Ishtartv.com - syriacpress.com

18/09/2025

BASHIQA, Nineveh Plain — Faithful from the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian churches gathered at the Monastery of Mar Mattai in Bashiqa, in the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq, to celebrate the Saint Day of St. Matthew. They were joined by residents of different faiths and backgrounds from the town itself and from its sister town Bahzani. 

The twin towns of Bashiqa-Bahzani are mainly inhabited by Yazidis and Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics and are located at the foot of Mount Mar Mattai. 

The commemoration featured solemn spiritual rites, most notably a festive Mass led by Metropolitan Timotheus Mousa al-Shamani, head of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Mar Mattai, inside the monastery’s centuries-old church—an enduring landmark of the region’s spiritual and cultural heritage.

The rituals also included the lighting of the traditional “Festival Flame,” symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness and the renewal of hope, filling the atmosphere with faith and joy. 

Clergy from various Christian denominations, together with a large gathering of believers and townspeople, joined the celebration, reflecting the spirit of coexistence and fraternity that defines the social fabric of the Nineveh Plain.