St. Behnam and Sara Syriac Catholic Mission

Our name came from

Monastery of the Martyrs Mar Behnam and Marth Sarah

(Syriac: ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܒܗܢܡ ܘܡܪܬ ܣܪܐ, Arabic: دير مار بهنام, Mar Behnam Monastery),

is a Syriac Catholic

monastery in northern Iraq in the village Khidr Ilyas close to the town of Beth Khdeda.

The tomb of Mar Behnam

was heavily damaged on March 19, 2015, by the Islamic State, and the exterior murals were desecrated in all of the monastery's buildings. Repair work restoring the monastery and the tomb of Mar Behnam to its pre-ISIS condition was completed by early December 2018.

The monastery was according to legend built

in the 4th century by a king named Senchareb as penance for martyring his son Mar Behnam and daughter Sarah after they converted to Christianity.