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Sidi Yahya ben Younes is the patron saint of the Moroccan city of Oudja. His mausoleum can be found in the oasis of Sidi Yahya. According to a local legend, Sidi Yahya is actually John the Baptist, a prophet mentioned in the Gospel as the cousin of Jesus Christ!
Sidi Yahya, patron saint of Oujda
Oujda, the capital of the Oriental region of Morocco, was founded in 994, by Ziri ibn Attia, the chief of the Maghrawa Zeneta tribe. The city is located in the Angad plain, the territory of the Arab Ahl Angad tribe, who live on both sides of the Moroccan-Algerian border. The region always had close connections with neighboring Algeria: former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born in Oujda.
The patron saint of Oujda is Sidi Yahya ben Younes. The oasis of Sidi Yahya, 5 km from the town center, contains the mausoleum of the saint. Several other saints are buried close by. Their presence is supposed to bring baraka to the city.
The oasis of Sidi Yahya is a popular relaxation place for Oujdis. The writer and poet Yahya Amara, originally from Oujda, tells how “during the 1960s and 1970s, much water was flowing in Sidi Yahya, and all the inhabitants of Oujda came to refresh themselves during the summer season. Sidi Yahya was a marina for the poor, who couldn’t afford to go to the port town of Saidia. Back then, Sidi Yahya was our sea of the poor.” (Source)
Sidi Yahya ben Younes’ historical background remains a mystery. For the Jews in the region, Sidi Yahya was a rabbi who moved from Spain to Oujda in 1391. Other sources, both Christian and Muslim, claim he is actually the prophet John the Baptist, the cousin and forerunner of Jesus Christ!
John the Baptist, a prophet
John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus, and a prophet who was sent to announce the imminent advent of the Messiah. According to the Gospel, while his father, the priest Zachariah, was serving in the Temple, an angel appeared to him and proclaimed that he would have a son – while he and his wife Elisabeth were already too old to have children. Because he didn’t believe in this promise, God punished him by striking him with dumbness. He recovered his speech after the child was born, and called him John.
As an adult, John went into the desert, where he preached to the Jews and called them to repentance. As a sign of their changed life, he baptized his disciples in the river Jordan, which is why he was called John the Baptist. He also announced that another prophet would come after him, who would be the long-awaited Messiah. When Jesus came to him to be baptized by him, John testified that he was the one whom he had been talking about and told his disciples to follow him now.
John the Baptist is mentioned in the Quran as Yahya ibn Zakaria.
John the Baptist and Sidi Yahya
Still according to the Gospel, John the Baptist was imprisoned, and later executed by King Herod Antipas of Judea, for denouncing his adulterous marriage with his brother’s wife.
Legend has it that Herod Antipas was so afraid that John the Baptist would rise again from the dead, that he ordered for his head and body to be buried separately. From then on, relics of John the Baptist can be found dispersed all around the Mediterranean basin: his head is reportedly buried in Rome or Damascus, while the Topkapi Palace, in Istanbul, contains bones considered to be John the Baptist’s. (Source)
Finally, some believe that John the Baptist (or part of his body) is buried in Oujda, in the Mausoleum of Sidi Yahya ben Younes. Although nobody can explain how it got there, or how “ibn Zakaria” became “ben Younes”, this idea is firmly rooted in the inhabitants’ mind, and is part of the city’s cultural and spiritual heritage.
Even though it is very unlikely, in a historical perspective, that the oasis of Sidi Yahya indeed contains the tomb of John the Baptist, the tradition that such an important figure of the Christian religion was buried in Morocco, an Islamic country, still reflects the region’s multicultural and multireligious heritage. The Mausoleum of Sidi Yahya, in Oujda, is a symbol of coexistence between the various Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities who lived in the city at various times. (Source)
