Two historic churches in Mosul, Iraq, have officially reopened after years of restoration, nearly a decade after their destruction during the Islamic State’s occupation. The reconsecration ceremonies marked a rare moment of revival for the region’s dwindling Christian population. Hundreds of worshippers gathered for the reopening and consecration ceremonies, attending prayers amid the rebuilt halls.

The Saint Thomas Syriac Orthodox Church dating back to the 7th century, and the Al-Tahira Church of the Chaldeans which was built in the 18th century, were both inaugurated following their reconstruction which came as part of the “Revive the Spirit of Mosul” initiative, launched in 2018, by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Iraqi authorities. Reconstruction efforts for the churches began in 2023.

Fadi, a 27-year-old Christian from Mosul who trained for three years to help the restoration project, told Vatican News that the reopening’s are “a sign of hope” for displaced Christians. “It shows the Christians living abroad that things are better here now, that they can move back home,” he said. 

Mosul’s Christian population, once 14% of the city, has now shrunk to fewer than 60 families in a city of nearly 2 million, reports the Catholic non-profit media outlet Zenit.

“These churches are not just stones. They are the memory of faith, history, and community,” Archbishop Najeeb Michael Moussa, the Chaldean bishop of Mosul, was quoted as saying after the ceremony.

The restoration, he added, showed that “faith can be wounded but not extinguished,” and that each bell strike “calls not only the faithful, but the future.”

Teams first cleared mines and explosives from the sites before beginning reconstruction. Among the carefully restored features was the 13th-century alabaster door of Saint Thomas, carved from local marble known as farsh and depicting Christ with the twelve apostles.

Church bells cast by the Cornille Havard foundry in Normandy now ring out again over Mosul. The same foundry restored the bells of Notre-Dame de Paris, Zenit notes. 

Inscriptions on the bells include the phrases “The truth will make you free” and “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”