Mor Gabriel Monastery

Overview

Monks have prayed on this limestone plateau since the year 397. Mor Gabriel Monastery, near Midyat in southeastern Turkey, was founded in 397, and monks still live here today. Its bell towers still rise over the plateau of Tur Abdin, and the monks still sing the liturgy in Syriac.

Inside the walls you find a 6th-century church with rare Byzantine mosaics, a brick dome linked to Empress Theodora and a crypt where the community buried its bishops sitting upright. So come with time and respect, because this is a working monastery and a school, not a museum.

Mor Gabriel, the Oldest Living Syriac Monastery

The monastery stands near the village of Güngören in the Midyat district of Mardin province. The plateau around it, the Tur Abdin, has been the heartland of Syriac Orthodox Christianity for centuries. Mor Gabriel is also the seat of the Metropolitan of Tur Abdin.

The complex has two parts: the lower historic section and the upper buildings added in the last century. Visitors are welcome, and the monastery receives tens of thousands of guests a year.

Sixteen Centuries of Prayer

The founding of Mor Gabriel

The monk Shmuel fled into these hills in the late 4th century and settled near the village of Qartmin. There his disciple Shem’un saw an angel in a vision, who told him to build a place of prayer further west. Together they founded the monastery in 397, on a site where an older, pre-Christian temple had stood.

Its fame grew quickly. Roman emperors from Arcadius and Honorius to Theodosius II and Anastasius sent gifts, and by the 6th century more than 1,000 monks lived here. Later, four patriarchs of the Syriac Orthodox Church studied at the monastery.

Bishop Gabriel and a new name

In the 7th century, Bishop Gabriel of Beth Qustan led the church of Tur Abdin. During the Arab conquests he agreed terms with the new rulers that protected the Christians of the region. After a plague killed 94 monks in 774, his memory grew even stronger, and from then on the monastery carried his name.

Centuries of raids

The monastery survived many attacks. Persian forces burned it in 580, raiders pillaged it in 1100, and the Tatars struck in 1296. In 1394 the armies of Tamerlane came, and more than 500 people who had hidden in a nearby cave died when his men set it on fire. Still, the local community helped rebuild the monastery in 1502.

Mor Gabriel in modern times

During the Sayfo, the Assyrian genocide of 1915, the monks of Mor Gabriel were killed and the monastery was occupied. It returned to the Syriac Orthodox Church in 1919, and in 1936 the Turkish Republic registered it as a religious foundation. Between 1962 and 1971 a road, electricity and a seminary arrived.

Things to See at Mor Gabriel

The Church of Anastasius

The founders began the main church in 397 as a simple house of prayer. Then Emperor Anastasius I paid to complete it in 512. Unusually, the barrel-vaulted church runs across its width, not along its length. In the sanctuary, its mosaics show patterns and plants but no people or animals. Together with those at Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, they are the only surviving 6th-century Byzantine mosaics east of Constantinople.

The Dome of Theodora

Beside the main church rises an eight-sided building with a brick dome 17 meters (56 feet) high. It probably served first as a baptistery and later as a kitchen. Tradition links it to Empress Theodora, the wife of Justinian, who supported the non-Chalcedonian churches and visited Qartmin. Her husband built Hagia Sophia in the same century.

The House of Saints at Mor Gabriel

Beth Qadisheh, the House of Saints, is the burial chamber of the monastery. Metropolitans, abbots and priests rest here in a seated position, facing east, because the faithful believed the Resurrection would come from the east. The tomb of Saint Gabriel is here too, and the chamber is honored as the resting place of the relics of 12,000 saints and martyrs.

The Church of the Virgin Mary

A long vaulted passage in front of the Dome of Theodora leads to this smaller church. Its first building dates from the 5th century, and it has three barrel-vaulted naves. When the main church was closed, the monks held services here instead.

Midyat and the Syriac Villages

Mor Gabriel is still home to a small community. Today the Metropolitan of Tur Abdin lives here with a few monks, nuns and boys who come to study the Syriac language and the church’s teachings. The monastery also remains a social center for the Christians who still live in Tur Abdin.

How to Visit Mor Gabriel

Getting to Mor Gabriel

• From Midyat: the monastery lies a short drive southeast of the town.
• From Mardin: combine it with the old town of Mardin and the stone houses of Midyat.
• Further north: continue to the 12th-century Malabadi Bridge near Silvan.

Local tips for Mor Gabriel

• Dress modestly, because this is an active monastery and a place of prayer.
• Keep your voice low in the churches and the House of Saints.
• Visit its sister monastery near Mardin, the Saffron Monastery of Deyrulzafaran, seat of the patriarchs until 1932.
• Go back to the beginning at the Mor Yakup Church in Nusaybin, built by Saint Jacob of Nisibis in the 4th century.
• Visit with us: your guide tells the story of Mor Gabriel on the way.

For another monastery with a long history, see Sumela Monastery on the Black Sea coast.

Our Mardin and Midyat tour ends the day here, after the old town of Mardin and the Saffron Monastery. Book it as a private day from Mardin, and we plan the drive back around your visit.