As a history writer and history fan, with a special love of old Asia, I have read, entranced, for years of the history in great ancient medieval times of the Nestorian Christian church.
Part of the world of medieval Persia and the great cosmipolitan world of medieval Uzbekistan, a rich and ancient land, for centuries the Nestorian church thrived across the interior of Asia.
This is a church that has left its legacy in many cultures and civilizations, from Greece to Egypt to China.
Today I was surfing Wikipedia and I clicked on the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Clicking on the article, I came face to face with the photo of a living man from my own time.
In awe I came face to face with the real, living reality of a still living Nestorian church, still alive and well in my own day.
This is what medieval pilgrims felt like viewing the relics of a legendary saint or Apostle.
This is an amazing, awesome feeling, in the original, Awe sense of the word.
This is a sense of sacred history on the grandest scale.
Not long before I was reading of the legendary staff of Moses, realizing that at one time this too was a real staff in our own real world.
It is no wonder that so many believing Christians have mistaken this sense of history for superstitious magic while viewing relics of saints.
There is real magic in the world, and this is one of the finest examples.
The real magic does not defy the laws of science, but is just as magical, if not more.
God bless you, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, and all your flock!
God loves you! All of you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson