Carmelite nun from Syria describes pain of civil war :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Denver, Colo., Nov 21, 2013 / 05:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross, a Lebanese-born nun who has lived nearly 20 years in Syria, is travelling the U.S. advocating for peace and reflecting on how the conflict has affected life in the region.

It is “terribly, tremendously” difficult to be living away from her community in Syria, she reflected Nov. 17. “We have a very, very familiar way of communitarian life, and our community is in need, it's a new community. We were founded in 2000, so they need their superior, they need their mother. But the Lord has supplied: they are like heroes; I consider this community to be heroes.”  Mother Agnes is the superior of St. James the Mutilated monastery in Qarah, located 60 miles north of Damascus on the road to Homs.

Qarah, which was captured by the Syrian regime two days after Mother Agnes spoke with CNA, had been under the control of the Free Syrian Army, a moderate rebel group, for over a year.
The monastery is home to 20 nuns of the Unity of Antioch, and is also sheltering 32 Sunni refugees from al-Qusayr, she told CNA. Because of the violent unrest in the area, she cannot return to the monastery.

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Carmelite nun from Syria describes pain of civil war :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)