The oldest name for Zion was Sin, the name of a male lunar deity, the father of the goddess Ishtar/Astarte; the Sumerians called him Nannar.The center of worship for the god Sin was the Mesopotamian city of Harran, located in present-day Iraq. The name of this deity gave rise to that of a hill southeast of Jerusalem, where a Jebusite fortress once stood.The word "Zion" in Semitic languages can be associated with the Hebrew root ṣiyyôn (castle), the Arabic root ṣiyya (dry land), or the Arabic root šana ("protected" or "citadel"). The toponym Har Tzion (literally "Mount Zion") appears nine times in the Tanakh. It is written with the letter tzadi and not with zayin. According to the Book of Samuel, Zion was the site where the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" stood. After King David's conquest of the city (who was buried on Mount Zion), probably around 1000 BC, both the mountain and the term Zion became part of Jewish history, where the latter defined the place where Yahweh, the god of the Israelites, lived.In Jewish culture, the mountain represented the burial place of King David; for Christianity, it became the site where the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, died. So much so that in 405 AD (early 5th century), during the Byzantine era, the church of Hagia (Holy) Maria, consecrated to the Virgin Mary, was built there under John II, Bishop of Jerusalem: the relics attributed to Saint Stephen were transferred to this church on December 26, 415.The site was destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem in 614 by the Sasanian king Khosrau II.During the Crusades, it was customary to fortify the main connecting routes of the conquered territories by creating monastic communities, called Abbeys, headed by an Abbot.When – in 1099 – Godfrey of Bouillon conquered Jerusalem, he had a new sacred building dedicated to Mary erected on the hill of Zion and on the ruins of the ancient Byzantine church: Nôtre Dame du Mont Syon (12th century). Here, Godfrey of Bouillon established a monastic order, known as the Abbey of Our Lady of Mount Zion.
Ancient map of the city of Jerusalem, Cambrai Library 1140-1170. In the lower left, the church of Nôtre Dame de Syon is visible on the mountain.
During the First Crusade, the military and religious Order of the Knights of Sion was thus born, establishing its headquarters at the mother Abbey of Nôtre Dame du Mont Syon, with the purpose of protecting it.After the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Abbey, which occurred about two hundred years after its rebuilding, the Order converted into a Priory, first settling in Sicily, in Caltanissetta, and then definitively in France, in Orléans. The French Priory of Sion lasted until the 17th century, after which it was absorbed by the Jesuits in 1617.In 1843, an independent monastic order was founded, called the Congregation of Nôtre Dame de Syon. The Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion was the result of a prayer pact signed by Joseph Ludwig Colmar, Louise Humann, and Madame Breck in the ruins of Turquestein Castle in 1797.Notre-Dame de Sion was linked to the charism of its founder, Théodore Ratisbonne, to whom his brother Alphonse was associated from the beginning.Coming from an assimilated Jewish family in Strasbourg, they converted to Catholicism, the former in 1827, the latter in 1842.The Congregation was characterized by the awareness of the rootedness of the Christian faith in the Jewish people.According to its founding text, "The Congregation was founded to bear witness, in the Church and in the world, to God’s fidelity to his love for the Jewish people and to work for the fulfillment of the biblical promises revealed to their Patriarchs and prophets of Israel for all humanity" (Const. 2).This spirituality went hand in hand with the desire to convert Jews to Christianity. The vocation of Our Lady of Sion then evolved, following the Second Vatican Council and the declaration Nostra Ætate; the spirit and charism was no longer that of attempting the conversion of Jews, but of working together with them, in esteem and friendship, studying in particular the Jewish roots of the New Testament, as well as Hebrew.The current Chivalric Order of Our Lady of Sion, respecting the ancient values as handed down over time, is characterized by the charism of equality among Christians and in aiding the vulnerable, with particular attention to the rehabilitation of minors with judicial and social problems.
