Holy Girdle

Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt

Holy Belt of Mary
Material	Knotted Textile Cord
Size	Length (74cm) Breadth (5cm) Thickness (3cm)
Discovered	1852, Rediscovered April 1953 Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt, Homs, Syria
Discovered by	Patriarch His Holiness Ignatius Aphrem I Barsoum
Present location	Churches in Syria, India, Middle East

The Holy Girdle, also known as the Girdle of Thomas, Holy Girdle of Mary, Holy Soonoro, (or) Zunoro, and Holy Belt of Saint Mary the mother of Jesus, is a relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by many churches in Oriental Orthodox communion. The word "soonoro" is also translated as "belt", "sash" or "girdle". It is the Oriental Orthodox equivalent of the Girdle of Thomas in the Western church, and the Cincture of the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, now located at Mount Athos.

According to Orthodox tradition, the Virgin Mary died in the presence of all apostles except Thomas the Apostle. At the time of the assumption, Thomas was in India and he returned to Jerusalem and travelled on the sky by the help of Holy Spirit to attend the assumption of Mary. But he was late in arriving and the saint visualised that Mary's body was taken by the Angels. At that time St.Thomas could reach there. Thomas had doubtful nature. In order to convince others he requested to Mary to give him any sign of her for her memory and remembrance. Then a chariot stopped in the air and Mary gifted her girdle to Thomas. Then he showed this girdle to other disciples of Jesus and convinced them. He took this soonoro(girdle) on his journey. A lot of miracles have happened since then by touching or even seeing this girdle. St.Thomas and the people believed its power. Gradually it was taken to Şanlıurfa, then it kept in a church in Homs in Syria. Supposing that he was seeing her soul and received blessing and Holy girdle from Virgin Mary. This is the one of the Important incident, Which is not written in the bible. The original girdle is a relic belonging to Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt.