Maronite Catholic Church

The history of Lebanese Maronites dates back to the end of the 4th century, when a group of students gathered around St. Maron . Later they built a monastery halfway from Aleppo to Antioch . In the 5th-6th centuries, the monastery, where Blessed Theodorite of Cyrus founded the theological school, resolutely opposed the Monophysites and Myaphysites , supporting the Christological teaching of the Council of Chalcedon . In 517, the monastery brothers sent a special message to Pope Gormizd , where she rejected the Monophysite teaching. Therefore, the brethren did not recognize the V Ecumenical Council . But, according to V.V. Bolotov , from ancient times, monks recognized the doctrine of the united will of Christ, and therefore the Maronites supported monothelitism ^[1] .

Ancient Maronite Church

At the end of the 7th century, in connection with the Arab conquest, the Maronites lost contact with Constantinople, who condemned their teachings at the 6th Ecumenical Council, and therefore, in 687 they elected their own patriarch, John Maron . He is credited with a number of writings important to the Maronite church, as well as the rite of the Maronite liturgy. The election of their own patriarch caused a conflict between the Maronites and Byzantium and the supporting Melkites and Jacobites . In 694, Byzantine forces ravaged the monastery of St. Marona, while killing many Maronite monks.

At the beginning of the VIII century, in view of the ongoing persecution, the Maronite monks, together with a group of their followers, moved to a remote area of ​​mountain Lebanon , where they existed for several centuries in relative isolation. It was during this period that they recognized themselves as a special Church and began to call their bishop the patriarch of Antioch and the whole East.

Maronite Catholic Church

In the XII century, when the Principality of Antioch was founded by the crusaders , the Maronites came into contact with the Latin Church . The Maronites actively supported Raimund VI of Toulouse during the siege of Tripoli. In 1182, the Maronites formally confirmed their unity with Rome, but most Maronites believe that they never interrupted their communion with the Roman Church. There is an opinion that prior to contacts with the crusaders, the Maronites were monophilites , however, it is refuted by the Maronites themselves, either denying this or insisting that they were supporters of Maximus the Confessor, who was not rehabilitated at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, who believed that the human will of Christ voluntarily desired the same and his divine will, and did not obey her. In any case, there is no doubt that since 1182 the Maronites have professed Orthodox Christology.

Patriarch Jeremiah I Al-Amshitti (1199-1230) became the first Maronite patriarch to visit Rome, where in 1215 he participated in the Fourth Lateran Council . This visit marked the beginning of close ties with Rome and a tendency toward the Latinization of the Church. Maronite immigrants appeared in Cyprus (XII century), Rhodes (XIV century) and Malta .

In the 16th century, the Turks conquered the homeland of the Maronites, and a long period of Ottoman rule began. At the end of the 16th century, the Maronite patriarchs convened a number of synods, at which they introduced into the church life the decrees of the Council of Trent and partly Latinized the liturgy. In 1584, the Maronite College was founded in Rome, in which many prominent representatives of the Maronite Church were educated and which contributed to a deeper understanding of the heritage of the Maronites in the West. In 1606, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the Maronite Church.

In 1736, the main cathedral of this Church was convened on Mount Lebanon, which carried out important reforms. The legate of the pope was the famous orientalist Joseph Assemani . The Council adopted the code of canons of the Maronite Church, according to which the Church was first divided into dioceses, the rules of church life were established, the main of which have survived to this day. Since the beginning of the 19th century, Western states, especially France , began to support the Maronites that were part of the Ottoman Empire. The Maronite massacre , which was carried out in 1860 by the Druze in alliance with the Turkish authorities, caused an armed invasion of the French. After World War I, Lebanon and Syria came under French control.

In 1944, France granted Lebanon complete independence. By oral agreement, called the “National Pact,” the post of president of the country, as well as a number of key posts in the state, were assigned to representatives of the Maronite community. However, the civil war that erupted in Lebanon in 1975 found that the future of the community remained problematic. About a million Maronites left Lebanon and settled in the West.

Beginning in 1790, the residence of the Maronite Patriarch is located in Bkirki , 25 miles from Beirut .

