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{{Unreferenced|date=March 2007}}
{{Unreferenced|date=March 2007}}

{{Infobox Orthodox Church|
| show_name = Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East
| image =
| caption =
| founder = [[John Maron]]
| independence =
| recognition = [[Roman Catholic]]
| primate=[[Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir]]
| headquarters=Historically [[Antioch]]
| territory=
| possessions=
| language
| population=
| website= [http://www.bkerke.org.lb/ Official website]}}



{{Eastern Christianity}}
{{Eastern Christianity}}


Revision as of 11:12, 11 May 2007

Maronite Church
HeadquartersHistorically Antioch
FounderJohn Maron
RecognitionRoman Catholic
Official websiteOfficial website


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Maronites (Arabic: الموارنة, Template:ArTranslit) are members of one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, with a heritage reaching back to Maroun in the early 5th century. The first Maronite patriarch, John Maron, was appointed in the late 7th century. Today, they are one of the principal religious groups in Lebanon. Maronites were originally Aramaic-speaking people. Like most Lebanese people, their ethnic background is a mix of Phoenician, Assyrian, Greek, Israelite, Roman, Ghassanids (Arab), European Crusaders, Turks, and French.

History

File:Maroun04.jpg
St Maroun (died sometime between 406 and 423), founder of the Maronite spiritual movement. Since the seventeenth century his feast day has been celebrated on 9 February.

It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians [Acts 11:26]. Antioch, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70, became a center for Christianity. According to Roman Catholic tradition, the first Bishop was Saint Peter before his travels to Rome. The third Bishop was the Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch. Antioch became one of the five original Patriarchates after Constantine recognized Christianity.

Maroun, a contemporary and friend of St. John Chrysostom, was a monk in the fourth century who left Antioch for the Orontes River to lead an ascetic life, following the traditions of Anthony the Great of the Desert and Pachomius. He soon had many followers that adopted his monastic life. Following the death of Maron in 410, his disciples built a monastery in his memory and formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church.

The Maronites held fast to the beliefs of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. When 350 monks were slain by the Monophysites of Antioch, the Maronites sought refuge in the mountains of Lebanon. Correspondence concerning the event brought papal and orthodox recognition of the Maronites which was solidified by Pope Hormisdas on February 10, 518.

The martyrdom of the Patriarch of Antioch in 602 left the Maronites without a leader, a situation which continued because of the final and most devastating war between the Byzantine and Persian Empires of the early 7th century. The chaos and utter depression which followed led the Maronites to elect their first Maronite Patriarch, John Maroun, in 685. This however was seen as a usurpation by both the Orthodox and Catholic rites. Thus, at a time when Islam was rising on the borders of the Byzantine and a united front was necessary to keep out the Islamic infiltration, the Maronites were focused on a struggle to retain their independence against Roman imperial power. This situation was mirrored in other Christian communities in the Byzantine Empire and helped facilitate the Muslim conquest of the most of Eastern Christendom by the end of the century.

Now in a state of harsh occupation under Arabic rule after the Muslim conquest of Syria, the Maronites relationship with the Byzantine Empire improved. The imperial court seeing its earlier mistake saw an advantage in the current situation. Thus, Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV provided direct ecclesiastical, political and military support to the Maronites. The new alliance soon coordinated devastating raids on Muslim forces which provided a welcome relief to the besieged Christians throughout the East. However, in reprisal, the Muslim rulers began a genocidal campaign to eliminate the Maronites as a force under the Islamic Empire. Thus, some of the Maronites relocated to Mount Lebanon at this time and formed several communities that became known as the Marada.

Therefore, since 685 the Maronites have found themselves isolated from Christendoms of the Byzantine Empire and European powers. In turn, they have appointed their own Patriarch, starting with John Maron, who had been a bishop of Batroun, Mount Lebanon. Through him, the Maronites of today claim full apostolic succession through the See of Antioch. Nonetheless, a source of controversy surrounds the Maronites, as they have been accused of having fully adopted and embraced the Monothelite heresy. However, this charge has been adequately explained away, as noted in the 2003 new Catholic Encyclopedia (see reference below). Maronites themselves insist that they have "never been out of communion with the Roman Catholic Church."

Following the conquest of Eastern Christendom outside of Anatolia and Europe by the Muslims, and the established of secured lines of control between Islamic Caliphs and Byzantine Emperors, little was heard from the Maronites for 400 years. Fastened in their mountain strongholds, while civil wars between competing Caliphs and sects of Muslims rent the Islamic Empire, and with the front of the Islamic Jihad moved north, most Maronites escaped the Muslim led genocide of Eastern Christianity in the mountains of Lebanon. It was not until the Crusader Raymond of Toulouse on his way to conquer Jerusalem in the Great Crusade that the Maronites were re-discovered mountains near Tripoli, Lebanon. Raymond later returned to besiege Tripoli after his conquest of Jerusalem and relations between the Maronites and European Christianity were re-established.

