First Mass Takes Place in the "Martyr City" of Mosul

Fr. Luis Montes belongs to the Institute of the Incarnate Word: in the beginning of August, he celebrated Mass at St. George Monastery in Mosul. He had flown to the martyr city to record a documentary entitled “Guardians of the Faith” in which he seeks to show the reality of life for Christians in Iraq and Syria.

Fr. Montes was able to say Mass in Mosul just one month after the city’s liberation. He described his emotion at being able to celebrate in a place that “surely gave many martyrs to the Church”. St. George Monastery suffered much damage during the war: remember that the Islamic State broadcasted on social media on July 19, 2014 an abominable clip showing the profanation of a 5th century sanctuary!

After that profanation, it is believed that the monastery’s lower level may have served as a prison for Christians who “left their names there written on the walls as a witness,”  according to the religious.

Located in the eastern part of the city, the monastery was in the hands of the jihadists for a long time, and they did not fail to leave their mark: “Rubble everywhere, all the religious statues destroyed, the grotto of the Virgin Mary destroyed. … Crosses set into the walls were chopped off with sledgehammers so no trace would remain of anything that is Christian, of anything that is Jesus Christ.

The priest of the Divine Word added: “In this place, which has been attacked for being Christian, the contemplation of the mystery of the cross, which is renewed in Holy Mass, had so much power.”

Fr. Montes then offered a still more moving detail: “Some priests later told the young people that accompanied me that they believed that this was the first Mass celebrated within the city of Mosul. It’s really a gift from God.”

And he concluded by saying that he offered this Mass for Europe, that has “turned away from Our Lord, God,” adding: may “the blood of the martyrs here in the Middle East may stir Europe, touch it, so that it awakens”.