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=> Re: atomic christianity

Re: atomic christianity
Posted by Ishty (Guest) - Tuesday, December 23 2003, 20:34:28 (EST)
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Hear below is proves that Christinsanity is the onlt true religion!!


Sultanmahdokht

The church of St. Sultanmahdokht was built in 319 AD, and is the centre of much local legend. Her feast is celebrated on May 15th and her commemoration on January 12th. Her feast once used to last 15 days and often attracted as much as 1,500 people, many of them from Hakkiari.

Her story goes like this:

Sultan-mah-dokht was the daughter of Folar the Persian governor of Erbil and was betrothed to the Persian Emperor. She and her brothers, Mihra-narsai and Adham-parwaz, would go out horse-riding for fun usually setting up camp with their guards outside Araden. On their way back from one of these outings, Mihra-narsai fell off his horse and broke his leg, fainting immediately.

In tears Sultan-mah-dokht and Adham-parwaz carried Mihra-narsai, who they thought was dead, to Araden. The villagers all came out to greet them and see what was wrong, among them their bishop, Mar ‘Awdona.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“He’s dead!” answered Sultan-mah-dokht.
“Then why don’t you pray to God that he may live?”
“God? Which God? I am a Zoroastrian. We have many Gods.”
“The one and only God who created the universe and all in it, and who sent his only son to die for our sins. If I heal your brother, will you worship my God?”
“Yes.” she finally replied bowing her head.

Mar ‘Awdona then healed Mihra-narsai who, upon awaking from his state of amnesia, was startled. While he was unconscious he had seen a vision of heaven, with Jesus commanding Mar ‘Awdona to baptize him and his siblings and bring them to Him.

“I just saw you and another man talking in a dream!” exclaimed the amazed Mihra-narsai.

He immediately believed and was indeed baptized with Sultan-mah-dokht and Adham-parwaz. After this the three went to the mountains behind the village and lived near a spring in cells carved in the rock. They did not return home.

Their father sent a whole army, which spent 3 years looking for them throughout the region. Two of the soldiers went to Araden. They were frightened upon seeing light streaming from the cells of the three saints. Sultan-mah-dokht came out of her cell and reassured them, telling them not to be scared, “My brothers and I are here.”

“Come back to Erbil,” the soldiers began, “your father is looking for you.”
“We cannot,” she replied, “we have another father now.”

The soldiers returned to Erbil and told the governor that they had seen his children, but they would not return as they have become Christians. Upon hearing this he again sent a commander with a division to bring his children back quickly, as any Persian that became Christian would be killed and burnt to ashes.

The commander returned empty handed. They had again refused to come home. This time, Folar himself set out to return his children. Again this attempt was unsuccessful. He sent magicians to enchant them into returning. The Emperor advised him that if they do not return on the next attempt then they should be killed.

The commander that had been sent by the governor the first time was so amazed by the faith of Sultan-mah-dokht and her brothers that he too was converted to Christianity. With him, Sultan-mah-dokht sent a message to the Catholicos Mar Shimun Bar-Sabbaye in Seleucia-Ctesiphon asking for advise. His reply was to be strong and faithful to Christ. Sultan-man-dokht knew that the time had come for her and her brothers to become martyrs for the sake of Christ.

It was their last chance. Another commander and army division accompanied Folar to Araden.

“Kill us!” exclaimed Sultan-mah-dokht, “we will not return!”

But the commander was too scared to do so. In turn, his skin, and that of and his soldiers, became leprous. Sultan-mah-dokht then explained to them that unless they kill her and her brothers and wash in their blood, they will remain unclean for the rest of their lives.

So, the commander beheaded Sultan-mah-dokht after finally killed Mihra-narsai and Adham-parwaz in the presence of their father. It is said that their corpses promptly disappeared so that they could not be burned.

One night a few generations later, a shepherd saw something glowing in a thorn-bush in the mountains behind Araden. It turned out to be one of Sultan-mah-dokht’s bones. On asking advice from his employer, he was finally told that if it is money he can keep it – but if it is anything else then he should hand it in.

The shepherd returned to the bush, put the bone on the back of his she-camel and handed it in to his employer, who kept it in his home. Soon his wife gave birth to twins and his sheep began to increase unusually, and he began to grow wealthier. Attributing this phenomenon to the bone, he decided to build a church to St. Sultan-mah-dokht.

So he slept one night on a hill outside Araden, to see if it was good to build a church there, though as there was too much wind there he decided to build the church lower down below the hill. Even to this day, the name of the engineer who built the church, Audishu, remains inscribed on its massive corner stone.

Ever since, both Assyrians and Kurds come to this church to wish for children or to ask other favours of the saint. Others come to pass their children through a hole in the baptistery wall in order to obtain the saint’s blessings. Wish making here is done by placing a donation for the church under the large stone rolling pin and propping it up on its flat side.

It is said that once a Kurdish woman went up to the church roof and put her pack down to move the rolling pin. Seeing a gold coin, she took it and returned the pin to its original position. Upon going to take her pack, she found it stuck to the roof! Upon returning the coin she found her pack unstuck. So she put it down again and went for the coin, finding her pack again stuck to the roof! After a few more such attempts, she finally gave up!

Another time, some Kurds came to steal tobacco that the villagers had stored in the church’s narthex. Upon taking the sacks of tobacco they went to leave but could not find the door. Putting down the sacks, they were again able to find the door. Taking the sacks again to leave, they fell down flat after hitting the church’s stone wall. The door had again ‘disappeared’. After more such attempts, these too gave up.

Another Kurd needed firewood in the winter and travelled for miles to the church to steal its doors. He returned to find his home on fire. After more strange fire-related accidents kept on occurring in his house, he was finally convinced to return the doors.

Others have not been as lucky, as St. Sultan-mah-dokht is not always so forgiving. Once, a band of Kurdish robbers came to loot the church – more specifically to steal the saint’s crown. Coming to one of the tiny windows, the first of them looked in to see what treasures the shrine contained. The stones of the window suddenly began to close in on his neck, suffocating him until he was finally beheaded. His companions were startled to see his headless corpse drop down to the floor.

Shocked, they looked in the windows to see who had killed him. They too, one by one were also beheaded – only one of them escaping to tell the tale. The blood of those dead Kurds remains today staining the wall under the windows. It is said that however much the stains are cleaned, and however much the wall is whitewashed, the blood stains continue to make themselves visible – a testimony to all as to how much of a crime it really is to rob such a holy place.



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