The church consists of eight archdioceses - Antelias , Beirut , Tripoli and Tire (all in Lebanon ), the Cyprus Archdiocese , Aleppo , Damascus (both Syria ), Haifa ( Israel ); 17 dioceses and two patriarchal exarchates . The church has 1033 parishes, 1359 priests and 41 bishops. The Maronite Church is the largest in Lebanon, it includes 37% of Christians and 17% of the population of Lebanon. According to Annuario Pontificio for 2016, the number of parishioners of the church is 3.54 million people ^[2] . Since 1986, it was led by Patriarch Nasrul Boutros Sfeir . On February 26, 2011, his resignation due to age and state of health was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI. On March 15, 2011, Bechar el-Rai , who was previously Bishop of Byblos, was elected the new patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church.

The Maronite Patriarchate has a theological seminary in Gazir and a diocesan seminary in Karm-Sadd, near Tripoli . Higher theological education can be obtained at the University of the Holy Spirit in Kaslik. In 1584, the Maronite College was founded in Rome.

There are several monastic orders in the Maronite Church, among which the most famous are the male congregations of Mariamites , Baladites , Antonian-Maronites and Lebanese missionaries . One of the most famous monasteries of the Maronite Church is the Kuzaya Monastery, located in the Zgart district of Northern Lebanon .

The total number of maronites in the world is more than 1 million people. According to other sources, where all the people of Maronite origin are apparently included in the number of Maronites, many of whom have long lost their Maronite identity and adhere to the Latin rite, not of Antioch , their number is much higher - 3-4 million people. Most of them are concentrated in Lebanon, where, in accordance with an agreement not fixed in writing, maronite is elected president of the country. Significant maronite groups are found in Syria, Egypt , the USA , Brazil , Argentina , Canada , Australia , Cyprus and other countries.

The question of the nationality of the Maronites is controversial. Many Maronites, despite the fact that they speak Arabic , consider themselves not Arabs , but the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians ^[3] .

Church Structure

•   Lebanon
  • Diocese of Dzhubbe, Sarba and Dzhunii - own diocese of the Antiochian Maronite patriarch ;
  • Archdiocese of Antelias , Archdiocese of Beirut , Archdiocese of Tire , Archdiocese of Tripoli ;
  • Diocese of Baalbek-Deir el-Ahmar , Diocese of Batrun , Diocese of Byblos , Diocese of Zahle , Diocese of Sidon .

•   Australia
  • Diocese of St. Maron in Sydney

•   Argentina
  • Diocese of Saint Charbel in Buenos Aires

•   Brazil
  • Diocese of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lebanon in Sao Paulo

•   Egypt
  • Diocese of Cairo

•   Israel   State of Palestine
  • Archdiocese of Haifa and the Holy Land .
  • Patriarchal Exarchate of Jerusalem and Palestine

•   Jordan
  • Jordanian Patriarchal Exarchate

•   Canada
  • Diocese of St. Maron in Montreal

•   Cyprus
  • Archdiocese of Cyprus

•   Colombia
  • Apostolic Exarchate of Colombia

•   Mexico
  • Diocese of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Lebanese Martyrs in Mexico City

•   Syria
  • Archdiocese of Aleppo , Archdiocese of Damascus , Diocese of Laodicea .

•   USA
  • Diocese of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lebanon in Los Angeles , Diocese of St. Maron in Brooklyn .

•   France
  • Diocese of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lebanon in Paris .

The Maronite liturgy is of West Syrian origin, but was influenced by East Syrian and Latin traditions .

Six anaphora are used , one of them is of East Syrian origin, five, including the anaphora of St. James , of West Syria. In the liturgy after the Arab invasion, the Arabic language is used . Some communities have maintained the Syriac language of worship.

Maronite priests, like most eastern Catholics, do not observe celibacy .

• Rodionov M. A. Maronita: From the Ethnoconfessional History of the Eastern Mediterranean / Otv. Ed .: D. A. Olderogge , V. P. Matuzov; USSR Academy of Sciences . Institute of Ethnography N.N. Miklouho-Maclay . - M .: Science . The main edition of oriental literature, 1982. - 136 p. - 2000 copies.
• Rodionov M.A. , Sarabyev A.V. Maronites: traditions, history, politics / Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences . - M .: IV RAS, 2013 .-- 504 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89282-521-4 .
• Branitsky A.G. , Kornilov A.A. Religions of the region . - N. Novgorod : NNGU named after N.I. Lobachevsky , 2013 .-- 305 p. Archived July 28, 2014 on Wayback Machine

• Gusterin P.V. Contribution of Maronites to the Arab-European cultural cooperation (XVI — XVIII centuries)
• Site of the Maronite Catholic Church
• Structured List of Maronite Dioceses and Bishops
• Rassadin P. A. From the history of the Maronite community of Lebanon: the formation of political confessionalism