Dayro d'Mor Lo'ozor

Dayro d'Mor Lo'ozor

The Monastery of Mor Loʿozor (Lazarus) is a Syriac Orthodox monastery located on a ridge near the village of Habsenus in the historic region of Tur 'Abdin. While it has long been without a monastic community, the monastery is kept in good repair.

There are two primary narratives regarding the monastery's foundation. The first suggests it was founded by Mor Loʿozor, the bishop of Harran. The second, more detailed account comes from the biography of Shemʿun d'Zaite. According to this narrative, Shemʿun built a monastery and a stylite tower dedicated to Mor Loʿozor just outside Habsenus, placing the saint's bones, which he brought from Harran, within the monastery. The presence of a tower in the middle of the monastery today matches this description. An inscription on the tower provides a construction date of 791/792. This date is confusing, as the saint's biography indicates he died in 734. It is therefore possible that the current tower was built to replace Shemʿun’s original structure.

Interestingly, this radical ascetic practice of pillar saints, or stylitism, was still maintained in the region even after it came under Islamic rule in 640. The monastery's tower is a unique example of this, as it is not built of monolithic stones but of cut-stone courses with a hole in the middle. This hole is connected to channels on the rock surface of the courtyard, a creative architectural form for a seclusion tower. The monastery also contains elements that suggest an even earlier history. Some of its buildings, including the main church, may date back as far as the 5th or 6th century, suggesting a prior foundation on this site.

The main church, like many other monastic churches in Tur 'Abdin, features a transverse plan (in the north-south direction) but is notably small in scale. The large cut-stone blocks in the southern wall may be remnants of an earlier structure or repurposed stones (spolia). Adjacent to the outer face of the exterior wall, which appears to be older, are horseshoe-shaped piers and arches.

Status: Abandoned