Maronite Church

Maronites (Marunoye ܡܪܘܢܝܐܶ; in Syriac, Mâruniyya مارونية in Arabic) are members of an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Their heritage reaches back to St. Maron in the early 5th century. The first Maronite patriarch, St. John Maron, was appointed in the late 7th century. Today, they are one of the principal religious groups in Lebanon.

Maronites are Arabic-speaking Christians, though, like most Lebanese people, their ethnic background is a mix of Phoenician, Assyrian, and other Levantine/West Semitic roots, with some Greek and European elements that may have stemmed from the Crusades or earlier. The Arab identity of the Maronites is accepted by some and rejected by others. Many Maronites - such as Amin al-Rihani - played a role in the original Arab nationalist renaissance of the early 20th Century. Presently, however, many reject the Arab identity and identify simply as Lebanese.

History

In the early 5th century, a community gathered around the Christian hermit St. Maron. After his death in 435 (or 410, according to some sources), this community continued to grow and adopted the name of Maronites.

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

Maron, 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 St. Anthony of the Desert and St. Pachomius of Egypt. He soon had many followers that adopted his monastic life. Following the death of St. 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 recognition of the Maronites by Pope Hormisdas on February 10, 518.

The martyrdom of the Patriarch of Antioch in 602 left the Maronites without a leader, and led them to elect their first Maronite Patriarch, St. John Maron, in 685. The Maronites constantly struggled to retain their independence from the Byzantine and the Muslim empires. After the Muslim conquest of Syria, the Maronites gained some military help from Constantine IV and harassed the forces of Umayyad Dynasty so that in 677 the caliph decided to pay tribute to them in return for peace. Some of the Maronites relocated to Mount Lebanon at this time and formed several communities that became known as the Marada. In 685 the Maronites found themselves isolated from the Byzantine Empire and decided to appoint their own Patriarch, St. John Maron, who had been a bishop of Batroun, Mount Lebanon. Through him, they claim full apostolic succession through the See of Antioch.

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).

Little was heard from the Maronites for 400 years, as they quietly escaped the Muslim invasions in the mountains of Lebanon, until the Crusader Raymond of Toulouse discovered the Maronites in the mountains near Tripoli, Lebanon on his way to conquer Jerusalem. (Raymond returned to besiege Tripoli after his conquest of Jerusalem.)

During the Crusades in the 12th century, Maronites assisted the Crusaders and reaffirmed their affiliation with Catholicism and loyalty to the Pope in 1182. From this point onwards, the Maronites have upheld an unbroken orthodoxy and unity with Rome; however, there is also evidence of contact with Rome from before that date. For example, in 1100 Maronite Patriarch Youseff Al Jirjisi received the crown and staff from Pope Paschal II. In 1131 Maronite Patriarch Gregorious Al Halati received letters from Pope Innocent II.The Roman affiliation was to cost the Maronites dearly after Muslim rule returned. Anti-Christian Mamelukes destroyed their fields, houses and churches alongside with those of Druze and Shiites. Connection to Rome was arduously maintained and a Maronite College established at Rome on July 5, 1584.

At first, the Ottoman Empire left Maronites to their own devices in their mountain strongholds. However, from 1585 to 1635 the Druze warlord Fahkr-al-Din II conquered and ruled the Greater Lebanon until he was defeated by Ottoman forces and executed at Istanbul on April 13, 1635.

In 1610, the Maronite monks of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Quzhayya 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.

In 1638, France declared that it would protect the Catholics within the Ottoman Empire, including the Maronites. In 1860 Maronites clashed with Druze until French intervention and Ottoman diplomacy stopped that. In 1866 Youssef Karam led a Maronite uprising in Mount Lebanon against governor Dawood Pasha. European intervention led to his 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, the language of 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 three main factions in the Lebanese Civil War.

Organization

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 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.

Although Catholic in doctrine, 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. 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. 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 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.

Population

Some numerical estimates have ranged from 1.5 million to 7.5 million, but the exact population is unknown. It is estimated that 640,000 to 850,000 remain in Lebanon where they constitute up to 23% of the population. According to the Lebanese constitution, 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.

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 for their children like "Michel", "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" or "Tannous"), "Butros" (Peter), "Semaan" or "Shamaoun" (Simon), "Jeryes" (George), "Elie" (Ilyas, or Elias), or "Beshara" (literally, "Good News" in reference to the Gospel). Many are also named after Maronite saints, including the Aramaic names "Maroun" (after their patron saint, Maron), and "Sharbel", or "Charbel".

See also

• Aramaic history

• Bsharri

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

• Article at Phoenicia.org

• Our Lady of Lebanon

• Beith Souryoyé Morounoyé - The Syriac Maronites

• The Maronite Patriarchate

• The USA Maronite Census

• The Maronite Catholic Church of Australia

• Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn

• Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of St. Louis

• The Eastern Catholic Churches

• Catholic Encyclopedia - Maronites

• Catholic World News: Trying to Shake a Troubled Past — Maronite population discussed