Approaching the village of Kousba in the district of al-Kura, one may descend left to a hydroelectric station at the bottom of the Qadisha valley, cross a footbridge over the fast-flowing river and climb a steep, winding path up the opposite slope. After forty minutes of strenuous walking, the visitor will reach the monastery (if Our Lady of Hamatoura, perched on a great escarpment several hundred meters above the valley floor.
In the Syriac language, Hamatoura means 'protectress of the mountain', for there is a popular tradition that the Virgin Mary protects all inhabitants of the Qadisha (Sacred) valley, and the monastery itself is dedicated to the Virgin. Among the peaceful refuges of the valley,
Hamatoura is one of the largest and most impressive. In this remote site, far from the dangers and temptations of the world, generations of Christian monks and hermits have lived in solitude, meditation, and prayer.
The tranquil history of Hamatoura was broken by an entire century of abandonment from 1890 to 1990. But the monastery is now reviving, thanks largely to the enthusiasm and goodwill of its abbot, Father Panthelemon Farah. In the last decade, monks from Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan have come to settle at Hamatoura. Ten monks live there now, all young and educated, and their number is expected to increase.
The monks live in a brotherly community where everybody does his part in a calm daily routine. At four o'clock in the morning, the monastic day begins with morning prayers. Then each monk goes to his own task growing olives, preparing wine and fruit juice, building, painting icons and mosaics, or making clothes. They assemble again for prayer at midday, have lunch and rest. At two o'clock, they take up their work again; at six o'clock, they celebrate the evening office and retire to their separate cells. Twice a week, from two to six in the afternoon, the monks assemble to read and study the Bible and patristic texts. They also devote much time to studying and practicing music; they have recently recorded their chants on cassette.
Several new buildings, constructed and decorated by the monks themselves, have been added to the monastery. Hamatoura is too remote for building materials to be imported in quantity, but a quarry has been opened nearby, where the monks cut and dress stone for the new buildings, while others paint icons and fashion mosaics in the traditional manner. The monastery owns little land, yet it produces sufficient olives and oil for its own needs and sells its own icons, candles, and incense. It also enjoys much lay support, especially from the people of nearby Kousba, who have long been closely connected to Hamatoura and frequently come to pray and pay their respects.
The monastery celebrates two great feast-days, the Dormition of Mary on 15th August, and the Entrance of Mary to the Temple on 21st November; on these occasions, the monastery is alive with throngs of Orthodox worshippers from all parts of Lebanon and from abroad. A token of Hamatoura's revival came on one of these days in 2002, when it solemnly received the relics of the revered Russian saint, Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392).
HISTORY
Hamatoura's origins are ancient. Father Panthelemon Farah places the foundation of the monastery church in the tenth century, and popular tradition dates it to the eighth century at least, and even to the fourth or fifth centuries. The church altar is thought to have come from a Roman temple that may have originally occupied the site. Such early dates cannot be confirmed, but there are several clear witnesses to the monastery in the Crusader period. An Arab traveller mentioned it in 1242, and the monastery's name is recorded in an Orthodox liturgical manuscript written in 1250. The pointed arch at the west entrance of the church is datable to the Crusader period, and some of the frescoes can be similarly dated by their style and iconography. Hamatoura certainly existed in the thirteenth century and probably earlier.
There is evidence that life at the monastery continued without much interruption for some time after the final departure of the Crusaders from the region in 1291. In his work on Mount Lebanon, the Maronite patriarch Stephen al'Doueihy, who wrote in the later seventeenth century, relates that the convent of Hamatoura was attacked during the Mamluk period (fourteenth century) and all its monks massacred. He gives the number as two hundred, a figure not remotely approached in later times; if this report is even approximately accurate, it indicates the size and importance of Hamatoura in that early period. The monastery survived that disaster, although it was much reduced. A manuscript kept at Balamand monastery (Balamand MS149) names a Mar Yaacoub of Hamatoura, who was beheaded at Tripoli about 1500. Relating his journey through Lebanon in 1648-9, the Orthodox patriarch Makarios al-Za'im mentions Hamatoura, noting that access to it was most difficult because 'it is hollowed into a mountain'. Visiting Lebanon in 1722, the French traveler Jean de la Roque also describes the monastery's position on a rocky escarpment. He adds that Hamatoura was occupied 'by a small number of Greek religious, these being almost the only ones established on the Lebanon-. Altogether, these reports show that, from obscure origins sometime in the Byzantine period, Hamatoura reached its peak of size and prosperity during the Crusader occupation of Lebanon; thereafter it declined precipitously yet continued to survive in humble seclusion.
