Gardens of Figs: Living memorial to Syria’s disappeared and tribute to Father Paolo

DEIR MAR MUSA, Syria — On a rocky hillside overlooking the town of Al-Nabek in Syria’s Qalamoun Mountains, a quiet gathering unfolded at the ancient monastery of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi. Activists, families, and friends came together not for protest or prayer alone, but to preserve memory. Under the banner of a new initiative, Gardens of Figs, they sought to honor the forcibly disappeared and pay tribute to a man whose absence still resonates: Father Paolo Dall’Oglio.

The initiative, rooted in environmental symbolism and deeply personal storytelling, transforms the monastery’s grounds into a living archive. Wooden plaques bearing the names of the missing — those lost to prisons, war, or simply time — were gently fastened to fig trees and wooden posts. Among them was a plaque for Father Paolo, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa 12 years ago, placed beside one commemorating filmmaker Basel Shehadeh, killed in Hmoth (Homs) by an airstrike in 2012.

At the heart of the ceremony was a memorial mass led by Syriac Catholic Bishop of Hmoth, Hemto (Hama), and Al-Nabek Mar Julianos Yaqub Murad. Marking the twelfth anniversary of Father Paolo’s disappearance at the hands of the Islamic State, Bishop Murad delivered a message of remembrance and moral clarity.

 

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“We are here to express what words alone cannot — our gratitude and fidelity to a man who served this monastery and this land with devotion, whether he remains a prisoner or has become a martyr,” he said.

“What will save Syrians today is not weapons or revenge,” he continued, “but awareness, solidarity, and a rejection of the logic of violence. Only this path can restore dignity and peace.”

Organizers describe Gardens of Figs as a seed for an alternative collective memory — one that does not rely on official archives or state-sanctioned narratives, but instead grows from stories, longing, and grief. The project aims to create a physical space for remembrance that is both intimate and public — a sanctuary for names, even when bodies are lost.

Father Paolo, who spent more than three decades in Syria promoting interfaith dialogue and reconciliation, was instrumental in restoring Deir Mar Musa from ruin into a vibrant spiritual and cultural retreat. The monastery became known for its hospitality to both Muslims and Christians, a rare space of shared reflection in an increasingly fractured country.

His disappearance in 2013 — believed to have occurred while he was attempting to negotiate the release of hostages in ISIS-controlled Raqqa — remains unresolved. No confirmed sightings or evidence of his fate have emerged in the years since. For many Syrians, his absence is not just a mystery but an open wound.

In recent years, Deir Mar Musa has taken on renewed significance, not only as a place of prayer but as a symbol of coexistence and conscience. The Gardens of Figs seeks to carry forward that legacy — an effort to remember not only Father Paolo but also the thousands of others whose names have faded from headlines yet remain etched in hearts.

At the close of the ceremony, silence hung over the valley. The sound of footsteps on gravel and fig leaves rustling in the breeze marked the only movement as visitors paused before the plaques, each inscribed with a name and, in many cases, nothing more.

One small wooden sign, faded by sun and time, carried a single word: “Still waiting.”