MARDIN: Forty Martyrs Church, Mor Behnam (Kırklar) Kilisesi

There are two miraculous events legends about this church.
Legend 1:
The first of these legends is the story of Mar Behnam and his sister Sarah.
Mor Behnam takes his sister Sara, who has incurable leprosy, to Mor Matay. Saro recovers shortly after. Behnam tells his father, Senharip, the governor, that Mor Matay has healed his sister. Senharip does not believe this and kills his children so that the incident is not heard; because for the governor, it is humiliating for his children to believe in a Christian Saint.
Later, Senharip fell ill because of the guilt and pain of killing his children. His wife takes him to Mor Matay, and just like his daughter Saro, he gets well. On behalf of Mar Behnam and his sister Sara, who was killed for showing God’s miracle and believing in Christianity, a church was built in Mardin in 539, the Mor Behnam Church.
Legend 2:
The other event is about 40 people who resisted the massacre of Christians by the Romans. These people were arrested, thrown into prison and tortured.
After a while, the Emperor, Dukius, took the resisters to Sivas. Because of his idea, he built a bath with an ice pond right next to it. Then he throws the 40 people into this ice pond. The Emperor’s thinks that they will give up on the cold (and abandon their belief) and go to the hot bath.
Only one of them leaves the ice pond for the hot bath. He dies on the spot. The other 39 people do not escape the cold and freeze to death.
Miraculously, 40 crowns appear in the sky. 39 of these crowns are on the people’s heads in the pond. The other one remained empty.
The soldier who was on watch in the bath, and witnessed this miracle, threw himself into the ice pond. He also freezes to death. The other crown that is left unoccupied also comes to the soldier. Forty people, including this soldier, froze to death; and they go down in history as “Forty Martyrs”. Over time, churches were built in their names. One of them is in Mardin.
When the Mardin Forty Martyrs Church, built on behalf of the second legend, was converted into a mosque by the Artuklu in 1170. Named Şehidiye Mosque, the church already was named as Mor Behnam and his sister Saro. The bones of the Forty Martyrs were brought to the church, and they gave the name Kırklar Church.
So the church is now known by two names, Kırklar Church and Mor Behnam and Sister Saro Church.
(Source: slowtravelguid...)
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