Maronite Church

Coordinates: 33°58′04″N 35°38′02″E / 33.9678°N 35.6339°E / 33.9678; 35.6339
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Syriac Maronite Church
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Marcionite Church
.

Monastery of Saint Maron, Phoenicia, Roman Empire
Separated fromThe Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in 685 AD
Members3,498,707[8]
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The Maronite Church (

Arabic: الكنيسة الأنطاكية السريانية المارونية; Syriac: ܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ܡܪܘܝܝܐ ܥܹܕܬܵܐ), it is part of Syriac Christianity by liturgy and heritage.[10]

The early development of the Maronite Church can be divided into three periods, from the 4th to the 7th centuries. A

Qadisha Valley
.

Although reduced in numbers today, the distinct but related Maronite ethno-religious group remains a principal grouping in Lebanon,[14] with smaller minorities of Maronites in Syria, Cyprus, Israel, and Jordan. Emigration since the 19th century means that about two-thirds of the Maronite Church's roughly 3.5 million members in 2017[15] were located outside "The Antiochian's Range", where they are part of the worldwide Lebanese diaspora.

Overview

The six major traditions of the Catholic Church are

Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Chaldean, Constantinopolitan (Byzantine), and Latin (Roman). The Maronite Church follows the Antiochene Tradition.[16] Any Catholic may attend any Eastern Catholic liturgy and fulfill his or her canonical obligations at an Eastern Catholic parish. Any Catholic may attend any Eastern Catholic parish or service and receive any sacrament from an Eastern Catholic priest since all belong to the Catholic Church.[17] Maronites who do not reside within a convenient distance to a local Maronite Church are permitted to attend other Catholic churches while retaining their Maronite membership.[18]

The Maronite Patriarchal Assembly (2003–2004) identified five distinguishing marks of the Maronite Church:

History

Main article: Maron
St. Maron: Russian orthodox icon
Remains of the arch of Brad Cathedral north of Aleppo, where Saint Maron's tomb was attached

Pachomius. Many of his followers also lived a monastic lifestyle. Maron is considered the founder of the spiritual and monastic movement that evolved into what is now the Maronite Church. Maronite Christianity has had a profound influence on what is now Lebanon, and to a lesser degree Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Saint Maron spent his life on a mountain in Syria, generally believed to be "Kefar-Nabo" on the mountain of Ol-Yambos in the Taurus Mountains, contemporary Turkey, becoming the cradle of the Maronite movement established in the Monastery of Saint Maron
.

Following Maron's death in 410 AD, his disciples built Beth-Maron monastery at

Byzantine emperor Marcian.[19]

The Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St. Maron's first disciple, Abraham of Cyrrhus, who was called the "Apostle of Lebanon", set out to convert the non-Christians by introducing them to St. Maron.[20]

The

553
.

An outbreak of civil war during the reign of Emperor

Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628
.

In the aftermath of the war, the Emperor Heraclius propagated a new Christological doctrine in an attempt to unify the various Christian churches of the East, who were divided over accepting the Council of Chalcedon. This doctrine, called Monothelitism, held that Christ had two natures (one divine and one human) but only one will (not a divine will and also a human will) and was meant as a compromise between supporters of Chalcedon, such as the Maronites, and opponents, such as the Jacobites. The doctrine was endorsed by Pope Honorius I to win back the Monophysites but problems soon arose[vague] (see his anathematization). Monothelitism failed to settle the schism, however, and was declared a heresy at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680–681. The Council condemned both Honorius and Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople but did not explicitly mention the Maronites.[19]

Contemporary Greek and Arab sources suggest the Maronites rejected the

Nestorian from Edessa and could not have been Maron or John Maron.[25] However, Donald Attwater, 20th Century historian of Eastern Christianity, affirmed the view that Maronites broke communion with Rome over monothelitism, however briefly.[26]

