Deir Qozhaya
Qozhaya Monastery is the great monastery of the Qadisha Valley. Deir Mar Antonios Qozhaya, the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya, spreads its arches and terraces across the northern slope of the gorge below Ehden, larger and busier than any other house in the valley. It belongs to the Lebanese Maronite Order, and it holds a claim few monasteries anywhere can match: the first printing press in the Arab world worked here.
That is the famous fact. The deeper one is simpler. For as long as anyone can document, and much longer by tradition, monks have prayed on this slope, and families have carried their sick and their worries down the mountain to Saint Anthony's cave. The monastery is still doing both jobs today.
A Treasure of Life
The name Qozhaya is traditionally read from Syriac as "treasure of life." The monks give the phrase a plain meaning: the treasure is Christ, and the men who settled this valley traded everything else for him.
The monastery is dedicated to Saint Anthony the Great, the third-century Egyptian who walked into the desert and became the father of all monks. His way of life traveled north along the mountains, and the gorge of the Qadisha Valley became its Lebanese home: a wilderness of caves, cells, and chapels that the Syriac-speaking Church called the Holy Valley. The prayers said here rose in the language family Jesus himself spoke.
Tradition attributes Qozhaya's founding to the age of Saint Hilarion and the early disciples of Saint Anthony, back in the fourth century. Historians are careful here: the earliest surviving records reach back only about a thousand years. But everyone agrees it stands among the oldest monasteries of the valley, and some accounts say that for a period in the Middle Ages it even served as a seat of the Maronite Patriarch.
The Printing Press That Beat an Empire
Sometime in the late sixteenth century, a wooden printing press was carried up Mount Lebanon and down into this gorge. Tradition dates its arrival to 1585, and credits Sarkis el-Rizzi, a Maronite bishop trained in Rome, with bringing it from Italy. It was the first printing press anywhere in the Arab world.
What it printed was a Psalter: the Book of Psalms, set in two columns. One column carried the Psalms in Syriac. The other carried Arabic written in Syriac letters, a script called Garshuni. The surviving copies of this Qozhaya Psalter, only a handful in the world's libraries, carry the date 1610 in their colophon, and scholars still debate whether an earlier 1585 printing ever existed. Either way, the book stands at the head of printing in the Arab world.
Think about what that meant. A small mountain Church, poor and often under pressure, printed its own prayer book before Istanbul, Cairo, or Damascus printed anything in Arabic script. And the first thing it chose to print was not a chronicle or a decree. It was the Psalms, the prayers the monks were already singing every night, drawn from the Scriptures the Syriac Church had carried for over a millennium in the Peshitta.
The press fell silent after that single book, and printing in the region had to wait another century. In the early 1800s the monks of Qozhaya took up printing again, and their old press worked on into the modern era. Today it rests in the monastery museum, alongside manuscripts, vestments, and gifts sent to the monastery across the centuries. You can stand in front of the machine that gave the Arab world its first printed page.
The Cave of Saint Anthony
Beside the monastery, a low doorway opens into the rock. This is the cave of Saint Anthony, Mgharet Qozhaya, and for centuries it was one of the few places in the region where the mentally ill were received at all.
Families would bring a suffering son or daughter down the mountain, sometimes after every other door had closed. The monks kept them at the cave, prayed over them, and entrusted them to the intercession of Saint Anthony, the saint who fought his own long battles in the dark. Old chains fixed to the rock remain from that era, kept as a memory of the people once held there through the night in hope of a cure.
It is easy to judge those centuries from ours, and the chains are hard to look at. Medicine now offers what the monks could not. But something in the old instinct was right: the people no one else would take were carried to a holy place and prayed for by name, night after night. They were treated as souls, not as shame.
Pilgrims still come to the cave today, for depression, for anxiety, for family members in crisis. They light candles in the dark and leave their intentions with the saint. Many pair the visit with the Maronite tradition of praying to Saint Charbel in times of depression, asking one saint of the valley to carry what the heart cannot.
The Order That Formed Saints
In 1708, Qozhaya passed to the young Lebanese Maronite Order, the monastic order founded a few years earlier to organize Maronite monks under a common rule. The monastery became one of the order's great houses, home to its novices in many eras, and by the early nineteenth century, the order's records say, it counted some three hundred monks.
