The monastery of the most venerated saint in the Near East lies in a magnificent site. Situated on a hill in the Jabal Ansariyah about 350 metres in altitude, at a distance of 60 kilometers from Horns, it is surrounded on all sides by similar hills with rounded summits. The neighboring summit is crowned by the imposing Crusader fortress, the Krak Chevaliers, which overlooks the whole region, and the monastery of St. Georges itself enjoys no less splendid a position. The flanks of the hills are covered with olive-trees, oaks, and vines, creating a mantle of different shades of green. When the weather is fine, the escarpments of Mount Lebanon are visible to the south.
Although within the archbishopric of Akkar, the monastery is directly attached to the Patriarchate of Antioch. Located in the governorate of Horns and the local district of Tell Kalakh, it lies midway between Horns and Tripoli, on the edge of the Wadi al-Nasara, 'the Valley of the Christians'. This is the northernmost extension of the Bekaa Valley and forms a strategic passage from inland Syria
to the Mediterranean coast. Since ancient times, traders and soldiers have passed through this fertile region. When the Crusaders conquered it, they were struck by the abundance of camel herds that pastured its green fields. Several springs rise from the hills west of the monastery and flow into two lakes watering the convent garden, where the monks cultivate all kinds of vegetables. One of these springs also supplies the monastic wells through a drainage system.
The place-name Al-Homeyra was known in antiquity, and an ancient temple once existed beside the monastery. In Aramaic, hamaira means 'powerful' and 'invulnerable'. Alternatively, the name may designate the fertile reddish soil of the surrounding area. The existence of both the pagan temple and the monastery- at this site is connected to the miraculous spring of Fawar, formerly known the Sabbatical River, which rises from a nearby cave. According to tradition, the spring runs only on Saturdays, and so it was described by the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius? (37-100AD) in his description of Titus' return journey to Rome after his victory over the Jews in 70AD (Jewish War. 7:96). Long before, in 1990BC, the Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, father of Ramses II had built a fortress called Sheptun, “Saturday” in ancient Egyptian, on the site of the Krak des Chevaliers.
The Monastery of St. George Al-Homeyra remains an important place of pilgrimage. Christians come to it from all over the Orthodox world, including Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Greece, Russia, and the West. Particularly large numbers of believers come at Epiphany and the two annual feast-days of the monastery'. St. George on 6th May and the Feast of the Cross on 14th September,
in order to baptize their children.
HISTORY
Owing to the lack of historical and archeological witness, the date of the monastery's foundation cannot be fixed. It was traditionally founded in the early Christian period (fourth-sixth centuries). The Arab historian al-Tabari (839-923) mentions the monastery under the title of 'Our Lord al-Khodr Abu l-Abbas'. The Crusaders, who occupied this region for about two centuries, left no record of the monastery. Yet, the old monastery church was probably built in the Crusader period, and there must have been relations between the monastery and the Krak des Chevaliers. The monastery's history becomes better lcnou-n during the Ottoman period, and sources become abundant in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
From about 1850, St. George Al-Homeyra began to grow rapidly in numbers and wealth, as part of a general flowering of the Christian communities in Syria. This development reached its height in the time of the archimandrite Gerasimos the Greek between 1870 and 1900? When the monastery housed eighty monks and laypeople and donated 200-400 Ottoman gold pounds annually to the Patriarchal see in Damascus. Gerasimos undertook the building of two floors in the east wing and two mills, and he purchased more than seven villages with their cultivable land, herds, flocks, and other animals. This was the height of the monastery's prosperity.
The most remarkable annual events at the monastery during this time were the great fairs that took place during the two monastic feasts. The fairs opened for two weeks and ended on the day of the feast. They were times of pilgrimage, prayer, and piety, which people made use of for all sorts of purchases. Christians and Muslims poured in from all corners of Syria, and merchants of different confessions came to sell their goods. Letters still preserved tell us that the Feast of Khodr (St. George) originally took place, not in the monastery, but in the village of Hosn. Only in 1872 was the fair transferred to the vicinity of the monastery; previously, it had not been located in any special place. A letter addressed to the governor of Damascus and signed by the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch asks that the fair not be held near the monastery because of quarrels that may arise among people.
The market where the fair is now held twice a year is located north of the monastery. Containing one hundred shops, it was built in 1913 at the initiative of patriarch Gregorios Haddad, in the time of the archimandrite Cyril, who was of Greek origin. The building consists of a vaulted arcade forming a covered porch, which extends opposite the north wall of the upper church. This construction reproduces the plan of the souks that were so widespread in the region during the nineteenth century. Rugs were the principal merchandise of this fair.
