Bishops ask for the feast of Lebanese Martyrs to be reinstated

The clergy and faithful of Lebanon ask for the feast of ‘Lebanese Martyrs’ to be restored, celebrated on May 6 to commemorate the Lebanese nationalists kiled in Beirut on May 6, 1916. 

Maronite members of the episcopate, who met on Wednesday, May 6 in Bkerké for the monthly meeting chaired by Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, in the final communique of the meeting explicitly asked that the celebration of the feast of the martyrs is to be included in the list of national holidays and is also used to honor all those - military and civilian - who died and continue to die in the defense and service of the Lebanese homeland.

The Lebanese nationalists were killed on the orders of Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman wali of the Great Syria.  These  martyrs were partly Muslim and partly Christian, including the priest Youssef al-Hayek. They were sentenced to death by the Turks when the population of Lebanon was hit by a severe famine which caused 250 thousand deaths, without receiving aid from the Ottoman Empire.

"During the years when Rafik Hariri was Prime Minister - explains to Fides Bishop Francois Eid, Patriarchal Maronite Attorney to the Holy See - relations with Turkey had intensified and Erdogan and the Turks had asked to abolish this feast. In fact, from 2007 to 2014 the official celebrations of the feast was interrupted. But this year May 6, the mothers of Lebanese soldiers killed in recent times and those of the military kidnapped by jihadists gathered in front of the monument in Martyrs' Square. They filled the whole area with flowers and posters to remind the government that the Lebanese martyrs have to be celebrated even if the Turks do not want to. The Maronite Church supports the need to restore a national feast for the martyrs, and that can help preserve the unity of the Lebanese people".