A local pilgrimage that kicked off in January in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis offers an opportunity to celebrate the newly canonized Martyrs of Damascus and to, in prayer, walk alongside members of the faithful facing uncertainty and persecution in Middle Eastern countries like Syria.
The roughly six-month Martyrs of Damascus relic and icon pilgrimage among local parishes includes the opportunity to pray with a first-class relic as well as an icon of three of the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of men who were canonized in Rome this past October. There also will be presentations about the Martyrs of Damascus and opportunities to pray a special novena during the pilgrimage, organized by the Center for Mission, which supports the archdiocese’s missionary outreach, and the Damascus Partnership Committee, which grew out of the shared connection between the archdiocese and the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus and includes roughly 10 active members.
“It’s intended to be a prayer experience, but it’s also a way to be in solidarity with this Church,” Deacon Mickey Friesen, director of the Center for Mission, said of the Maronite Catholic Church.
Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun — pastor of St. Maron in Minneapolis, a Maronite Catholic church — agreed, suggesting to the faithful participating in the pilgrimage that “our main prayer and connection should go to the suffering Christians within the Middle East, especially in Syria.”
Having begun with a Jan. 25 Divine Liturgy (or Mass) at St. Maron, which included a special blessing of the icon, the pilgrimage will spend roughly 10 days at each participating parish. The length of time was determined so that each participating parish can also pray the pilgrimage novena, said Janine Ricker, global mission outreach coordinator with the Center for Mission who has helped coordinate the pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage is currently set to conclude just after June 29, the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. During that time, Archbishop Samir Nassar, of the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus, is expected to visit. However, the pilgrimage may be extended due to interest. “We’re filling up all the spaces from Jan. 25 to the end of June,” Deacon Friesen said. “But it’s conceivable it could go longer.”
‘A unique partnership’
When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops requested U.S. dioceses come to the aid of suffering and persecuted Christians in war-torn parts of the Middle East, Archbishop Bernard Hebda conferred with Deacon Friesen. Deacon Friesen had some knowledge of the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus through Chorbishop Maroun and suggested a partnership between the archdiocese and the archeparchy. The Damascus Partnership was formalized on Jan. 25, 2017 — the feast of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus and patron of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. To honor the partnership, Stillwater-based iconographer and Orthodox Christian Deb Korluka created an icon depicting St. Paul’s baptism into the Church by St. Ananias, which was completed in 2021.
Korluka, who is now part of the Damascus Partnership Committee, has written a reflection on how to pray with icons to be used during the Martyrs of Damascus relic and icon pilgrimage, Deacon Friesen said.
Deacon Friesen highlighted the Damascus Partnership’s ongoing main goals as building and growing relationships, exchanging stories of faith, and sharing prayers for both archdioceses. “From day one, it’s been a unique partnership because this is a Church (in Damascus) that’s under civil war and has been in conflict,” Deacon Friesen said. “So, it’s been very difficult to get to know them … we were very limited in what we could do.”
With difficulties at times in travel and aid logistics, Deacon Friesen said the Damascus Partnership has been “mostly a relationship of praying for them, sharing, learning about their life.” This presents a unique opportunity for the faithful in this local archdiocese, Deacon Friesen suggested: “What does it mean to be in solidarity with the suffering Church?”
PILGRIMAGE SCHEDULE
Parishes so far participating in the Martyrs of Damascus relic and icon pilgrimage include:
St. Maron in Minneapolis
Jan. 25-Feb. 17
St. Nicholas in Elko New Market
Feb. 18-27
St. Raphael in Crystal
Feb. 28-March 10
St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach
March 12-21
Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis
March 22-31
St. George in Long Lake
April 1-10
Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul
June 23-July 2
For more information, visit archspm.org/martyrsicontour.
Martyrs of Damascus and standing for faith
The icon that’s part of the local pilgrimage was authored in Damascus and depicts the Massabki brothers — Abdel Moati, Francis and Raphael Massabki. The three Maronite laymen and eight Franciscan friars are known as the 11 Martyrs of Damascus. The first-class relic is a Massabki brother’s bone fragment, Chorbishop Maroun said.
Pope Francis canonized the martyrs during World Mission Sunday Oct. 20, 2024 — more than 160 years after their murders in Damascus for refusing to renounce their Christian faith, according to OSV News.
“To have these martyrs canonized was just a huge source of hope for the people in Damascus,” Ricker said. Deacon Friesen agreed, saying, “When that canonization happened for those martyrs, at that very moment, Israel was bombing Lebanon.” When Deacon Friesen asked Chorbishop Maroun what it was like to celebrate the canonization amid the bombing, “he (Chorbishop Maroun) said it was a blessing — when these martyrs were killed, it was in the middle of another war. … So, there’s a connection, it gives us hope in the middle of this really terrible time.”