First Maronite Patriarch

Main article: John Maron
pilgrims, Mount Lebanon

The Patriarch of Antioch Anastasius II died in 609, and Constantinople began to appoint a series of titular patriarchs, who resided in Constantinople. In 685, the Maronites elected Bishop John Maron of Batroun as Patriarch of Antioch and all the East.[19]

The Eastern Mediterranean under Umayyad rule, with the Mardaites zones showed in Mount Lebanon and the Amanus

In 687, as part of an agreements with

marines in the Byzantine navy.[28] Additional resettlement efforts allowed Justinian to reinforce naval forces depleted by earlier conflicts.[29]

John Maron established himself in the remote Qadisha Valley in Lebanon. In 694, Justinian sent troops against the Maronites in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Patriarch.[30] John Maron died in 707 at the Monastery of St. Maron in Lebanon. Around 749 the Maronite community, in the Lebanon mountains, built the Mar-Mama church at Ehden. Meanwhile, caught between the Byzantines and the Arabs, the monastery at Beth-Maron struggled to survive.[31]

Islamic rule

jilbab, blue headscarf and black hijab

After they came under Arab rule following the

Muslim conquest of Syria (634–638), Maronite immigration to Lebanon, which had begun some time before, increased, intensifying under the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (813–33).[30]

To eliminate internal dissent, from 1289 to 1291 Egyptian Mamluk troops descended on Mount Lebanon, destroying forts and monasteries.[32]

Crusades

Following the Muslim conquest of Eastern Christendom outside

Raymond of Toulouse on his way to conquer Jerusalem in the Great Crusade of 1096–1099. Raymond later returned to besiege Tripoli (1102–1109) after the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, and relations between the Maronites and European Christianity were subsequently reestablished.[33]

The Maronites assisted the crusaders and affirmed their affiliation with the

Jeremias II Al-Amshitti (1199–1230) became the first Maronite Patriarch to visit Rome when he attended the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.[34] The Patriarchate of Antioch was also represented at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438.[35]

Peter Hans Kolvenbach notes, "This contact with the Latin Church enriched the intellectual world of Europe in the Middle Ages. Maronites taught Oriental languages and literature at the universities of Italy and France."[31]

Ottoman rule

In the Ottoman Empire, indigenous concentrated religious communities dealt mainly with the provincial administration. Officially, Maronites had to pay the jizya tax as non-Muslims, but sometimes the monks and clergy were exempt because they were considered to be "poor".[36]

Fakhr-al-Din II (1572–1635) was a Druze prince and a leader of the Emirate of Chouf District in the governorate of Mount Lebanon. Maronite Abū Nādir al-Khāzin was one of his foremost supporters and served as Fakhr-al-Din's adjutant. Phares notes that "The emirs prospered from the intellectual skills and trading talents of the Maronites, while the Christians gained political protection, autonomy and a local ally against the ever-present threat of direct Ottoman rule."[37] In 1649, Patriarch Yuhanna al-Sufrari placed the Maronites under French protection, and the French opened a consulate in Beirut.[38]

The Khāzin sheikhs subsequently increased in power and influence. In 1662, with the mediation of

Jesuit missionaries, Abū Nawfal al-Khāzin was named French consul, despite complaints by Marseille merchants that he was not from Marseille.[36] The Church prospered from the protection and influence of the Khāzins, but at the expense of interference in church affairs, particularly ecclesiastical appointments, which the Khāzins saw as an extension of their political influence.[37]

Bachir Chehab II was the first and last Maronite ruler of the Emirate of Mount Lebanon.[39]

Archbishop of Beirut Tobia Aoun (1803–1871)

The relationship between the Druze and

1860 Mount Lebanon civil war.[41][42]

The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early Eighteenth Century, through a governing and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[43]

French rule

Main article: Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon

Independent Lebanon

Main article: Christianity in Lebanon

Synod of Mount Lebanon (1736)

Maronite orientalist Joseph Simon Assemani presided as papal legate for Pope Clement XII. The synod drafted a Code of Canons for the Maronite Church and created the first regular diocesan structure.[34] The Council of Luwayza led to a more effective church structure and to gradual emancipation from the influence of Maronite families.[44]

Latinization

Saint Charbel

Due to closer ties with the Latin Church, the Maronite Church is among the most Latinized of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Contacts between the Maronite monks and Rome were revived during the Crusades. The Maronites introduced to Eastern Churches Western devotional practices such as the rosary and the Stations of the Cross.[31] Late in the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII sent Jesuits to the Lebanese monasteries to ensure that their practice conformed to decisions made at the Council of Trent.[32] The Maronite College in Rome was established by Gregory XIII in 1584.[37] The Maronite missal (Qurbono) was first printed between 1592 and 1594 in Rome, although with fewer anaphoras.

Patriarch

Stephan al-Duwayhî (1670–1704), (later declared a "Servant of God"), was able to find a middle ground between reformers and conservatives, and re-vitalized Maronite liturgical tradition.[35]

The Synod of Mount Lebanon sought to incorporate both traditions. It formalized many of the Latin practices that had developed, but also attempted to preserve ancient Maronite liturgical tradition. The Synod did not sanction the exclusive use of the Roman ritual in the administration of Baptism. However, in the Eastern tradition, the oil of catechumens is blessed by the priest during the baptismal rite. This blessing was now reserved to the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday. A practice common among all the Eastern Churches is to administer Baptism and First Communion together. Unlike in other Eastern Catholic churches and similar to the Latin Church, Holy Communion is to be given only to those who have attained the age of reason; priests were forbidden to give Communion to infants.[45]

In Orientale lumen, the Apostolic Letter to the Churches of the East, issued 2 May 1995, Pope John Paul II quotes Orientalium Ecclesiarum, the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches:

It has been stressed several times that the full union of the Catholic Eastern Churches with the Church of Rome which has already been achieved must not imply a diminished awareness of their own authenticity and originality. Wherever this occurred, the Second Vatican Council has urged them to rediscover their full identity, because they have "the right and the duty to govern themselves according to their own unique disciplines. For these are guaranteed by ancient tradition and seem to be better suited to the customs of their faithful and to the good of their souls."[46]

Cardinal Sfeir's personal commitment accelerated liturgical reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992 he published a new Maronite Missal.[35] This represents an attempt to return to the original form of the Antiochene Liturgy, removing the liturgical Latinization of past centuries. There are six Anaphoras.

Patriarch Sfeir stated that

Sacrosanctum concilium and the Roman liturgical changes following Vatican II apply to the Maronite Church. Sancrosanctum Concilium says, "Among these principles and norms there are some which can and should be applied both to the Roman rite and also to all the other rites. The practical norms which follow, however, should be taken as applying only to the Roman rite, except for those which, in the very nature of things, affect other rites as well."[47]

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 Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya, in the Zgharta district, North Lebanon

Patriarchate of Antioch

The head of the Maronite Church is the

Patriarch of Antioch and the Whole Levant, who is elected by the Maronite bishops and resides in Bkerké, close to Jounieh, north of Beirut. He resides in the northern town of Dimane during the summer.[16]

There are four other claimants to the Patriarchal succession of Antioch:

diocesan priests in the Middle East are married.[48] Due to a long-term understanding with their Latin counterparts in North America, Maronite priests in that area have traditionally remained celibate. However, in February 2014, Wissam Akiki was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the U.S. Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon at St. Raymond's Maronite Cathedral in St. Louis. Deacon Akiki is the first married man to be ordained to the Maronite priesthood in North America and will not be expected to remain continent.[49]

Episcopates

The Maronite church has twenty-six eparchies and patriarchal

vicariates as follows:[50]