The first half of the twentieth century was a period of decline for the monastery for various reasons, including poor administration, the frequent changing of superiors, and the First World War. Debts increased progressively, and a large part of the monastery's landholdings was sold. As early as 1899, the deacon Ephiphanios wrote to the patriarch, complaining of the deplorable situation into which the monastery had fallen. The deacon alleged that the superior was too old to manage affairs and was estranged from the monks.
The start of the First World War caused a great rise in the prices of all goods. The patriarch ordered the monastery to dispatch provisions, so that it could feed the starving people camped on the grounds of the patriarchal see in Damascus. But the superior of St. George could not obey this order because Turkish soldiers had requisitioned the monastery's lands, crops, and supplies. He wrote to the patriarch, describing the gravity of the situation: despite all the hardship that the monastery itself was suffering, the inhabitants of Horns and Safita were coming in masses to ask for shelter.
The disastrous situation was aggravated by swarms of locusts that ravaged the region in 1915; a dreadful famine ensued, in which hundreds of thousands perished. The archimandrite Isaiah, in a letter to the patriarch, said of the locusts that 'they filled not only the meadows and orchards, but also the houses and dwellings. They left nothing in their path.' Few families escaped without loss.
However, what caused the most harm to the monastery was the question of waqf ownership. The lack of official deeds of ownership provoked a conflict between the monastery and the neighboring villagers. Since the middle Ages, monastic lands had been leased to peasant cultivators who shared the yield with the monastery, passing their tenancies down to their descendants. From the 1920s, however, the peasant share-croppers, encouraged by the French administration, began to dispute this ancient customary practice and to demand full rights to the yield. The monastery passed through thirty years of conflict with neighboring villages, which led sometimes to acts of aggression against the monks.
Under the superior Alexandros Jeha (1925-34), the monastery fell into a deep financial crisis, with a great increase of debts and the loss of much of its property. It had to pay taxes on lands whose peasant share-croppers had ceased to pay their dues and demanded release from their obligations. It therefore had no choice but to sell property in order to relieve its situation.
Yet, despite its difficulties, St. George AI-Homeyra continued to serve as a place of rest for travelers of all kinds and a haven of refuge for the poor and outcast. Inside its walls, the monastery sheltered the mentally ill, epileptics, and psychopaths, all people whom society rejected as possessed by the devil. St. George, capable of defeating Satan as he had triumphed over the dragon, received these poor people into his monastery to heal them. The monastery was thus famed for its generosity and openness to the Christians and Muslims of Syria. Most donations made to it were intended in part for the hosting of travelers.
The school at St. George Al-Homeyra occupies an important place in the monastery's recent history. On 7th August, 1913, archimandrite Isaiah addressed a letter to the patriarch, asking permission to open a school for twenty- seven boarding and twenty external students. Shortly afterwards, the school was opened with two extra students, but courses were soon interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. On 14th August, 1920, the monastic superior again requested permission to re-open the school at the insistence of the neighboring villagers, who had agreed to join resources to open a school within the monastery. They collected 575 gold pounds sterling, a considerable .sum,
which allowed them to begin construction work on a school building. Soon afterwards, the school opened under the patronage of His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios IV.
The first four years were the school's best times. It was frequented by children from the whole region, for whom it offered an education and future opportunities. They teamed Arabic, French, and the Orthodox catechism. In 1923, the number of pupils had reached thirty-three boarding and fifteen external students, including some Sunnis and one Alawite. Teaching was provided by eight instructors and household service by a dozen employees. Official scholarships were granted by the State to pupils of poor families.
However, severe problems arose in the fifth school year, and the superior Alexandros Jeha decided to close the school, apparently because there were not enough students.
The school was re-opened in 1926 but with only twenty- five students and three teachers. The main subjects taught were religion, Arabic and French language and literature, mathematics in both languages, the history and geography of Syria and the world, physics, chemistry, and biology. Other subjects, including English, drawing, physical education, calligraphy, and liturgical music were included. The government allocated 250 Syrian pounds a year to the school. The French councillor visited the monastery in 1927 and was so impressed by the school that he donated 6000 French francs to its administration.
In 1935, the school was changed into a clerical institution. Courses lasted for three to four hours daily, and students spent the rest of the time working in the monastery. They received supplementary lessons in music, theology, and Greek language. As such, it functioned until 1954,
when it closed despite the protests of the local inhabitants.
