In an exhibition of true faith, 300 displaced Iraqi Christians returned to their ISIS ravaged homes on Christmas Eve to celebrate mass.

(WASHINGTON, DC) In defiance of Islamic State and other extremists, 300 displaced Iraqi Christians returned to their hometown in northern Iraq to celebrate mass on Christmas Eve.

Bartella is almost unrecognizable to those coming home. It has been shelled and burned during fights between Iraqi government forces and ISIS, but that didn’t stop the Christians from proclaiming that “Christ is the light of the world,” The Associated Press reports.

“This is the mass of defiance,” Assyrian priest Yacoub Saady said at the end of the mass, which was conducted in Assyrian and Arabic. “We, the Christians, are the oldest component of this country. We are staying put and no power can force us to leave.”

Daily Caller copy, TRUNEWS analysis