Umm al-Zinar Church in Homs hosts “Francis and the Sultan” Exhibition

The exhibition of “Francis and the Sultan”, which toured a number of governorates and landed today in the Church of Umm al-Zinar in Old Homs,  marks a meeting that took place between Sultan al-Kamel al-Ayyubi and Saint Francis  Assisi in the year 1219. This meeting presented  a real opportunity for rejecting  violence and wars that have raged in our region for two centuries, and calling for a peaceful life.

According to Rawad Zeno, the exhibition’s official in Syria, the exhibition includes a number of paintings embodying an era dating back to the meeting between Sultan al-Kamel and Saint Francis in a time of bloody wars, where they reached treaties that are the first of their kind. Zeno noted that the exhibition is a message to the world that dialogue is the only way to peace and acceptance of the other.

Father Zuhri Khazal, priest of the Umm al-Zinar Church, indicated that the exhibition is an expression of the national unity among the Syrian people and an affirmation of the Syrians’ will that they are the sons of life despite the harsh war that their country has passed through.

Khazal appreciated the efforts of all the parties that contributed to hold the exhibition, especially the Ministry of Culture and the Franciscan monks, who, through the exhibition, sent a message to the whole world that we are sons of peace and love.

Farhan Al-Naqoura, the exhibition supervisor in Homs, confirmed that the paintings in the exhibition reflect the one Syrian family in its entire spectrum throughout the ages, where we live together, no one cancels the other, we accept each other, and we talk.

Amal Farhat