Aleppo 30Dec2010

The 1st day, Dec. 29th, we visited Brad, then back to hotel in a nice neighborhood in Aleppo, then spent the evening in the hussling streets of Aleppo. I got several good bargains :)
The 2nd day, we left the hotel to the Maronite Cathedral, where we attended 8am Holy Mass. Then visited to old eparchy, then walked for about 15 minutes in the bitter cold to the new eparchy building, where we had coffee w/ bishop Abi Aad. The picture above is taken in the square in front of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Elias in Aleppo. it shows a nice gate & an old ally to leads to the old neighborhood of the Maronite old eparchy.

The best part of all in the trip was the visit to the ruins of the Basilica of Saint Simon the Column.
Saint Simon was a very famous saint in the 5th century AD. A disciple of Saint Maron, who joined the monastic life after attending the funeral of his father. Simon was deeply touched by the gospel; and led a very auster life in the monastery. he was then advised by the abbot to live in a hermitage. He then built a column and had his little hermitage build on its top, in the cold & under the sun, for years. He used the column to preach for the caravans passing by. Later the Muslims were very much inspiried by his preaching & life style, and built themselves minarates to preach and call people to prayer.
Saint Simon was so famous, that people traded pictures and statues of him in East and West Europe. Numerous young people sought to be disciple of him, and learn his fast way to God. Some came from as far as Ireland.

Above is a panoramic picture of the Basilica of Saint Simon; which was built in the 5th century by the Byzantine emperor in honor of Saint Simon & in support of his disciples, the House of Maron, who defended and spread the Catholic faith in the region of Syria, Lebanon, south Turkey, Iraq, and Palestine. The remains of the Church still show, inspite of the earthquakes and the old age, a very beautiful archetecture. The church was built around the column of Saint Simon, which is still there, in part.

A large monastery is annexed to the church. It's believed to had housed once about a thounsand monks. The Church is built on a very strategic hill, not faraway from the Turkey. A cemetary is built to the north of the Church, all carved from one huge rock, with several little chambers and a pit in the middle.
A baptistery still stands high to the south of the Church, about 100 meters away from it. Many of the stones, and walls of the church and the baptistery are carved in the stone-bed of the hill. Some walls are about 3 meters high and 7 long, carved from the stone-bed there. (see the below picture)