From 1600 onwards, most of our surviving information about Hamatoura monastery has come from its own monks, who produced and conserved one of the largest Orthodox manuscript collections in Lebanon. Almost five hundred documents are so far recorded, revealing the monastery's relative prosperity from the sixteenth to the end of the nineteenth century. The disasters of 1890 and 1917 (see below) destroyed most of this collection, and only forty-seven liturgical and ritual manuscripts survive, now deposited at the metropolitan see of Mount Lebanon in Broummana. Six date (rom the sixteenth century, nineteen from the seventeenth century, six from the eighteenth century, and eight (rom the nineteenth century. Eight are of uncertain date, including gospels that may be of pre-sixteenth century origin. Marginal colophon-notes in these manuscripts give much information on the monastery's lands and buildings, and on monks, superiors, and visiting bishops. They tell us, for example, that Youwakim, Orthodox Bishop of Bethlehem, lived at Hamatoura in the late sixteenth century. Another Youwakim, the bishop of Tripoli, fled from troubles in the city in 1651 and took refuge in Hamatoura, remaining there for eight months. Bertanios, Bishop of Tripoli, visited Hamatoura on 23rd May, 1762. There are also references to events in the outside world, such as the outbreak of the war for Greek independence in 1821, which was accompanied by a wave of violence against the Orthodox inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. In that year, the Christian inhabitants of Tripoli suffered great persecutions, which did not cease until the return of the wali Barbar Agha. There is mention of the fighting between Christians and Druzes in 1848, 'which only resulted in loss on both sides and the expansion of the Ottoman army in the mountain of the Druzes and in Kesrouan. The Christians were stripped of their weapons.' Finally, locusts ravaged Tripoli in 1865, when Theodosios was bishop.
Another valuable survival is a series of letters addressed to the prior of Hamatoura, loannikos el-Hayek, who later became prior of Balamand. Dating from 1871 to 1892.during the Mutassarifiya, the period of Mount Lebanon's autonomy within the Ottoman Empire (1861-1914), the letters are mostly concerned with property, repairs, new construction, and harvests: they show that Hamatoura had prospered from the region's improved political circumstances to become a fast-growing economic center. During those few decades, the monastery came to own mulberry orchards, cultivating silk with excellent results. It also owned olive-groves in al-Kura, grew tobacco, and leased mills. In 1885, whitewashing and paving were undertaken at the monastery, and a road was built to facilitate access to the monastic mill and wells. The letters also mention a clerical school operating in the monastery at the end of the 1880s.
The last letter of the series mentions the sudden and unexpected end of this late, fragile prosperity. In 1890, bandits sacked Hamatoura and massacred the monks. The pillagers carried off most of the monastery s possessions, including ancient icons, manuscripts, and utensils of silver and bronze. There was no recovery from this disastrous event; henceforth, the convent of Hamatoura was reduced to an almost deserted place of retreat. During the First World War, only three monks lived at the monastery, among them a certain Father Yaacoub, known as 'Qidiss, or saint. Leading a humble life spent in prayer, and having almost no contact with visitors, he was reputedly endowed with the power of healing. In 1917, an earthquake completely destroyed two wings of the monastery and buried the main entrance in the ruins. The last monks left for Deir al-Harf, taking with them the surviving manuscripts. The convent was then completely deserted for many decades until its revival after 1990.
