MONASTERY
Mor Gabriel Monastery
Midyat · Syriac Orthodox
- Locality
- Midyat
- Tradition
- Syriac Orthodox
- Type of place
- MONASTERY
- Coordinates
- 37.32181° N, 41.53842° E
- Identity
- Matched to a public listing
A brief history
Founded in 397 by the ascetics Mor Shmuel and Mor Shemʿun of Qartmin, Mor Gabriel stands on a hilltop near Midyat in Tur Abdin and is one of the oldest continuously active Christian monasteries anywhere. It has been a centre of Syriac monasticism, theology and language for sixteen centuries, through Byzantine persecution, Turco-Mongol raids and, in recent decades, land and legal disputes with the Turkish state. It remains a working monastery and a social centre for the Assyrian Christians who are left in the region.
Saints & traditions
The hilltop was a Zoroastrian temple before it was a monastery, and the decoration inside has been added to in every century since.