Archaeologists in the United Arab Emirates have uncovered new evidence of early Christianity flourishing along the shores of the Persian Gulf. On Sir Bani Yas Island, about 110 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, a plaster cross has been found in the ruins of a 7th-century monastery — shedding fresh light on the region’s religious history.
The artifact, a stucco cross molded onto a plaque just over 10 inches long, was discovered during the first major excavations of the monastery’s living quarters since the site was first identified in 1992.
Archaeologists believe the monastery was active in the 7th and 8th centuries and belonged to the Church of the East, a Christian community that spread widely across the Gulf, Mesopotamia, and beyond.
“This is a very exciting time for us,” Maria Magdalena Gajewska, an archaeologist with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, told Crux. “We now have proof that the houses surrounding the church were indeed part of a Christian settlement, inhabited by monks devoted to prayer and spiritual discipline.”
The newly excavated area reveals about nine monastic houses to the north and northwest of the main church. Researchers believe these were places where senior monks lived, practiced solitude, and engaged in spiritual exercises before gathering with their brothers for communal life. The plaster cross, found in one of these houses, confirms the Christian character of these dwellings.
Sir Bani Yas monastery once formed part of a wider network of Christian sites that stretched across modern-day Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. For centuries, Christian communities in the Gulf thrived alongside other faiths, engaged in trade, and preserved distinctive traditions of worship.
The chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, called the find “a powerful testament to the UAE’s profound and enduring values of coexistence and cultural openness.”
The discovery resonates with the UAE’s recent efforts to highlight interfaith harmony. In 2019, Pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi, where he signed the Document on Human Fraternity with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar — a landmark gesture of friendship between Christians and Muslims.
For Catholics, finds like this are a reminder of the Church’s deep roots in the Middle East, a region often associated only with Islam and Judaism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that “the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race” (CCC 831). The Sir Bani Yas cross shows how far this mission reached, even in the deserts and islands of the Arabian Peninsula.
As archaeologists continue to study the site, the simple plaster cross stands as a symbol of prayerful lives lived long ago — monks who sought God in silence on a windswept Gulf island, leaving behind a quiet witness still speaking today.
