Dayra d'Mar Oraha ( syr, ܕܲܝܪܵܐ ܕܡܵܪܝ ܐܲܒ݂ܪܵܗܵܡ) (Saint Abraham Monastery) is a Chaldean Catholic monastery in northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

close to the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Batnaya Batnaya ( ar, باطنايا, syr, ܒܛܢܝܐ) is a village in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Tel Kaif District in the Nineveh Plains. In the village, there are Chaldean Catholic churches of Mar Quriaqos and Mart Maryam. Th ...

. The monastery is traditionally attributed to Mar Oraha, who was forced to abandon his hermitage in Mount Alfaf due to a draught, and descended to the plains of Nineveh, where he built his monastery during Ishoʿyahb I's patriarchy (581-596). It was occupied by monks of the Church of the East until 1719, when it passed to the Chaldean Catholic Church. The monastery was completely destroyed and its monks were killed at the hands of

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...

during his campaign in the region in 1743. In 1921, it was rebuilt with the help of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

. The feast of Mar Oraha is held twice at the monastery: the first Sunday of the Great Lent, and the second Sunday after

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

.Sulaiman Al-Saigh, 'The Nineveh Villages', Al-Mashriq magazine, Issue 21, 1923 , p.422.

References

Monasteries of the Church of the East Christianity in Nineveh Governorate Eastern Catholic monasteries in Iraq Christian monasteries established in the 6th century Chaldean Catholic monasteries 6th-century churches Nineveh Plains {{EasternCatholic-church-stub