Enfeh, Lebanon, March 27, 2019
Photo: Facebook
The greatly loved and revered Eldress Catherine of the Deir El Natour Monastery in Enfeh, Lebanon reposed in the Lord on Sunday, March 24, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
Having lived at the monastery since 1973, Mother Catherine helped to rebuild the holy habitation following the civil war and turned it into a real spiritual oasis, as testified to by the flood of messages of love and testimonies of help received from her on social media.
Eldress Catherine was a symbol of faith and dedication to God, offering comfort and compassion in an area where Orthodoxy is being severely tested.
“I have been saddened by the news of your death, which is a transition from death to life,” writes His Eminence Metropolitan Benedict of Philadelphia (Jerusalem Patriarchate). “I knew your wisdom, taken from your patron St. Catherine’s words of wisdom. I’ll never forget my visits to you because you taught me so much. How could I forget these visits where I learned humility, wisdom, and love?”
Entreating her prayers before the throne of God for us who remain on Earth, Met. Benedict continued: “I will not say goodbye, but I will say goodbye because I believe that we will meet in our beloved homeland which is the Paradise of bliss. We will meet in the other life.”
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Photo: Facebook The site LebanonUntravelled.com offers a brief history of the monastery:
The convent’s ancient origin is attached to a legend. A rich man of the region committed adultery; filled with remorse, he attached a padlocked iron chain to his ankle and threw the key into the sea-shore and survived on the fish brought to him by local fishermen, who called him the guardian of the cavern. One day, a fisherman brought him a fish, in whose entrails the hermit found the key of the padlock. He knew then that God had delivered him from his suffering, and he built a convent above the cavern. He dedicated it to The Mother of God, but it also took the name of the Guardian.
The daily life of the convent is regulated by the flow of visitors who come to fulfill vows and make prayers. Sister Catherine al-Jamal is the principal resident of Dayr al-Natour, and she has done everything within her power to restore it.
According to the Crusader document, the Monastery of the Presentation of Our Lady Natour was built by Cistercians. Indeed, the Church interior resembles that of the Cistercian Church of Balamand, built in 1157. Otherwise, the history of Dayr al-Natour is hidden in obscurity, although it is said that the local Orthodox community took it over after the departure of the Crusaders. Its name is almost unmentioned by historical sources during the Mamluk and most of the Ottoman period, although it is reported that French corsairs attacked the Monastery at the beginning of the eighteenth century and killed a monk.
In 1838, the Ottoman authorities gave permission to the Monastery to be rebuilt. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it contained several monks and a superior, and it possessed fifteen dunums of land. During the First World War, it was bombarded by a Russian ship. A few years later, the Monastery lost its last Superior, Basilios Debs, who became Archbishop of Akkar. After his departure, monastic life ended at Dayr al-Natour.
During the twentieth century, the deserted monastery became a refuge for shepherds from the neighboring regions. In 1973, Sister Catherine al-Jamal moved to Dayr al-Natour and began to restore it from its ruin.
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