Location Tikrit, Iraq Completed AD 700 Affiliation Syriac Orthodox Church | Architectural type Church Opened 700 AD | |
 | ||
Similar Baghdad Zoo, Baghdadi Museum, National Museum of Iraq, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Ziggurat of Ur | ||
The Church of St. Ahudemmeh, also known as the Green Church, was a 7th-century Church of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the city of Tikrit, Iraq. The Green Church was one of the oldest Syriac Christian churches in the world until its destruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 25 September 2014.
History
The church was built in 700 AD by Denha II, Syriac Orthodox Maphrian of the East, who was later buried in the church vault, and named after the 6th century Metropolitan of the East, Ahudemmeh, who was the first Syriac Orthodox bishop of Tikrit. Other maphrians such as Bishops John II Keeyunoyo, Daniel, Thomas I of Tagrit and Baselios III, were also interned there, as well as a certain Anaseous.
The church was looted and destroyed in 1089, forcing the Maphrian John Sleeba I to move to Monastery of Mar Mattai, however it was later restored and returned to the Syriac Orthodox Church in 1112. The church was again destroyed in 1258 during the Mongol Invasion of Tikrit, when the Christian community was massacred, causing the maphrianate to reside at the Monastery of Mar Mattai for the remainder of its existence.
In the 1990s, Saddam Hussein, a resident of Tikrit, funded a restoration of the church building, but in September 2014 it was destroyed by the Islamic State.