About the House of Saint Ananias (Hanania Church) in Damascus, Syria:
The House of Saint Ananias is under the auspices of Syriac Maronite Church (an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome). It is reputedly the remains of the home of Ananias of Damascus, where Ananias baptized Saul:
“When Ananias went in to Saul and laid his hands on him, the “scales” of dead tissue on the surface of his eyes fell off, and he looked up at Ananias. After additional instruction, Saul was baptized” (Acts 9:18; Acts 22:16).
The remains of Ananias are allegedly below the Zoravor Church in Yerevan, Armenia.
Some accounts declare that straightaway the house of Ananias became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for the first Christians, so that – as for the other Holy Places linked to the life of Jesus – the Emperor Adrian had a pagan temple built, to remove the Christians’ worship. The house is on top of the remains of the Byzantine church of the Holy Cross of the 5-6th century, found during the excavations conducted by the Count Eustachio De Lorey in 1921.
In 1347, from the account of the Franciscan Poggibonsi, we know that the church was converted into a mosque and that only later was it transferred to the Christians. According to the Arab writer Ibn Shaker, the Caliph Walid I gave it in exchange for the church of St John the Baptist, which became part of the Mosque of the Omayyads, today the main place of worship in Damascus. In the following centuries, the house of St Ananias became a place of worship for Christians and Turks, as stated by the Franciscan friar Antonio Di Castillo: “The Turks who look after it keep many lamps lit.”
At the end of the 12th century, the house of Ananias was once again converted into a mosque, until 1820, when the Custody of the Holy Land obtained its return. The chapel was rebuilt in 1867 (it had been razed to the ground in 1860) and then renovated in 1973.
Traveling to the House of Saint Ananias (Hanania Church) in Damascus, Syria:
The building is at the end of the Street Called Straight near the Bab Sharqi. The house is actually a crypt made up of two rooms, accessible from a staircase of 23 steps.
Address: G869+G2F, Damascus, Syria
Phone: +963 945 945 081