Saint Thomas Church (, ) is an ancient and historical

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an Eastern Christianity, Eastern Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian denomin ...

church located in the rural village of Balowlan,

Targavar Rural District Targavar Rural District () is in Silvaneh District of Urmia County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran. Its capital is the village of Mavana. History The district was home to a significant Assyrian Christian population before the Assyrian ge ...

Silvaneh District Silvaneh District () is in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and ...

Urmia County Urmia County () is in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Urmia. Demographics Ethnicity The county is mainly populated by Azerbaijanis, Persians and Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peopl ...

West Azerbaijan Province West Azerbaijan province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, whose capital and largest city is Urmia. It is in the northwest of the country, bordered by Turkey ( Ağrı, Hakkâri, Iğdır and Van Provinces), Iraq ( Erbil and Sula ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Saint Thomas Church was built and constructed in the 5th century AD and was used as a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

for many centuries. The church has undergone renovations in the 20th and 21st centuries, including having gas installed at the church, and a wooden floor with Persian rugs. The church was the worship place for the once large Assyrian community before the

Sayfo The Sayfo (, ), also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian people, Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan province by Ottoman Army ...

genocide. There are also nearby ancient and historical Assyrian Church of the East churches in neighboring villages and towns in Iran.

References

Assyrian Church of the East churches Assyrians in Iran Church of the East in Iran Churches in West Azerbaijan province 5th-century churches {{Assyrian-Church-East-stub

See also

References