Day 4: (September 16, 2017) Cedars Institute (Four Days)

Sites: The Cedars Forest, Cedars of Lebanon - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Departure to the Cedars Institute.

On our way to Cedars Institute, we made a stop at Tannourine which boasts of more than 26 religious sites including the Monastery of Saint Anthony the Great in Wata Houb and Saydet Harissa and the Crusader Church of Mar Challita in Tannourine Fawka, where the Saint is honored at an annual feast on August 20. We visited the Crusader Church. Tannourine is rich in rocky chapel caves like the Qadisha Valley’s Hermitage of Saint Serge with the remains of medieval frescos in Wata Houb. There is Saydet El Bzaz (Our Lady of the Breast) or Saydet El Chir (Our Lady of the Cliff), the Convent of Mar Doumit and the monastery in the middle of the cliff of Mar Yaacoub (Saint Jacques) in Tannourine Tahta.

On arrival at the Cedars Institute, we had a walking lecture of the Biblical Cedars Grove, Cedars of Lebanon. This was a beautiful forest, well arranged and guarded with a stone wall. A Church is located at the topmost end of the forest, and the altar, chairs and all furniture in the church were all made from Cedar wood. One of our professors – Dr. Joseph Rahme – the president of the Cedars Institute was baptized in the Church.