Mar Matti Monastery

 place with historical importance, monastery, Orthodox church, Syriac Orthodox Church

Mar Matti Monastery (Saint Matthew's Monastery,Arabic,دير مار متي) is located atop Mount Maqloub in northern Iraq. About 20 kilometers from Mosul, Mar Matti was founded in AD 363 by an Assyrian Christian called Matti (Syriac for Matthew) who was fleeing persecution from Diyarbakır, in what is today Turkey. Matti joined a small Assyrian community already located atop Maqloub and under his leadership it became a true monastic community. It is today noted as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence. It is further noted for a considerable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts.
Today, the monastery is currently maintained by the Syriac Orthodox Church. Every year, Christians of various church denominations gather in the monastery on September 14 to commemorate the day of Saint Matti's death.