Mar Awtel

Holy Awtel , in Syria Mar Awtel , is a saint monk of the first centuries venerated with the the Middle East. It is celebrated the November 3rd (in particular by the Maronites), and the October 9th. A church is dedicated to him to the village of Kfarsghab in the Lebanon where he is celebrated on June 3rd but also on August 25th.

Life of Awtel saint

We have several poured for the life of Mar Awtel . We will reproduce hereafter the official version of the synaxaire Maronite as well as other versions presented by RP Youakim Moubarac.

Saint Awtel is celebrated by the Byzantine , the Jacobites and the Maronites. Its place and its birth date vary according to the sources. He was born in an unknown place in modern Turkey and at the 3rd century ap J. - C. for the synaxaire Maronite, he is originating in Lycie and he lived during the 6th century ap J. - C. for the other sources. Its feastday also varies according to the various traditions as we will see it below. But the majority of the sources allot corroborating acts to him: it has escaped with a forced marriage arranged by its family, it spent some time to Byzance, it delivered his travelling companions during a severe storm, it is turned over to its birthplace after the death of his parents and he finally became monk then hermit.

The version of the synaxaire Maronite ( Sinksar )

Celebrates: June 3rd

Mar Awtel was born in the middle of the 3rd century. Any young person, it was converted with Christianity and was baptized. He dedicated his virginity with God but his/her father wanted to marry it and break thus his vow of celibacy. To escape his father, it left for the town of Byzance.

During its voyage on the boat, it met a storm endangering the boat and the travellers on board. He requested and the boat was saved. Following that, those which were on board converted with Christianity and were baptized.

It remained during 20 years with Byzance until the death of his father, following what it returned to his house and became monk . He did many Miracle S, of which cure of a pagan man. This miracle was the reason of the conversion and the baptism of ten thousand pagan. After having been monk during 12 years, he became hermit until his death in 327.

The version of RP Louis Cheikho

RP Youakim Moubarac thus presents the version written by RP Louis Cheikho:

… It is the saint on the subject of which consulted us the archbishop of venerated memory, Mgr Joseph Debs by saying that its festival was celebrated in the Maronites on June 3rd and that a church is dedicated to him to the village of Kfarçgâb. We had answered Mgr in Maxreq, X, 1907,672-672. Then we found some information about Mar Awtel with the synaxaire of Jacobites, in handwritten copy belonging to Its Bliss the Patriarch Ignace Ephrem II Rahmani. It is also mentioned in the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemani (11,255) and in the calendar of Çlîba Jacobite (MRS 185-195), on October 9th and on June 3rd.
From all these relations one learns that Awtel or Awtilios was born in a city called Magdal or Magdaloun with the country from Lycie in minor Asia, at the 6th century after J.C.
His/her two parents were pagan but it was converted as of its young age, became Christian and flees of the paternal house to escape the marriage. It embarked and flees at the town of Moumista (probably Al-Maççîça) delivering its Co-passengers of a storm where they had perished. It came to Constantinople, carried out the ascetic life in one of its convents, then returned in its fatherland before spending a time in the area of Antioche, then in Lycie. At the end, he évangélisa the pagan ones of this area, baptized them and finished his life with the desert in a convent which he builds in the vicinity and where he remained until his death. In the calendar of the Church antiochienne of Al-Bîrûnî that we published in Maxreq VI, 1903,69, a martyr called Uwaytilyos is mentioned at September 23rd. But we could not say if it is Mar Awtel or another.

P.S. RP Youakim Moubarac

In post scriptum, RP Youakim Moubarac in above mentioned work adds the following precise details:

On finds moreover in the answer already made by the P. Cheikho to Mgr Debs in 1907, that the Byzantines would have called it, according to the P. Peeters, Agios Attaros and that they celebrated it between the 2 and on June 7th. It delivers its Co-passengers who wanted to reduce it in slavery while taking it along captive. According to the synaxaire jacobite, it remains 20 years in Constantinople, turns over in its country to dead of his parents, passes to Séleucie and Antioche before arriving in Lycie. It moves there towards a convent of Mar Âba (?), made monk there and operates miracles there. He leaves the convent because he did not want to be elected higher. He was been useful in his ultimate desert retirement by a man whom he had cured of a bite of snake (cf I. Mr. FIEY, o.c., p. 32)…

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