Our Lady of Ilige

Our Lady of Ilige is one of the most important historic churches of the Maronite Church, built in 1121 over the remains of an earlier pagan temple. It served as a seat of the Maronite Patriarchate for about 320 years, hosting eighteen patriarchs, seven of whom are buried within the church. It preserves Lebanon's only surviving patriarchal bema, a raised platform from which the patriarch and bishops presided over the Liturgy of the Word. Renovated in 1746 and restored again by Lebanon's Directorate General of Antiquities during the 1970s, the church also once housed the oldest known Maronite icon before it was transferred to the nearby Monastery of Mayfouq for conservation. A separate sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows stands along a nearby path.