The order that ran Qozhaya is the same order that formed the saints Lebanon is known for. Saint Charbel, Saint Nimatullah al-Hardini, and Blessed Estephan Nehme all lived and died as Lebanese Maronite monks, under the same rule kept at Qozhaya. We tell that fuller story in our guide to the Lebanese Maronite Order.
Qozhaya has a quiet place in Saint Charbel's own story. Accounts of his childhood say that two of his mother's brothers lived as hermits attached to the monastery of Qozhaya, and that young Youssef Makhlouf, the boy who would become Charbel, walked the long mountain paths to visit them. Tradition holds that those visits helped plant the desire that later carried him to the monastery for good.
The monastery still keeps hermits' places nearby, including the restored hermitage known as Mar Bishay cut into the rock above. The chain from Anthony's Egyptian desert to a boy from Bekaa Kafra runs straight through this slope.
How to Visit Qozhaya Monastery
Qozhaya is the easiest of the great Qadisha monasteries to reach, because it is the one you can drive to. A paved road descends from the Zgharta and Ehden side of the valley, winding down through pines to the monastery gate. That makes it the natural choice for visitors who cannot manage the hiking trails to Qannoubine.
Getting there: from Beirut, the drive takes around two hours via Zgharta and Ehden. Signs for Deir Mar Antonios Qozhaya mark the turn. The final descent is steep and full of switchbacks, so take it slowly.
At the monastery: visit the rock-carved church, the cave of Saint Anthony, and the museum with the printing press. The monastery is a working religious house, so dress modestly and keep voices low. Museum hours vary with the season; check locally, especially in winter.
The feast: Saint Anthony the Great is celebrated on January 17, and the monastery marks its patronal feast with Masses and crowds of families from the surrounding villages. Summer weekends are also lively, with pilgrims and picnicking families filling the terraces.
Make it a pilgrimage day: Qozhaya combines naturally with the rest of the holy mountain. The Cedars of God stand above Bcharre at the head of the valley, and serious walkers can descend into the gorge toward Qannoubine. Many pilgrims pair the northern valley with a separate day at Saint Charbel's monastery and tomb at Annaya, further south on the mountain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Qozhaya Monastery?
The Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya sits on the northern slope of the Qadisha Valley in the Zgharta District of northern Lebanon, below the town of Ehden. Unlike most monasteries of the valley, it is reachable by car: a paved road winds down to its gate from the Ehden and Zgharta side. It is about two hours' drive from Beirut.
What was printed at Qozhaya?
The Qozhaya Psalter, the Book of Psalms printed in Syriac and in Garshuni, which is Arabic written in Syriac letters. It is celebrated as the first book printed in the Arab world. Tradition dates the press to 1585, and the surviving copies of the Psalter carry the date 1610 in their colophon. The old press is displayed in the monastery museum today.
Can you visit Deir Qozhaya?
Yes. Qozhaya is a working monastery of the Lebanese Maronite Order and welcomes visitors year round. You can attend Mass in the rock church, visit the museum with its printing press, and enter the cave of Saint Anthony. Dress modestly, and check locally for museum hours, especially in winter. The road down is steep but paved.
What is the cave of Saint Anthony at Qozhaya?
A natural grotto beside the monastery where, for centuries, families brought loved ones suffering in mind and spirit to be prayed over under the intercession of Saint Anthony the Great. Old chains kept in the cave recall that history. Pilgrims still enter it today to light a candle and pray for healing and peace of mind.
What does the name Qozhaya mean?
The name is traditionally interpreted from Syriac as "treasure of life." Monastic tradition reads the treasure as Christ himself, the reason generations of monks left everything to live in this valley. The monastery's full name is Deir Mar Antonios Qozhaya, the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya.
See also: Qadisha Valley, the Holy Valley around Qozhaya, and its hidden heart at Qannoubine Monastery. The Lebanese Maronite Order and its saints: Saint Charbel, Saint Nimatullah al-Hardini, and Blessed Estephan Nehme. The Peshitta Bible and the language Jesus spoke. Nearby: the Cedars of God and a pilgrimage to Annaya. For heavy hearts: a prayer to Saint Charbel for depression.