St. Aho the ascetic +524

St. Aho the ascetic +524

Commemorated annually on the Monday after New Sunday (had'bshabo hadto). Mor Aho was born around 419 A.D. in the city of Rish'aino (Ras ul-'ayn now), which is to the south & east of Nisibis in present day Syria near Hassekeh, his father's name was 'Ubadyo. Aho was one of his three children. At the age of twelve he became the disciple of a local monk, & the Lord bestowed wisdom on the child & he was enlightened and became wiser than all the other children. Mor Aho Monastery/Dayro Daslibo(Monastary of the Cross) was founded in the 6th century AD by Mor Aho. He was trained by a local monk in the liturgy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, & founded the monastery after escaping from his conscription into the Persian army in 573. The reason why the monastery is also called the monastery of the Holy Cross is because the monastery of Mor Aho is one of many sites which claim to have a fragment of the Holy Cross. Legend states that at some point after the founding of the Monastery, Mor Aho found a fragment of the Holy Cross in either Jerusalem or Constantinople. He managed to steal the relic by hiding it inside of a wound in his leg. After placing the relic in his leg, The wound miraculously healed, allowing him to escape with the fragment unnoticed. The monastery’s main church was built over the supposed site of the relic, which is believed to of been buried in an undisclosed location in that area. Therefore, the relic can't be seen & no one knows exactly where it is. Mor Aho is also responsible for the conversion of four villages in the area of Malayta, & for the foundation of another monastery in Tur Abdin. He died at an old age, & his tomb is located beneath the Monastery. Dayro d-slibo aka Mor Aho Monastery had to be abandoned during the Aramean Genocide (Sayfo) perpetrated by the Turks in 1915. http://www.soc-wus.org/ourchurch/St.%20Aho.htm