Mar Musa, the Desert Monastery

In 1982, Paolo Dall’Oglio, a young Italian Jesuit arrived at the Deir Mar Musa ruins in the mountains of the Syrian Desert and decided to build an new ecumenical community. He wanted to recreate a place that welcomed everyone, a multi-religious monastery that would encourage Muslim-Christian reconciliation in that difficult period. Last year, the monastery was visited by Pope John Paul II in the frame of the Christian Union’s week of prayer. This year, father Dall’Oglio can proudly celebrate Mar Musa’s twentieth anniversary, a spiritual heaven open to all religions.