By Judith Sudilovsky, OSV New0073
JERUSALEM OSV News – The historic altar of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem has been unveiled for the first time in nearly 350 years, following an extensive restoration.
The Jan. 11 reveal showcased intricate gold-leaf details and baroque decorations long hidden beneath layers of damage and past repairs.
It was unveiled in front of members of the community and diplomats after two years of work by a team of Mexican restoration experts from the María Visión Mexican Catholic TV channel.
Archbishop Mor Anthimos Jack Yakoub, the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, Jordan and the Holy Land, said the completion of the work by the five-man team was nothing short of a miracle and included an eight-month break following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities and the ensuing two-year war.
According to Syriac Orthodox tradition, the monastery is the site of the house of Mark, where Jesus instructed Peter and John to prepare the Passover meal and is believed to be the location of the Upper Room where the Last Supper, washing of the disciples’ feet, post-Resurrection appearances, and Pentecost occurred, strengthening the first church, he noted.
“From here the first church was strengthened and the Gospel went forth to all peoples by the power of the Spirit. Today we inaugurate a historical wooden structure that is far more than an artistic masterpiece,” Archbishop Yakoub said.
The community had long wanted to restore the altarpiece, whose vibrant color had unwittingly been muted by chemical gold spray long ago by unknown work. An inscription at the top of the altar attests to the last official restoration having taken place in 1733, and Archbishop Yakoub said that studies of the altar have shown that it may be 400 years old.
The unique work is distinguished by gilded wooden intricate eastern floral decorations, slender columns with small arches and capitals. Its carvings are like “silent prayers,” the archbishop said. Tests by an Italian restoration team working on restoration at the Church of Nativity revealed the original gold leaf, silver leaf and the beautiful colors beneath. Crucially, however, the altarpiece was also found to be infested with termites and predicted to collapse within a year without intervention.
The price tag for the restoration work – almost half a million euros, or almost $600,000 – was however too steep for the small community.
A “providential encounter” with Emilio Burillo, director general and founder of María Visión television, during a Christian unity prayer event streamed from St. Mark, opened the doors to a “miracle of providence,” Archbishop Yakoub said, and Burillo committed the restoration team of María Visión to the work needed free of charge.
María Visión supports a workshop in Mexico that restores sculptures and paintings for churches for free.
Beyond the altarpiece, the project included the church’s holy altar, its decorations and domes, all church icons and their frames, the episcopal throne, the baptistery and its dome, and two wooden cabinets added in 1851, as well as the restoration of the Miraculous Icon of the Virgin Mary, which according to the Syriac Orthodox tradition was painted by St. Luke.
The restoration required “devotion and precision,” said Archbishop Yakoub, and the structure was meticulously dismantled, documented, treated, restored and reassembled piece by piece.
While no written information or documentation exists about the origin or craftsmen who created the original altarpiece, restorer Carlos Lozoya said they believe the baroque-style altar was designed and made by European craftsmen because of its unique style which combines a Catholic-style altarpiece together with a Middle Eastern-style “Iconostasio.”
All the restoration was conducted on site, and a unique gold-leaf frame was especially created in Mexico for the Miraculous Icon of the Virgin Mary, which depicts the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, and brought to Jerusalem.
Prior to that, the icon was displayed in the chapel underneath the church with no glass covering and was damaged by years of dust and smoke from candles placed next to the icon, which had never been restored before, he said.
Though the community’s tradition holds that the icon was painted by St. Luke in the first century, the restoration team has sent samples to experts in Madrid for a better sense of the icon’s age – and results should be coming later in January, said Lozoya, who as an expert in painting restoration worked alone on the icon’s two-month-long restoration process.
“(The icon) was very, very dark and almost lost the image of the child,” he said. After careful testing they were able to determine the best chemical combinations to strip off the extra layers of varnish, dirt and grime to reveal the original colors underneath, without damaging the icon, Lozoya said.
The community was initially surprised by the extent of the restoration and is now very happy with the outcome, he said, having been kept informed throughout the process.
“It was really a challenge to make the restoration because it’s the most important piece of this monastery because (the community) believes that St. Luke painted this Virgin Mary, and of course, it has real value as a painting,” he said.
A devout Catholic, Lozoya said he felt the hand of Mary guiding him as he restored the revered icon.
“Imagine the responsibility I (felt) to do this. I was very nervous when I started, but I believe truly the Virgin Mary guided my hands to do it. And we found the perfect combination of chemicals to do it without damaging the fabric,” he said. “When I started the cleaning and step-by-step, I discovered the face and the real colors of the Virgin, it was amazing. I felt like the Virgin Mary was helping me.”
Gabriela Flores, director of María Visión Mexico thanked the many donors who made the project possible, allowing, she said, the sacred space to be revitalized not just physically, but as a “living place for prayer, memory and encounter.”
She told those gathered at the church that the project was more than just a work of restoration. It is underscored as a fundamental tool for the conservation and dissemination of material and religious history, serving to “preserve memory, transmit identity and continue the legacy of faith received,” she said.
“Dedicating a house of God is an act of faith and to care for the sacred is to honor the service to which it is dedicated,” she said. “It is a testimony of a living faith and an example of Christian unity.”
Judith Sudilovsky writes for OSV News from Jerusalem.