BEIRUT: Celebrations of the feast of St. Maroun extended from Downtown Beirut to northern Syria Wednesday, on the 16th centennial since the death of the founder of the Maronite church.

In Beirut, the central celebration took place at St. Maroun Church in Gemmayzeh, where President Michel Sleiman and First Lady Wafaa were joined by caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri for a Mass celebrated by Beirut’s Maronite Archbishop, Boulos Matar.

Leading state officials, politicians and foreign diplomats, along with more than 20 MPs, attended the occasion, which saw Matar urge the Lebanese to preserve national unity.

“Your Excellency, for your dreams and the dreams of all of us to come true, of a perfect country that delivers its message in its surrounding region and in the world, we appeal to all Lebanese to preserve their national unity … in order to confront all current difficulties,” he said, addressing Sleiman.

“No one … should feel that his rights or participation is marginalized, and no one should feel insecure, even in his home,” Matar added.

Matar said that no Lebanese side should rely on external support against the other. “Together we amass our forces to defend the country and liberate its territories … and this will disprove every experience of relying on the support of any side to resolve an internal dilemma that should be resolved inside with a spirit of brotherhood.”

The Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, celebrated the holiday by holding a Mass in Bkirki, while under Sleiman’s patronage, a Mass was held in the village of Jermoq, in Jezzine, to celebrate the reconstruction of St. Maroun church, funded by Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani.

In Zahle, the town’s Maronite Bishop, Mansour Hobeika, led prayers at St. Maroun Church and urged Lebanese not to sell land to non-Lebanese.

In Syria, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun was greeted by some 10,000 people in the northern Syrian village of Brad, where a Mass was held at the grave of St. Maroun, celebrated by the Maronite Bishop of Aleppo, Youssef Anis Abi Aad.

Aoun unveiled a plaque noting the Syrian government’s donation of 25,000 square meters of land to the Maronite sect, during a ceremony that was also attended by the governor of Aleppo, Ahmad Ali Mansour. The cornerstone of the Saint Maroun Church is scheduled to be laid on March 13.

Aoun thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for his efforts to facilitate the “pilgrimage” by the FPM leader. “We hope to soon see this area full of tourists as well as of its people,” Aoun said. Abi Aad also thanked Assad for the donation of land, and Aoun for helping encourage the pilgrimage to the area.

Aoun described his visit as an attempt to pull the Maronites out of isolation and take them back to their historical roots. “No one will be able to alienate us from our heritage, culture and identity in this East,” said Aoun, who also stressed the importance of refuting “Islamophobia” in the West by countering the notion of perpetual religious conflict in the Middle East.