VATICAN CITY - 14 June 2007 - 329 words
Whirling
dervishes at the Vatican
A performance of whirling dervishes
took place at the Vatican on Tuesday,
The Sufi dancers from Konya in Turkey. demonstrated their mystical art a in the Chancery Palace.
The performance was organized by the Turkish Embassy to the Holy See and the Pontifical Council for Culture to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the birth of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a 13th century writer, considered one the most important poets of Sufi mysticism.
Muammer Dogan Akdur, Turkish ambassador to the Holy See, introduced the event by describing what he called an 'excellent relationship' between his country and the Holy See after the Holy Father's visit to Turkey last November.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said: "on the intercultural scene, which frequently takes an interreligious dimension, we have taken this meaningful opportunity to mark the 800 years since the birth of Meviana Celaleddin Rumi, one of the greatest Persian poets, one of the finest heralds of monastic Sufism, and above all, the founder of the famous Mawlawiyah Confraternity whose members are called Whirling Dervishes in the Western world."
"We celebrate the poet Rumi and his sublime art, which is capable of transporting us to lofty levels of lyrical verse, where man can find again the purity of his feelings and the beautiful dialogue between different civilizations and religious beliefs," said the cardinal, who is also president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Cardinal Poupard said: "Music and dance are universal languages that nourish the spirit and make us experience the beauty of cultural exchange and of the dialogue between cultures.
He explained that through the chanting and dancing, the dervish presents himself as a union between what is finite and what is infinite.
"The drum marks the rhythm in an incisive manner and the flute marks the turns and envelopes the atmosphere in a spiritual exercise directed towards a contact with the Divine," he said.
Source: VIS
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