Day 1:  Departure

With spirits high, bags packed, and passports in hand, our group of 33 pilgrims rendezvoused at Mundelein Seminary on the day of departure.  Joy was contagious, as well as a nervous double-checking of last-minute travel items, papers and details.  All was in order and the time to depart had finally arrived after months of planning, praying, and preparation.  The anticipation and excitement was tangible as we headed out for the airport with a final wave and blessing from the Rector. 

An Introduction to & Background information on Turkey:  

Turkey is a country which is 99% Moslem, and the remaining one percent is a mix of Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Catholics, and Jews.  Despite the predominance of Islam, the Turkish people are generally very open and welcoming to tourists and visitors, especially as Tourism is the third largest industry in Turkey.  Other major industries in Turkey are figs (in which Turkey holds 80% of world market), seedless grapes (25% of world market), oranges, olives, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts and marble.

On the political side, the republic of Turkey, as it now exists, was established in 1923.  Politically, the people vote every five years for the Prime Minister, who holds most of the political power.  The country also has a president, who is chosen by Parliament, who serves 7-year term.

As a bridge between Asia and Europe, throughout history Turkey has been an important trade route and center of commerce between the two continents.  97% of Turkey lies south or east of Istanbul and is in Asia, while only 3% is in Europe.  The land that is now Turkey has a history that dates back three thousand years, and the city which is now Istanbul has been the capital city for three major empires: the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.  In the early fourth century the Roman Emperor Constantine – the same emperor who recognized Christianity as a valid religion – relocated the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium (present-day Istanbul) so that he could better protect the Empire from potential military threats further in the east.

Day 2:  Arrival in Turkey

After a nine-hour trans-Atlantic flight, a three-hour layover, another three hour flight to Istanbul, plus the time differential from crossing eight time zones, and basically we had no idea exactly when we finally landed in Turkey; the only thing we knew for sure was that it was daytime and we were exhausted.  Despite this, our tour guide strongly encouraged us not to sleep until after dinner so that we could best overcome jet lag and adjust our internal body clocks to Turkey Time.  After a nice Turkish buffet dinner in our hotel, we were more than ready to retire to our rooms early for a restful night’s sleep.

Day 3:  Antakya (Antioch on Orontes)

Wasting no time whatsoever in beginning our pilgrimage, we boarded an early morning flight from Istanbul to southeastern Turkey, where we boarded a bus bound for the city of Antakya, which was the thriving Roman imperial city of Antioch on the Orontes river. 

In the Apostolic era, Antioch was the most important city for the early Church; it was in Antioch that those who followed the Way of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26).  This city became the home base for St. Paul, from which he was went out on three missionary journeys to share the Gospel message with the Gentiles.  In St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he tells us that he sees his mission to the gentiles as analogous to Peter’s mission of preaching the Gospel to the Jews in other cities. 

After the fall of the Empire to the Muslims in the mid-fifteenth century (1451?), almost all aspects of Christianity were destroyed in Antioch.  The only remaining monument of any kind in Antakya is the Church of St. Peter.  While Christendom knows that Sts. Peter and Paul had both ended up in Rome, where they were both martyred under the persecutions of Emperor Nero.  There is a tradition that before he went to Rome, St. Peter was in Antioch for a period of time where he presided over the Christian community there as the first bishop of Antioch after the Council of Jerusalem.  (An account of the Council of Jerusalem can be read about in Acts 15.)

The Church of St. Peter in Antioch is a small church that was carved into the rockface in one of the cliffs overlooking the city.  While the church is many centuries old, it does not date all the way back to the Apostolic age. Successive generations carved the church into the cliff and named it in honor of St. Peter since he was the first bishop there.  The sanctuary contains a chair carved out of rock to represent the episcopal and apostolic authority that St. Peter had there.

Our group was greatly blessed to be able to celebrate the Eucharist in this Church of St. Peter, and it was a very moving experience.  Though still tired from our travels, the celebration of Mass in a place of such antiquity and significance was inspirational and invigorating – such a concrete connection to the earliest of Christian communities filled us with a sense of awe and majesty.  The mountain into which the church was carved offered a very real reminder of how permanent and unchanging Christ’s love is for us.  O Lord Jesus Christ, You are truly the Rock of our Salvation!

