Mar Mattai monastery

Dayro d-Mor Mattai is placed atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq and is 20 kilometers from Mosul. It is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence and is famous for its incredible library and sizeable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts. It is also the middle of an Archbishopric, with Bishop Mor Timothius Mousa A. Shamani serving. The monastery changed into based in 363 by the hermit Mar Mattai who had fled persecution in Amid under the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate.

According to Syriac culture, he was concerned in healing the sister of Mor Behnam and converting the brother and sister to Christianity. Their father, King Sinharib of Assyria to begin with killed his son and daughter but later recanted and awarded Mattai a place atop Mount Alfaf to set up his monastery. Mattai turned into quickly joined by using a small group of Syriac followers, and beneath his management that community evolved a real monastic ethos.