A map depicting the dioceses of the Maronite Church by number of faithful

Middle East

Worldwide Immediately subject to the Patriarch

Elsewhere

Exempt, i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See:
Subject to the Synod in matters of liturgical and particular law, otherwise exempt, i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See and its Dicastery for the Eastern Churches:
Suffragan Eparchies in the ecclesiastical provinces of Latin Metropolitan Archbishops; both in South America:

Titular sees

Religious institutes (orders)

Population

Main articles:
Maronite Christianity in Lebanon

In the 12th century, about 40,000 Maronites resided in the area around Antioch and modern-day Lebanon.[34] By the 21st century, estimates suggest that the Maronite diaspora population may have grown to more than twice the estimated 2 million Maronites living in their historic homelands in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.[57]

According to the official site of the Maronite church, approximately 1,062,000

Cypriot Maronite Arabic from Kormakitis.[59][60] A noticeable Maronite community exists in northern Israel (Galilee), numbering 7,504.[58]

Diaspora

Maronite Pastoral Center in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

Immigration of Maronite faithful from the Middle East to the United States began during the latter part of the nineteenth century. When the faithful were able to obtain a priest, communities were established as parishes under the jurisdiction of the local Latin bishops. In January 1966, Pope Paul VI established the Maronite Apostolic Exarchate for the Maronite faithful of the United States. In a decree of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, Bishop Francis Mansour Zayek was appointed the first exarch. The see, in Detroit, Michigan, with a cathedral under the patronage of Saint Maron, was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Detroit. In 1971, Pope Paul VI elevated the Exarchate to the status of an Eparchy, with the name of Eparchy of Saint Maron of Detroit. In 1977, the see of the Eparchy of Saint Maron was transferred to Brooklyn, New York, with the cathedral under the patronage of Our Lady of Lebanon. The name of the Eparchy was modified to Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn.[18]

In 1994, the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon was established with the cathedral at Los Angeles, California, under the patronage of Our Lady of Lebanon.[18] John George Chedid, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, was ordained as the first Bishop of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles at the Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Los Angeles, California, where he served until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 80. In December 2000, Robert Joseph Shaheen succeeded Chedid as eparch.

Eparchies operate in

São Paulo in Brazil, as well as in Colombia, Mexico, France, Australia,[61] South Africa, Canada and Argentina.[58]

Former Brazilian president

Lebanese Brazilian to have led the nation, was the son of two Maronite Catholic Lebanese immigrants.[62][63]