After Mass, we went to the Mosaic Museum in Antioch, which houses many mosaics, preserved in differing degrees of completeness.  Most of the mosaics were from houses of politicians or wealthy merchants, or from temples and monuments to pagan deities.  The presence of so many mosaics – some of which were quite detailed – illustrates the wealth and prosperity of Antioch in antiquity.

Day 4:  Tarsus

After a restful night’s sleep, our internal body clocks have adjusted much better to local time, and we were eager to continue our pilgrimage.  Our first stop today is Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul.

In the First Century, Tarsus was a thriving city on the Mediterranean seashore and vitally important for trade routes and commerce.  Hence, as a seaport gateway for the Roman Empire to eastern Asia, it was a valuable city.  Tarsus also had a political history and prominence that merited special status from the Roman Empire.  (Not the least of which was that citizens of Tarsus were granted full citizenship and rights of native Romans, a benefit of which Paul utilized in appealing to Rome after he was arrested and convicted in a territory of the empire.  It was also not permissible for Roman citizens to be crucified, which explains why Paul was beheaded and Simon Peter, a Galilean, was crucified.)

There is little in Tarsus that remains from the first century, but the foundation of his home and his well has been excavated.  We visited this site, which has been dedicated as a tourist site.  The well is indeed very old, but one can still draw water from it (we did, which came as a bit of a surprise to us).  The archeological excavation of Paul’s home was covered by glass windows, but because it was raining, it was difficult to see down into his house. 

While there was little remaining at the site, our group was still moved.  There was a sense of transcendence as we stood on the same ground that the great St. Paul once lived on.  Part of our daily routine includes listening to a Scriptural reading from the Acts of the Apostles or one of St. Paul’s letters, and when that was added to our presence in Tarsus, we felt a kind of closer connection with him.

Our next stop in Tarsus was the Church of St. Paul, which is a church that was built by the Crusaders in the middle ages, and has long been a site of pilgrimage for Christian travelers.  The church is now staffed by three Italian nuns.  The many Spanish speakers in our group were able to converse with them relatively well, as Spanish is very close to Italian.  The sisters told us that Mass is only celebrated once a month, and there is only one family in Tarsus that is officially Catholic.  But through some outreach at a nearby local university, there has been about 30 baptisms in the past year.  Unfortunately, those new converts must practice their faith in secret, for to divulge the fact of their conversion from Islam to Christianity would mean that they would lose their jobs and income.  We were saddened by these things, and felt richly blessed to live in a country where we have religious freedom and do not have those kinds of problems. 

The Church of St. Paul is technically a museum now, and the nuns are the museum curators, but we had been granted permission to celebrate the Holy Eucharist there.  Though the inside of the church itself was cool because of open-air windows, the atmosphere was nonetheless warm and inviting, especially as the sound of our singing was greatly amplified by the stone walls and vaulted ceiling.  The nuns joined us for Mass, and they were visibly moved with joy and bursting with happiness that they were able to celebrate Mass with us.  It was a great pleasure to hear their light and crisp female voices harmonize with our masculine singing as we chanted the Mass parts in Latin and sang the Salve Regina.

After Mass, the nuns invited us into their residence for refreshments.  Their hospitality was extraordinary, and they would have liked us to remain with them for a longer time, but they knew we were on a pilgrimage and had a schedule to keep.  While in their residence, they showed us into their small chapel, in which the Blessed Sacrament was reserved.  Many of us spent a bit of time in the chapel, praying to our Lord.  In such a Muslim-dominated country, it truly was a great pleasure to spend some time with Jesus in the tabernacle.  We knew it would be a rarity in Turkey to encounter our Eucharistic Lord in a Catholic chapel, so it was a blessing not taken for granted. 

Thus spiritually refreshed, we bade the sisters adieu and embarked on a several hour bus ride to our next stop: Capadoccia, a region in south-central Turkey.  The ride took us on a spectacular drive through the Toros Mountain range which runs along southern Turkey.