Mar Petyun is the Chaldean Catholic Church of Saint Pethion in Diyarbakır’s historic Sur district. Its stone buildings, manuscript collection and recent reopening document both the religious life and the changing circumstances of the city’s Chaldean community.
Saint Pethion and the date of the building
HMML identifies Mar Petyun as the Church of Saint Pethion. [1] Sonay Arslanboğan and Semra Hillez’s 2011 architectural survey states that the exact construction date is unknown. It reports a seventeenth-century attribution and interprets the inscription dated 1834 above an entrance as a repair date. [2] The inscription therefore supplies evidence of work on an existing building.
A complex of courtyards and stone rooms
The survey describes the church, residential accommodation and three courtyards as a connected complex. Basalt is its principal material, supplemented by timber, lime mortar and other materials. Its basilical church plan, carved entrance details and bell tower belong to the local architectural vocabulary. [2] The published survey records the site before the destructive fighting of 2015 and the subsequent restoration. Its photographs and plans preserve evidence against which later changes can be compared.
The archive behind the monument
On 23 May 2024, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library announced completion of cataloguing for 31 manuscripts in the CHAL collection. Many are account books and registers of baptisms, deaths and other events, documenting nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chaldean life. Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Syriac are represented. [1] One partial manuscript, CHAL 00031, preserves Ibn al-Mahrumah’s medieval Arabic Glosses, a work concerned with Christian, Jewish and Muslim dialogue. The collection thus connects community records with devotional and learned writing.
The reopening of 14 October 2023
Writing in Présence in January 2024, Archbishop Sabri Anar described the reopening on 14 October 2023 after restoration following the 2015 conflict. More than one hundred people travelled from France for the occasion, according to his account. He also identified the complex’s earlier importance as a patriarchal residence, including the period 1681–1828, and recalled the community’s later emigration. [3] His article is a church participant’s account of restored worship and the involvement of families living abroad.
Shelter after the February earthquakes
DHA reporters Mesut Budraç and Gıyasettin Tetik visited the church after the February 2023 earthquakes. Their report of 12 February describes guest rooms being used for displaced people, including a mother and daughter from Hatay. Volunteer Maria Karadayı and Sohram-Der’s Mim Yavuz Binbay discussed accommodation, food and cooperation with the church foundation. [4] This relief work occurred earlier in the same year as the formal reopening ceremony.
A dated note on church leadership
Anar’s article records the reopening during his tenure. L’Osservatore Romano subsequently reported his death in Paris on 17 October 2026. Its notice dates his appointment to the Chaldean archbishopric of Diyarbakır to May 2023 and his episcopal ordination to July that year. [5]
Sources and further reading
- Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, 31 Manuscripts from Mar Petyun Keldani Kilisesi in Diyarbakır, Turkey, Are Now Cataloged in Reading Room, 23 May 2024; dedication and CHAL collection.
- Sonay Arslanboğan and Semra Hillez, Diyarbakır Kiliseleri, in Medeniyetler Mirası Diyarbakır Mimarisi, edited by İrfan Yıldız, 2011, pages 397–400; architectural survey and 1834 repair inscription.
- Archbishop Sabri Anar, Ouverture de l’église chaldéenne Mar Petyun à Diyarbakır, Présence, January 2024; first-person church account of the October 2023 reopening, patriarchal history and diaspora participation.
- Mesut Budraç and Gıyasettin Tetik, Diyarbakır’daki Mar Petyun Keldani Kilisesi, Kapılarını Depremzedelere Açtı, DHA, 12 February 2023; on-site reporting and interviews about earthquake relief.
- L’Osservatore Romano, Lutti nell’episcopato, 17 October 2026; official Vatican newspaper notice concerning Archbishop Sabri Anar.