{"id":200915,"date":"2018-08-07T11:03:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T08:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=200915"},"modified":"2018-08-07T11:03:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T08:03:02","slug":"st-thekla-monastery-in-maaloula-syria-reopens-after-being-looted-by-militants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/st-thekla-monastery-in-maaloula-syria-reopens-after-being-looted-by-militants\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Thekla monastery in Maaloula, Syria reopens after being looted by militants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p3\" data-field=\" paragraph\"><strong>The Orthodox Monastery of St. Thekla in Maaloula, Syria has reopened its doors after the liberation of the city in the Damascus Province, reports\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/interfax-religion.ru\/?act=news&amp;div=70382\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interfax-Religion<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p4\" data-field=\" paragraph\">The nuns, who had been forced to leave the monastery due to the war, have been able to return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p4\" data-field=\" paragraph\">\u201cEveryone was very worried about the nuns; everyone really loves them. The parishioners are warmed by their spiritual warmth. I returned here from Damascus as soon as I heard that the area was freed from terrorists,\u201d monastery chaplain Fr. Ilias Ades reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p5\" data-field=\" paragraph\">According to him, reconstruction work on the monastery is nearing completion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p6\" data-field=\" paragraph\">\u201cMaaloula has revived; the church has revived\u2014look, see how many tourists we have! 90% of the reconstruction is already done. Syria is gradually becoming a peaceful country. How can you not but rejoice!\u201d Fr. Ilias exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p7\" data-field=\" paragraph\">Fr. Ilias says that the repairs will be completed within two weeks. \u201cIt remains to finish the repairs on the second and fourth floors and to install electricity so tourists and pilgrims will be able to stay here. Everything will be finished in two weeks,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p8\" data-field=\" paragraph\">Maaloula was freed from militants in 2014, after which the restoration of the town and monastery began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p9\" data-field=\" paragraph\">The Monastery of St. Thekla is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ISIS\u00a0invaded\u00a0the small town of Maaloula on September 5, 2013, going on a rampage against Christian people and buildings, destroying all\u00a0holy sites\u00a0in the city. 3,000 fled the city, leaving only Muslims and the monastery\u2019s forty nuns, twelve of whom were kidnapped by ISIS in early December of the same year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"os\" data-enum=\"p9\" data-field=\" paragraph\">The nuns were\u00a0released\u00a0in March 2014.<\/p>\n<p data-enum=\"p9\" data-field=\" paragraph\">Photo Credit:\u00a0Patriarchate of Antioch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orthodox Monastery of St. Thekla in Maaloula, Syria has reopened its doors after the liberation of the city in the Damascus Province, reports\u00a0Interfax-Religion. The nuns, who had been forced to leave the monastery due to the war, have been able to return. \u201cEveryone was very worried about the nuns; everyone really loves them. The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":200914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autocephalous-orthodox-churches"],"better_featured_image":{"id":200914,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":682,"file":"2018\/08\/Sf-Tecla-Siria.jpg","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"Sf-Tecla-Siria-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sf-Tecla-Siria-360x360.jpg"},"medium":{"file":"Sf-Tecla-Siria-890x593.jpg","width":890,"height":593,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sf-Tecla-Siria-890x593.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Sf-Tecla-Siria-1024x682.jpg","width":1024,"height":682,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sf-Tecla-Siria-1024x682.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":200915,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sf-Tecla-Siria.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200915\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=200915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200915\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200914\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=200915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=200915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=200915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}