Rome—A Syriac Catholic priest held hostage by Islamic State militants for 84 days has spoken of his ordeal as a period of spiritual growth and of his hopes for a just peace in Syria.

  Armed and masked men raided the monastery of Mar Elian, where Father Jacques Mourad was prior, on May 21. Fr Mourad and a deacon, Boutros, were captured and driven away into the desert in a monastery car.

  “I was kept bound and chained for four days,” Fr Mourad told reporters at Rome’s Foreign Press Club. “Then they took us towards Raqqa and put us in a prison, in a small bathroom as a way of humiliating us. We were content. It is our mission to be humble in the face of violence.”

  Fr Mourad said the loss of freedom had been difficult to deal with but his imprisonment had provided him with a very intense spiritual experience, made more bearable by reciting the rosary and Charles de Foucauld’s prayer of abandonment to God.

  While held in the IS stronghold of Raqqa, Fr Mourad and his companion suvived on a diet of rice and water. Three times they were served tea; once Fr Mourad was beaten with a hose-pipe.

  “The verbal attacks were very hard. They told us: Either you become Muslims or we will cut off your heads,” Fr Mourad said.

  On the eighth day the prisoners were visited by a senior IS commander, dressed in black and wearing a mask.

  “I thought: here we are. This is the moment our lives end.”

  Instead the man shook hands with them, wished them “salam alaykoum” – “peace be with you” – and told them they were under his protection.

  “I asked him why we were there. He said: Father, consider this as a time of spiritual retreat. I was touched by this word, because it was not part of the vocabulary of the ISIS people. But he was a leader of ISIS, a Muslim and a Syrian.”

  Fr Mourad was touched by the man’s courtesy, as most fundamentalist Muslims consider infidels unclean and avoid any unnecessary contact with them.

  Eventually the priest was released from prison in Raqqa and taken, along with another 250 Christian hostages, to his home town of Qaryatyn, where they were confined under a form of loose house arrest.

  He eventually escaped with the help of a Muslim friend and of an Assyro-Orthodox priest.

  “All the people of Syria are the victims of this war. Jesus gave his life on the cross for the entire world. We, the church, are responsible for the whole world, not just for our own community.”

  The answer to peace was to seek out the good in every individual, Fr Mourad said. “God doesn’t create bad people. The fruit of violence is more violence. We must seek out the good to find peace.”

  Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy could also contribute, the priest said. “The force of mercy can offer a path to arrive at a just peace that is not imposed.”