and resettling them in the city. During the tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for prayer came, and despite Sophronius's offer to Omar to pray inside the Church, Omar chose to pray outside. According to Islamic tradition, the caliph's reason for declining to pray there was because in the future Muslims might say that great Omar prayed here resulting in them wanting to build a mosque there. So appreciating the caliph's intelligence he gave the keys of the church to him. Unable to refuse it the caliph gave it to a family of Muslims from Medina and asked them to open the church and close it; the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre still remain with the Muslim family. References Further reading D. Woods, 'The 60 Martyrs of Gaza and the Martyrdom of Bishop Sophronius of Jerusalem’, ARAM Periodical 15 (2003), 129–50. Reprinted in M. Bonner (ed.), Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times (Aldershot, 2005), 429–50. External links St Sophronius the Patriarch of Jerusalem Orthodox icon and synaxarion References by Sophronius to Islam Syrian Christian saints 560 births 638 deaths 7th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem People from Damascus Byzantine saints Saints from the Holy Land 6th-century Byzantine writers 7th-century Byzantine writers 7th-century Christian saints 7th-century Christian theologians Byzantine hymnographers Byzantine theologians 6th-century Byzantine monks Ascetics Christian poets 7th-century Byzantine monks Eastern Catholic poets