The golden threads and the painful history of Iraqi Christians: the stole they embroidered for Pope Francis to wear

Karjiya Baqtar meticulously embroidered with gold thread the Aramaic words of the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary in the purple stole that will hang around the neck of Pope Francis himself, during his historic visit to Iraq.

In blackberry, the Christian town in the heart of the Nineveh Plateau in northern Iraq, this Iraqi woman, who still speaks modern Aramaic in her everyday life, puts the finishing touches on her meaningful work.

On the fabric, embroidered the three crosses that the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group methodically destroyed when they entered Qaraqosh in June 2014 in vans with their black flag.

Sunday, when these men sowed terror and death, the Pope will come as a “pilgrim of peace” to “implore the Lord for forgiveness and reconciliation”, he said in a message to the Iraqis and in particular to the Christians of Qaraqosh.

In this city, its inhabitants strive to decorate the districts with the colors of the Vatican and Iraq.

Father Ammar Yago, of the church of Al Tahira, where the Argentine Pope plans to bless the faithful, is excited about the stole that will be given to the first pontiff to visit Iraq.

Five seamstresses and embroiderers made this two-meter-long and 70-centimeter wide piece for two months, in a traditional fabric from the region, he explains.

Its embroidery “in the manner of Qaraqosh” represent many Christian symbols, adds the priest of this church who recently managed to find all its colors after the jihadists set it on fire.

Grapes and palm tree

In the stole, there are grapes and ears of wheat to represent the “bread and leaven” of the Bible, explains Father Ammar Yago.

But also a palm tree, national tree of Iraq and a symbol par excellence for its nearly 40 million inhabitants who repeat again and again that it was cultivated there, in ancient Mesopotamia, 6,000 years ago.

This is not the first gift the Iraqis have given the Pope. Two years ago, a 40-year-old Kurdish designer, Shanaz Jamal, sent him a “cloak of religions” which is now on display in the Holy See.

On a white cape Jamal embroidered the cross of Christians, the crescent of Muslims, the winged disc of Zoroastrianism and even the sun and the temples of the Yazidis, a minority targeted for a “potential genocide” by jihadists in 2014, according to the UN.

In total, the woman embroidered for five months eight symbols of the main communities present in Kurdistan and Iraq, mostly Muslim, in an attempt to reconcile the multi-ethnic north of Iraq that the IS has devastated through its art.

For the Pope’s visit, the artist plans new gifts, such as a huge cross embroidered in a burgundy and black flag, encrusted with turquoise and emerald semi-precious stones.

With information from AFP

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