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ASIA/IRAQ – “Our Woman of the Hour”: Church bells can be heard once more in Mosul
Foto Ammar Aziz
Mosul (Agenzia Fides) – Subsequent March, three bells bearing the names of the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael will depart Normandy and discover their vacation spot in Mosul within the bell tower of the Church of Our Woman of the Hour. This was introduced previously few days by UNESCO, which is concerned in tasks to rebuild the historic a part of the northern Iraqi metropolis, which continues to be scarred by the devastation of years of jihadist occupation. The three bells had been forged within the “Cornille Havard” foundry in Villedieu-les-Poêles in Normandy (France), a workshop using 15 specialised craftsmen who mix trendy technological instruments with medieval traditions. Unesco additionally studies that restoration work on your entire church must be accomplished by 2023.
Native sources usually give unsatisfying studies of the “return” of Christian households who fled Mosul in 2014, when town turned the Iraqi capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). Nevertheless, after years of jihadist occupation, which lasted till 2017, town’s social life is as soon as once more accompanied by the ringing of the bells of Our Woman of the Hour, one of many easiest and most discreet indicators used to make the Christian presence perceptible to all around the course of the day.
The Church of Our Woman of the Hour (Al-Saa’a) is situated within the coronary heart of Mosul, on the intersection of the 2 foremost streets that run by means of the outdated metropolis. Constructed on the finish of the nineteenth century, it has all the time been one of many symbols of Mosul, primarily due to its bell tower, seen from afar, with its giant clock, which had been donated to the church by the Empress Eugenie, spouse of Napoleon III. The church, which was run by the Dominicans previously, was badly broken throughout the jihadist occupation.
As beforehand reported by Fides
(see Fides, 2/8/2019), the restoration of the sacred constructing was included within the plan for the reconstruction of church buildings and monasteries destroyed throughout the jihadist occupation. The reconstruction program was additionally supported by the European Union. UNESCO additionally financed the reconstruction of Mosul with donations from the United Arab Emirates.
“The chimes of the clock of this Church,” Sister Luigina Sako, Superior of the Roman Home of the Chaldean Sisters Daughters of Mary (and beginning sister of the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael), advised Fides in April 2016, “marked our youth, when Mosul was a metropolis the place folks lived collectively in peace. I keep in mind that as college students, after we had an necessary examination, all of us, Christians and Muslims, would deliver playing cards with our requests for assist to the Lourdes Grotto, which was housed on this church and which even our Islamic buddies knew and honored as ‘the Church of the Miraculous Madonna’”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 21/12/2022)
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