The Church of Saint Thomas is a

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

church in

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

History

The church is dedicated to Saint

Thomas the Apostle Thomas the Apostle (; , meaning 'the Twin'), also known as Didymus ( 'twin'), was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Thomas is commonly known as "doubting Thomas" because he initially doubted the resurrection of ...

and is believed to have been constructed on the site of the house that the saint resided in during his stay in Mosul. The church is first mentioned in 770 as part of a grievance to Caliph

Al-Mahdi Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr (; 744 or 745 – 785), better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī (, "He who is guided by God"), was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his ...

. The current structure suggests it was built in the 13th century. The church was damaged during

Shahanshah Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the List of monarchs of Iran, monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the ...

Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

's siege of Mosul as part of the Ottoman–Persian War of 1743–1746, and was subsequently renovated in 1744 by Cyril George,

metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

of Hattakh, with the permission of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I. It was later renovated again in 1848. Amidst restoration work in 1964, the finger bones of Saint Thomas were discovered in the church. On 23 December 2009, a bomb damaged the church, killed two men and injured five people. In the aftermath of the

Fall of Mosul The Fall Of Mosul in Iraq occurred between 4 and 10 June 2014, when Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents, initially led by Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, captured Mosul from the Iraqi Army, led by Lieutenant General Mahdi Al-Gha ...

, the relics of Saint Thomas were taken from the church by Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul, and transferred to the Monastery of Saint Matthew on 17 June 2014. The church was used as a prison by

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

insurgents until the city's liberation in 2017.

Burials

* Ignatius Isaac II, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch () * Basil Matthew II, Syriac Orthodox

maphrian The Maphrian ( or ''maphryono''), is the second-highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, right below that of patriarch. The office of a maphrian is a maphrianate. There have been three maphrianates in the hist ...

of the East () *Basil Lazarus IV, Syriac Orthodox

of the East () *Cyril Rizq Allah, Syriac Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Mosul () *Cyril 'Abd al-'Aziz, Syriac Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Mosul ()

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control Churches in Mosul Syriac Orthodox churches in Iraq Persecution of Assyrians by ISIL Islamist attacks on churches Attacks on churches in Iraq Iraq War sites Mosul in the Iraq War Mosul during the War in Iraq (2013–2017)