Tehran Times, Iran
July 28 2005

Apostles’ successor’s bones discovered in Iran’s St. Stephanus Church

Tehran Times Culture Desk

TEHRAN — Shahriar Adl, the director of the team documenting three
Iranian churches for registration on UNESCO’s World Heritage List,
said on Wednesday that they have discovered the bones of one of the
successors of the Apostles of Jesus in one of the ceilings of the St.
Stephanus Church, which is located near Marand in East Azarbaijan.

Some historical sources, such as the travelogue of Frenchmen Jean
Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689), some photos kept at Tehran’s Golestan
Palace, and the photos taken by Ali Khan Vali, the governor of
northern Azarbaijan during the reign of the Qajar king Nasser ad-Din
Shah and kept in the Adl family archives, indicate that the bones of
Saint Stephanus (Saint Stephen), who acted as a direct successor to
Saint Peter, Saint Matthew, and the Prophet Daniel, are being kept in
the St. Stephanus Church.

`The East Azarbaijan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department sent a
letter to the Prelacy of Iran after the team discovered the bones,
asking their representative to attend the process of gathering the
bones from the site last Sunday,’ Adl said.

The team has also discovered several pieces of board from the boxes
containing the bones, yellow and beige clothes, seeds of frankincense
and some pieces of wax, and ocher beside the bones.

The bones have been examined by a team of anthropologists of the
Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).

`The bones have been damaged because of the bad condition of the
place. Thus, we could only determine that they are the bones of a
single body but the individual bones can not be distinguished,’ said
team member Farzad Foruzanfar.

The complete skeleton belongs to a man about 50 years old with a
strong body, he added.

The bones have been transferred to the Prelacy of Azarbaijan in
Tabriz because restoration work is currently underway in the church,
but they will be returned after the renovation is complete.

`The bones will be returned to be kept in a specific place during a
special religious ceremony,’ East Azarbaijan Cultural Heritage and
Tourism Department Director Ali-Akbar Taqizadeh said.

Hayk Ajimian, an Armenian scholar and historian, recorded that the
church was originally built in the ninth century CE, but repeated
earthquakes in Azarbaijan severely damaged the original structure.
The church was renovated during the reign of the Safavid king Shah
Abbas (1588-1629).

The general structure of the St. Stephanus Church mostly resembles
Armenian and Georgian architecture and the inside of the building is
adorned with beautiful paintings by Honatanian, a renowned Armenian
artist.

The CHTO plans to submit an application to UNESCO to register the St.
Stephanus Church as well as the St. Thaddeus and Zorzor churches in
West Azarbajian on the World Heritage List.