Last Christians gather in ruins of Turkey's quake-hit Antakya |
Saint Peter's, one of the world's oldest rock churches, is a sacred rallying point for the isolated Christians still left in quake-hit Antakya in southeastern Turkey, the city known in ancient times as Antioch.
"Since the earthquake, our community has scattered," said worshipper Mari Ibri.
"Those who remain are trying to regroup. We each had our own church but, like mine, they have been destroyed."
The landscape around the cave remains scarred by the disaster nearly three years ago, when two earthquakes devastated Hatay province on February 6, 2023 and its jewel, Antakya, the gateway to Syria.
Sad fields of rubble and the silhouettes of cracked, abandoned buildings still scar the city -- all enveloped in the ever-present grey dust.
Since the earthquakes, Antakya city has emptied and the Christian community has shrunk from 350 families to fewer than 90, Father Dimitri........