Monk, rescuing history from ISIS

Monk, rescuing history from ISIS

The American monk Columba Stewart already for thirteen years, save the ancient manuscripts from various natural disasters. Recently the main threat to the preservation of manuscripts was the work of the Islamic state, which destroys everything that is not written in the Koran. Therefore, a monk of the Benedictine order is trying to save not only Christian artifacts, but Muslim. The theme of ancient texts range from poetry to medical treatises.

Me ha impactado muchísimo este artículo de @elpaissemanal sobre la ONG de este monje @ColumbaStewart @visitHMML digitaliza manuscritos antiquísimos amenazados por el tiempo o la barbarie. De los 6.000 digitalizó en Irak que ya se han perdido 2.000.https://t.co/pFukVuEPgc pic.twitter.com/LbcbMk5GT4

— Ángel Madrid (@AngelMadrid) December 25, 2017

Process safety is photographing and digitizing ancient documents. So it was a faster, the monk has learned to use the camera and local.

At first, the inhabitants of Syria and Iraq were skeptical of father Columba. They rooted opinion that Westerners only want to cash in on the antiquities of these regions. But the black monastic cassock has played its diplomatic role. Over time, the residents were convinced that the American does not pursue selfish goals.

Now the Holy father a whole army of assistants-photographers in different countries. The locals take pride in their work. Because thanks to her, they were able to touch the ancient history of their peoples.

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Physically, all objects remain in local museums and libraries of their countries. Library, Hill Museum & Manuscript of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota sent only photocopies. At this point in American library houses nearly 150 thousand copies of ancient manuscripts. A total of fifty million pages. The oldest text dates from X century.

«Hot spots» in the middle East activities of a Benedictine monk is not limited. India was photographed about ten thousand manuscripts, made on palm leaves. In Ethiopia has been digitized one of the oldest manuscripts of the gospel of Garima IV-VII centuries.

In Mali in 2013, photographers, risking their own lives, shot over 300 thousand pages of Islamic manuscripts. The fact that the year before, the country’s capital, Timbuktu was captured by the terrorists of «al-Qaeda», and many ancient documents were under threat of extinction. The originals of many manuscripts made in Iraq from 2009 to 2014, now destroyed.

The final goal of the monk is to bring together in one place the complete collection of ancient texts. In addition, this collection, according to the father of Columbus, should promote understanding between different peoples and beliefs.

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