Other

See also

References

  1. ^ Assemani, Maronite Light from the East for the Church and the World
  2. ^ Studia Humana Volume 2:3 (2013), pp. 53—55
  3. ^ Synod of the Maronite Church Patriarchal Synod
  4. ^ Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, head of the Maronite Church who steered a difficult course between factions in the Middle East – obituary
  5. ^ Maronite patriarch elevates St. Maron pastor to chorbishop during Detroit visit
  6. ^ Maronite liturgy draws from Eastern and Western traditions, Catholics and cultures
  7. ^ The Maronite Divine Liturgy, By Dr Margaret Ghosn, Our Lady of Lebanon parish Australia
  8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ Richard P. Mc Brien, The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism (New York: Harper One, 2008), 450. O'Brien notes: The Vatican II document, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, "acknowledged that the Eastern Catholic communities are true Churches and not just rites within the Catholic Church."
  10. ^ Book of Offering: According to the Rite of the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church. Bkerke, Lebanon: Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East. 2012.
  11. ^ History of the Maronites, Maronite Heritage.com, 13 April 2016.
  12. ^ Beggiani, Seely. "Aspects of Maronite History—Monastery of St. Maron". Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn. Archived from the original on 2 March 2001. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  13. ^ No'man 1996, p. 22.
  14. ISBN 9781443870948
    . The Maronites are an ethnoreligious group in the Levant.
  15. ^ "Eastern Catholic Churches Worldwide 2017" (PDF). Catholic Near East Welfare Association. 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  16. ^ a b c "Maronite Church". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  17. ^ "About the Maronite Rite - Our Lady's Maronite Catholic Church". Archived from the original on 25 May 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  18. ^ a b c "MARONITE HISTORY & SAINT MARON - St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  19. ^
    ISBN 9780888448095
    – via books.google.com.
  20. ^ "There are 3,198,600 Maronites in the World". Maronite-heritage.com. 3 January 1994. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  21. ^ Attwater, Donald; The Christian Churches of the East
  22. JSTOR 1454219
    .
  23. ^ a b Moosa 1986, pp. 195–216.
  24. ^ "The Story of the Maronite Catholics - The Maronite Monks of Adoration". Archived from the original on 22 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  25. S2CID 163021809
    .
  26. ^ Donald Attwater (1937). Joseph Husslein (ed.). The Christian Churches of the East: Volume I: Churches in Communion With Rome. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company. pp. 165–167.
  27. ^ Bury, J.B., A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, Vol. II, MacMillan & Co., 1889, p. 321
  28. ISBN 0-8047-3163-2
    ,
  29. ISBN 0-8135-0599-2
  30. ^ a b "PureHost". www.stmaron.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2015.
  31. ^ a b c "Maronites Between Two Worlds – Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn". www.stmaron.org. Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  32. ^
    ISBN 9781136787164
    – via Google Books.
  33. ^ "THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES". www.maryourmother.net. Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
  34. ^
    CNEWA
    . Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  35. ^
    ISBN 9780195138863
    .
  36. ^
    ISBN 9004099786
    – via Google Books.
  37. ^
    ISBN 9781135193713
    – via Google Books.
  38. ISBN 9781444392609
    – via Google Books.
  39. ^ Moosa 1986, p. 283.
  40. ^
  41. ISBN 9780520087828
    . Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  42. ISBN 0-903983-92-3
    .
  43. ISBN 9780817916664
    . the Maronites and the Druze, who founded Lebanon in the early eighteenth century.
  44. ISBN 9780520954717
    – via Google Books.
  45. ^ "PureHost". www.stmaron.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014.
  46. ^ "CIN - Orientale Lumen Pope John Paul II". www.cin.org.
  47. ^ "Sacrosanctum concilium". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 21 February 2008.
  48. ISBN 978-1-4443-3361-9
    .
  49. ^ "First married man ordained priest for U.S. Maronite Catholic Church". National Catholic Reporter. 28 February 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  50. ^ Church website Archived 23 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 20 March 2011
  51. ^ Soumen. "MARONITE EPARCHY OF OUR LADY OF LOS ANGELES". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  52. ^ "Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  53. ^ "Home". Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  54. ^ "OAM - Accueil". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  55. ^ Mariamite Maronite Order (O.M.M.) Archived 28 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine Arabic
  56. ^ "Congregation Of Maronite Lebanese Missionaries". Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  57. Infobase
    , 2009), p. 446.
  58. ^ a b c d Annuario Pontificio : The Eastern Catholic Churches 2008 Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  59. ^ Maria Tsiapera, A Descriptive Analysis of Cypriot Maronite Arabic, 1969, Mouton and Company, The Hague, 69 pages
  60. ^ "Cyprus Ministry of Interior : European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages : Answers to the Comments/Questions Submitted to the Government of Cyprus Regarding its Initial Periodical Report" (PDF). 28 July 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  61. ^ M. Ghosn, Maronite institutional development across Australia, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 31/2 (2010/11) Archived 15 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, 15-26.
  62. ^ "Son of Lebanese immigrants, Brazil's new president is friend to Jewish community". Times of Israel. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  63. ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (2016). "The enduring success of Latin American politicians of Arab origin". Washington Post.
  64. ^ "The Maronite Central Council Medal, About Us - Central Council of the Maronite Societies". Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  65. ^ "Great Cross of the Maronite Central Council, About Us - Central Council of the Maronite Societies". Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  66. ^ "The King of Morocco Mohamad VI Awards Prince Alwaleed His 60th Honorary Medal - Kingdom Holding Company". Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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