During the Crusades in the 12th century, Maronites assisted the Crusaders and reaffirmed their affiliation with Catholicism in 1182. Consequently, from this point onwards, the Maronites have upheld an unbroken ecclesiastical orthodoxy and unity with Catholicism. To commemorate their communion, in 1100 Maronite Patriarch Youseff Al Jirjisi received the crown and staff marking his patriarchial authority, from Pope Paschal II. In 1131 Maronite Patriarch Gregorious Al Halati received letters from Pope Innocent II in which the Papacy recognized the independence of the Patriarchate.

However, this Roman affiliation was to cost the Maronites dearly after Muslim rule returned following the ethnic cleansing of the Crusader States in 1291. The Mamelukes led a jihad which exterminated the last of the European Christians at Siege of Acre in 1291 was continued in the anti-Eastern Christian pogroms in following decades. Mamelukes destroyed their fields, houses and churches and burnt much of the lower forest coverage of the Cedars of Lebanon. Although, the Mameluke led jihad soon spent itself, depredations continued for centuries. Thus, the situation for the Maronites, like those of other Christians under Islamic rule, was barely tenable.

However, connection to Rome was arduously maintained and through diplomatic threats and maneuvering, European Christian powers helped keep the Maronite community from destruction. Eventually, a Maronite College was established at Rome on July 5 1584. From this college, the Maronite community obtained some valuable assistance in maintaining and buttressing their Christian identity. In 1610, the Maronite monks of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya imported one of the first printing presses in the Arabic-speaking world. The monasteries of Lebanon would later become key players in the Arabic Renaissance of the late 19th century as a result of developing Arabic, as well as Syriac, printable script.

Following the defeat of the Mamelukes by the Ottoman Empire, at first the Sultans left the Maronites to their own devices in their mountain strongholds. However, the chaos that resulted from the neglect of early Ottoman rule was exploited by rival Muslim warlords and their Druze allies leading to a constant state of turmoil which continued to limit the survivability of the Christian Maronites. Finally, following a rapid campaign, the Druze warlord Fahkr-al-Din II conquered and ruled the Greater Lebanon from 1585 to 1635 and implemented a more or less stable situation. However, unwilling to tolerate an Islamic heretic warlord in control of the area, the Ottomans led a military campaign and Fahkr-al-Din II was defeated by Ottoman forces and executed at Istanbul on April 13 1635.

Following the defeat of Druze rule, the Maronite community again suffered Muslim ethnic cleansing leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Christians. Unable to stem the onslaught of Ottoman attacks through diplomacy, the Papacy attempted to organize direct involvement of European powers. In 1638, France declared that it would protect the Catholics within the Ottoman Empire, including the Maronites, with the threat of war should Muslim jihads again be launched against Catholics under the Sultan's rule.

For the next few generations, the Levant experienced a rather peaceful albeit economically depressing period. Rather than relying upon direct rule through Muslim authorities and risk French intervention, the Ottomans contracted out their power to the local Druze warlords. The capriciousness of Druze rule became intolerable over the decades and starting in the early 19th century as Europe was distracted with the Napoleonic Wars, the Ottomans encouraged Muslim and Druze depredations upon the Maronites leading to several pogroms against various Maronite and other Christian communities in the Middle East. Eventually, in 1860 following a rapid invasion under the control of Druze by Kurdish and Turkoman jihadists in Syrian Christian communities, the Maronites directly engaged the Druze. Believing French intervention was a shallow threat, the Sultans used the Maronite reaction as a pretext to justify another genocide of the Christian community. Leading a wide range campaign of raids, terror, and environmental destruction, Islamic armies devastated the Middle Eastern Christian communities particularly the Maronites and their forested communities in the mountains. Most of the Maronite communities outside of Mount Lebanon were destroyed as entire towns were massacred and the survivors fled to Europe and America. It was only after a French led naval force was dispatched to Lebanon and threats were made at the Sultan's Porte that the jihadis were pulled back. However, the Sultan's continued to support the capricious authority of the Druze and Muslim warlords and in 1866 Youssef Karam led a Maronite uprising in Mount Lebanon against governor Dawood Pasha. A European fleet arrived in Lebanon and following a swift bombardment and marine invasion Dawood Pasha went into exile to Algeria.

The Maronites, because of their monastic origin, were able to withstand intense pressure and even persecution to preserve their Church, not just by the Muslims, but also by separated brethren such as the Orthodox and Churches of the East, as well as efforts at Latinization from Rome. Even today, the words at the Consecration of the Mass are said in Aramaic (an earlier form of Syriac), which was one of the languages spoken by Jesus.

