Day 3 The Feast of St. Isaiah

This morning began early yet again, with all of us up at 2:30am and unable to sleep. You have to wonder if we won't all just fall over at some point! I can't believe that we won't sleep tonight, but I thought that last night too, so I guess I shouldn't count on it! The only up side of waking at the crack of dawn is that we got some much needed work done on the 2 hour presentation we have to make tomorrow to the teachers and parents of the school. After a morning of visiting classes we all met back at the monastery for a lovely luncheon with the priests and several school administrators. The afternoon was spent polishing off our presentation and working on lessons we will need to teach tomorrow. The highlight of the day, however, was the festival of St. Isaiah in the evening. The information sent to us from the school about it is copied below:

"Located near the town of Broummana, the Monastery of St. Isaiah (Deir Mar Chaaya) is
considered to be the oldest seat of the Antonine Maronite Order in Lebanon. In the 9th or 10th century AD, monks from Mesopotamia constructed the original monastery here as a stopover point for their pilgrimages to the Holy Land. It was built upon the site of an ancient Phoenician temple dedicated to the goddess Aramta. This monastery was later abandoned and destroyed. The current monastery was constructed in 1698, with the founding of the Antonine Order by Gabriel of Blawza. The monastery is situated at the top of the “Aramta Hill” and has a panoramic view of Beirut and the Metn countryside.
Broummana: (750 m above sea level, 20 km from Beirut). The name may have a Syriac origin “bet rammana” which means the residence of the common sublime god “Rimmon”. Broummana is known for the huge monastery of “Mar Chaaya” built in 1700 AC where two Maronite monks disappeared when the Syrian army invaded Metn in October 13, 1990."



St Isaiah Monastery is about an hour's drive from Aljatoun, where we were currently staying, and the winding, mountainous roads provided some spectacular and breathtaking scenery at dusk. We arrived at the 300 year old monastery and joined the beautiful mass, which was mostly sung, towards the end. After the mass, everyone filed out and headed for home, except for the monks and some guests. We joined the monks for a festive dinner. It was obviously a grand celebration with vegetables and wine that had been grown and made by the monks themselves. The ride home was fun, with Lebanonese music filling the car. It was a wonderful way to end a beautiful day.