TITLU în română: O veche comunitate din Ierusalim şi moştenirea sa: creştinii siriaci din Oraşul Sfânt între amintiri istorice şi provocări viitoare
Subiect: Jerusalem exerts a force of attraction on every Christian community. Different Christian denominations have historically been, and are still today, part of the Christian culture of the Holy City: Catholics, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Copts and Ethiopians. Each denomination sought for their spiritual needs to be met as closely as possible to the area where the Passions of Christ transpired; the closer their sites were to the Holy Places of Jerusalem, the greater their supremacy over their confessional competitors. It was not only monks and clergy that sought to come in touch with the earthly Jerusalem, either, but also simple Christians, travellers and writers. Most monks were interested in seeing earthly Jerusalem, but some, rather than see the walls of the Holy City and its holy places, preferred to meditation on the heavenly Jerusalem instead. This paper will begin from the above premise, and will introduce the reader to the heritage of Syriac Christians in Jerusalem. It will analyze the way in which these Christians belonged to a tradition shaped in the Holy Land and bequeathed them through their own identity and, respectively, how these are expressed, adapted and narrated in specific literary sources.
