In the earthquake of Monday, a Catholic basilica collapsed in Iskenderun, south Turkey. Miraculously, a statue of the Virgin Mary remained intact in the church.

The statue of the Virgin was in the Annunciation Basilica, the most important church of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia.

In his Facebook post, Fr. Antuan Ilgit, a Jesuit priest from the parish, invited his followers to pray for them and their Christian community.

“It was a huge earthquake. We are uncertain about many things. But one thing is certain that our basilica is not there anymore,” he writes, adding, “thanks be to God, all the religious brothers and sisters are safe. We are doing our best to help those who come to us for help.”

In an earlier post, he shared that the whole community was shocked after the basilica collapsed mainly because they had celebrated holy Mass there the day before the earthquake. According to him, the most important thing for the moment is the reconstruction of the church.

Temporarily, the monastic brothers and sisters are living in the canteen belonging to the church. They have taken the Marian statue to the canteen to be with them in these difficult times.

“This statue gives us the force to be able to cope with the difficulties that await us”.

On Monday, the 6th of February, a 7.8 magnitude quake struck the southeastern part of Turkey and the northwestern part of Syria. There are more than 20 thousand casualties to date.

Source, photo: ACI Prensa

Címlapkép: Facebook/Antuan Ilgit