People Of Syria With Tongue Of Jesus Prepare For Returning Pilgrims

In the ancient Syrian village of Maalula, whose inhabitants still speak the language of Jesus; volunteers razed stones and rubbed graffiti to prepare for the return of Christian pilgrims after years of war

Nestled among towering cliffs in the mountains north of Damascus, Maalula is one of the world’s oldest Christian settlements.

Before Syria’s war, it drew in thousands of visitors a year — including former US president Jimmy Carter and late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez — to visit its churches and monasteries and to hear its inhabitants speak Aramaic.

But from 2011 onwards, a devastating conflict largely kept pilgrims away from the village, whose name in Aramaic means “entrance”, after the narrow passage between its limestone cliffs.

Legend has it that in the first century Saint Taqla, a young woman, escaped an arranged marriage to a pagan and ran away from her home to lead a Christian life.

With Roman soldiers in hot pursuit, she reached a dead end in the mountains, but when she prayed, a passage opened in the rock face, leading into a cave.

She lived there for the rest of her life, curing the sick with water from a sacred spring, near the site of today’s Saint Taqla Greek Orthodox convent.

In the narrow pass at the foot of the canyon, men have been working in the summer heat to prepare the site for visitors in time for Assumption on August 15.

Nearby, on the side of the winding 500-metre canyon leading to the Saint Taqla convent, the Arabic word “message” and a heart were still visible, both in red paint.

Rebels and jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda seized Maalula in the autumn of 2013, forcing most of its Christian inhabitants to flee.

Syria’s then-Al-Qaeda affiliate kidnapped 13 nuns from the Saint Taqla convent but they were released in a prisoner swap with the Damascus authorities in March 2014. Regime forces recaptured Maalula the following month.