Maronites gained self-rule under the French Mandate of Lebanon in 1920 and secured their position in the independent Lebanon in 1943. They were one of the main factions in the Lebanese Civil War.

Organization

The Peshitta is the standard Syriac Bible, used by the Maronite Church, amongst others. The illustration is of the Peshitta text of Exodus 13:14-16 produced in Amida in the year 464.

The head of the Maronite Church is the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, who is elected by the bishops of the Maronite church and now resides in Bkirki, north of Beirut (the Maronite Patriarch resides in the northern town of Dimane during the summer months). The current Patriarch (since 1986) is Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir. When a new patriarch is elected and enthroned, he requests ecclesiastic communion from the Pope, thus maintaining the Catholic Church communion. Patriarchs are also accorded the status of cardinals, in the rank of cardinal-bishops. They share with other Catholics the same doctrine, but Maronites retain their own liturgy and hierarchy. Strictly speaking, the Maronite church belongs to the Antiochene Tradition and is a West Syro-Antiochene Rite. Syriac is the liturgical language, instead of Latin. Nevertheless, they are considered, with the Syro-Malabar Church, to be among the most latinised of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Cardinal Sfeir's personal commitment accelerated liturgical reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, bearing fruit in 1992 with the publication of a new Maronite Missal. This represents an attempt to return to the original form of the Antiochene Liturgy, removing the liturgical latinisation of past centuries. The Service of the Word has been described as far more enriched than previous Missals, and it features six Anaphoras (Eucharistic Prayers).

Celibacy is not required for deacons or priests with parishes, but monks must remain celibate, as are bishops who are normally selected from the monasteries. The clergy in America, with exception to the deacons, must remain celibate. The bishops who serve as eparchs and archeparchs of the eparchies and archeparchies (the equivalent of diocese and archdiocese in the Western Church) are answerable to the patriarch.

Famous Maronites

Government and politics

Arts, culture, and entertainment

Business

Science

Population

The exact worldwide Maronite population is not known, although it is at least 15 million according to [1]. It is estimated that 800,000 to 900,000 remain in Lebanon where they constitute up to 25% of the population. According to a Lebanese agreement celebrated among the various religious leaders, the president must be a Maronite. Syrian Maronites total 40,000 and they follow the archdioceses of Aleppo and Damascus and the Diocese of Latakia. There is also a Maronite community in Cyprus which speaks Cypriot Maronite Arabic. They are a recognized religious minority on the island and the community elects a representative to sit in the house of representatives (parliament) to voice their interests. They are probably descended from those Maronites who accompanied the crusaders there.

In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Ottoman persecution led many Maronites to emigrate to Latin America, as well as North America, Europe and Australia, where they founded Maronite parishes. Other Maronites, such as those in Ottoman Cyprus often converted to Islam rather than face enslavement.See Proselytism in Ottoman Cyprus

The two residing eparchies in the United States have issued their own "Maronite Census". The Census is designed to estimate approximately how many Maronites reside in the United States due to their emigrations to that country. Many Maronites have been assimilated into American culture, often taking on Roman Catholicism as there were no Maronite parishes or priests available. The Census was designed to locate those people.

Modern Maronites, like other Christians in the Levant, often adopt French or other Western European given names (with biblical origins) for their children like "Michel", "Marc", "Marie", "Georges", "Carole", "Charles", "Antoine", and "Pierre".

Given names of Arabic origins identical with those of their Muslim neighbors are also common, such as "Khalil," "Samir," "Salim," "Jameel," or "Tawfik". Other common names are strictly Christian and are Aramaic, or Lebanese Arabic, forms of biblical, Hebrew, or Greek Christian names, such as "Antun," (Anthony, also "Tanios", "Antonios", or "Tannous"), "Butros" (Peter), "Boulos (Paul)" "Youssef" (Joseph), "Ibrahim" (Abraham), "Semaan" or "Shamaoun" (Simon), "Jergyes" (George), "Elie" (Ilyas, or Elias), "Iskander" (Alexander), or "Beshara" (literally, "Good News" in reference to the Gospel), other common sames are Sarkis (Sergius) and Bakhos (Bacchus)

Some Maronite Christians are named in honour of Maronite saints, including the Aramaic names "Maroun" (after their patron saint, Maron), "Sharbel" or "Charbel", or "Rafqa" (Rebecca).

Books

  • Kamal Salibi - A House of Many Mansions - The History of Lebanon Reconsidered (University of California Press, 1990).
  • Father AJ Salim - Captivated by Your Teachings - A Resource Book for Adult Maronite Catholics (ET Nedder Publishing, Tucson, Arizona, 2002)
  • Maronite Church. New Catholic Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 2003.
  • Riley-Smith, Johnathan - The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995)
  • Soffee, Anne Thomas - Snake Hips: Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love (Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 2002)

External links

Media

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