The Icon “Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrians” Blessed by the Pope to Travel Through Syria
No voice rises higher than the voice of suffering: the suffering Christ felt after entering Jerusalem, whose echo has resounded in Syria since 2011; those voices have still not fallen silent today.
In the midst of this cruel war, Father Spiridon Fadi Kabbash of the Orthodox Church in Homs wrote the icon “Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrians” last August, at the request of Aid to the Church in Need and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Syria. It was presented to Pope Francis during a prayer held in Rome for peace in Syria and for mercy on all the martyrs, the kidnapped and the missing.
On Sunday 15 September 2019, Pope Francis blessed the icon “Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrians” at the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, in the presence of a delegation from Aid to the Church in Need led by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the foundation’s international president, together with Father Spiridon Fadi Kabbash, who wrote the icon, and Mrs Marie-Claude Lalonde, director of Aid to the Church in Need Canada. The icon was then to visit thirty-four dioceses in Syria on a pilgrimage of prayer for peace in that war-wounded country, starting in the capital, Damascus, where the Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari, was to present it. Its journey was due to end in Damascus in May 2020.
Mrs Marie-Claude Lalonde said: “It is a great joy for me to take part in this event, which took place just before the Sunday Angelus.” This blessing is pure happiness, because we were at the heart of our mission of supporting the Christian pastors who need it most. She added: “This initiative is in keeping with all the other calls for peace that Pope Francis has made to end this hateful conflict, from which Syrian civilians have suffered terribly.” With this gesture, the Pope strongly reaffirmed his support for the Syrian people, shattered by war.
Father Spiridon Fadi Kabbash, who wrote the icon, said: “We will send the icon to many places in the world, because people need God’s consolation. The war weighs very heavily on people.”
The Pope sent a message to the families accompanying the icon: “You are not alone; we are with you.”
Pope Francis said during the Marian prayer on the feast of the Ascension: “We will continue praying the Rosary for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world.” This was in the presence of the executive president of the pontifical foundation, Thomas Heine-Geldern, who stood beside the Pope in this commitment to keep praying for peace in solidarity with the Syrian people.
The Pope had already lit a candle for peace in Syria on Sunday 2 December 2018 after the Angelus, one of 50,000 candles lit at Christmas 2018 in support of Aid to the Church in Need’s prayer campaign “Candles for Peace in Syria”.
At the same time, 6,000 rosaries blessed by Pope Francis a month earlier were distributed to parishes in Syria, in response to reports that 2,000 Christian families had lost at least one member during the war, and at least 800 families had a member kidnapped during the crisis.
We ask Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrians, to bless and protect wounded Syria, which is still bleeding from this crushing war, and to bless the Syrian people, scattered to the ends of the earth in flight from fear, death and destruction.
The Meaning of the Icon “Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrians”
At the centre of the icon, the Virgin holds the Child Jesus, who holds a map of Syria in his hand…
With his other hand he blesses, on his right, the Syrian people of every community, among them the two kidnapped bishops…
who have turned their faces away from the armed terrorist groups…
At the top, the Lord of glory embraces the martyrs, civilian and military, with the martyred Father Frans van der Lugt in their midst…
By Mireille Sayes, Sawt el Rab team
