirut du  2 - 12 - 2009