Another point of connection is the opportunity for members of the local archdiocese to pray with the icon — within the Maronite Catholic Church in Damascus, “(o)ne of the things that’s very deep in their tradition is icons,” Deacon Friesen said.
Chorbishop Maroun said that as the pilgrimage travels to parishes throughout the archdiocese, it provides an opportunity for the faithful “to learn about the Massabki brothers and to learn about martyrdom because each one of us is called to be a martyr.”
“We live in a culture nowadays where Christians, we want to take the easy way out, we want the easy faith, because we don’t know what persecution means,” Chorbishop Maroun said. “We need to stand for our faith. … We need to be aware that we are also called to be martyrs and the question is: How are we witnessing to Christ? How am I witnessing, as a teacher, as a lawyer, as a citizen? … If somebody put a knife to my neck or a gun, would I deny Christ?”
‘Eastern and Western traditions in the Church’
Chorbishop Maroun said the pilgrimage presents an opportunity for members of the faithful in this local archdiocese to reflect on the Church’s history.
“Jesus chose to be born in that part of the world and if we deny our roots, if we deny where we came from, we would be denying our identity. … We are one big tree with many branches,” he said.
Father Steve McMichael, with the Order of Friars Minor Conventual who is also an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, will present on this ecumenical importance at participating parishes during the pilgrimage. Father McMichael said Ali Chamseddine, an adjunct professor in the university’s theology department, knew of Father McMichael’s interest in presenting on the Martyrs of Damascus and connected him with the Center for Mission.
“The pilgrimage is not only important for the Franciscan tradition, but also for ecumenical relations in the archdiocese,” Father McMichael said. “The pilgrimage involves both Eastern and Western traditions in the Church and highlights our ecumenical partnership.”
This ecumenical partnership is especially important as the number of Christians in the Middle East declines, Chorbishop Maroun said. (See sidebar.)
“(W)e have a big responsibility, at least to save the remnants that are there. Because it doesn’t take many Christians to shine. … We need people like them (the Martyrs of Damascus) to be able to witness to the Gospel and to shine with their faith,” Chorbishop Maroun said. “We need to act now while they (Middle Eastern Christians) are still there because they are the yeast, and they are the seeds that are planted there. We need to nourish them.”
Witnesses of hope
Chorbishop Maroun looks to the Martyrs of Damascus and the Massabki brothers as exemplifying the Jubilee Year’s theme of Pilgrims of Hope.
“They had that big hope,” he said. “Their hope is in Christ; it’s not in this world. So, there were pilgrims of hope even back then.”
With St. Maron’s designation as a Jubilee Year pilgrimage site, Chorbishop Maroun called it a “double pilgrimage” at his church. “2025 comes to begin this beautiful pilgrimage for all of us (and) so we are walking with them (the Martyrs of Damascus) and they are guiding us from up there (in heaven).”
Father McMichael suggested the Martyrs of Damascus extend a call to action for today’s faithful: “(T)hese 11 men gave up their lives for refusing to renounce their faith. During his homily at the canonization Mass … Pope Francis noted, ‘These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service.'”
Deacon Friesen suggested all martyrs are witnesses of the hope of Jesus’ resurrection.
“Pope Francis, even in his letter on the year (‘Spes Non Confundit’ or ‘Hope Does Not Disappoint’) he mentions (to) pay attention to the martyrs, martyrs are witnesses of hope,” Deacon Friesen said. “And so that gives us an opportunity to reflect here — what do we mean when we talk about Christian hope? I think the martyrs are a good entrée into what that might look like.”
UNCERTAINTY AMID SYRIAN REGIME CHANGE
The Martyrs of Damascus relic and icon pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is happening as Christians face uncertainty amid Syria’s recent regime change.
President Bashar Assad — who assumed power in 2000 after his father’s death and exerted an increasingly authoritarian rule — fled Syria as the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), along with a coalition of other Islamist groups, seized power on Dec. 8, OSV News reported. HTS has indicated that it will take up to four years before elections could be held and could take three years to draft a new constitution, according to OSV News.
Although Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa — who has had historic affiliation with extremist groups including al-Qaida — has promised that the rights of Christians and other Syrians will be respected, many fear his government could embrace strict Islamic law that marginalizes minority communities and excludes women from public life, OSV News reported.
While an estimated 1.5 million Christians were living in Syria in 2011, that number had fallen to about 300,000 by 2022, due to persecution and the effects of the Syrian Civil War, OSV News reported. Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.N. refugee agency, estimates that 16.7 million Syrians need humanitarian aid as of 2024, according to OSV News.
