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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Maronites</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09683c.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="History of the Maronite nation and Church"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="09683c.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/m.htm">M</a> > Maronites</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Maronites</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>This article will give first the present state of the Maronite nation and <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; after which their history will be studied, with a special examination of the much discussed problem of the origin of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and the nation and their unvarying <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>.</p> <h2 id="section1">Present state of the Maronites</h2> <h3 id="A">Ethnographical and political</h3> <p>The Maronites (Syriac <em>Marunôye;</em> Arabic <em>Mawarinah</em>) number about 300,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, distributed in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, Palestine, <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>. Of this number about 230,000 inhabit the Lebanon, forming nearly five-eighths of the population of that vilayet and the main constituent of the population in four out of seven kaïmakats, viz., those of Batrun, Kasrawan, Meten, and Gizzin (the Orthodox Greeks predominating in Koura, the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Greeks in Zahlé, and the Druses in Shûf). They are of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a> race, but for many centuries have spoken only Arabic, though in a dialect which must have retained many Syriac peculiarities. In the mountain districts manners are very simple, and the Maronites are occupied with tillage and cattle-grazing, or the silk industry; in the towns they are engaged in commerce. Bloody vendettas, due to <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> and clan rivalries, are still kept up in the mountain districts. The population increases very rapidly, and numbers of Maronites <a href="../cathen/10291a.htm">emigrate</a> to the different provinces of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman Empire</a>, to <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, particularly <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, to the French colonies, but most of all to the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a>. The emigrants return with their fortunes made, and too often bring with them a taste for luxury and pleasure, sometimes also a decided indifference to religion which in some instances, degenerates into hostility.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>For many centuries the Maronite mountaineers have been able to keep themselves half independent of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Ottoman Empire</a>. At the opening of the nineteenth century their organization was entirely <a href="../cathen/06058c.htm">feudal</a>. The aristocratic <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">families</a>  who, especially when they travelled in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, affected princely rank  elected the emir. The power of the Maronite emir preponderated in the Lebanon, especially when the Syrian <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> of Benî Shibâb forsook <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Islam</a> for <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. The famous emir Beshîr, ostensibly a <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a>, was really a Maronite; but after his fall the condition of the Maronites changed for the worse. A merciless struggle against the Druses, commencing in 1845, devastated the whole Lebanon. Two emirs were then created, a Maronite and a Druse, both bearing the title of Kaïmakam, and they were held responsible to the Pasha of Saïda. In 1860 the Druses, impelled by fanaticism, massacred a large number of Maronites at <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> and in the Lebanon. As the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> Government looked on supinely at this process of extermination, <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> intervened: an expedition led by General de Beaufort d'Hautpoult restored order. In 1861 the present system, with a single governor for all the Lebanon, was inaugurated. This governor is appointed by the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> Government for five years. There are no more <a href="../cathen/06058c.htm">feudal</a> <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a>; all are equal before the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>, without distinction of race; each nation has its <em>sheik</em>, or mayor, who takes cognizance of communal affairs, and is a judge in the provincial council. Every Maronite between the ages of fifteen and sixty pays taxes, with the exception of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, though contributions are levied on monastic <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>. In contrast to the rule among the other rites, the Maronite patriarch is not <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to solicit his firman of investiture from the sultan; but, on the other hand, he is not the temporal head of his nation, and has no agent at the Sublime Porte, the Maronites being, together with the other <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm#catholic">Uniat</a> communities, represented by the Vakeel of the Latins. Outside of the Lebanon they are entirely subject to the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>; in these regions the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>  e.g., the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>  must obtain their <em>bérat</em>, in default of which they would have no standing with the civil government, and could not sit in the provincial council.</p> <p>Like the other <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> communities of the <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turkish</a> Empire, the Maronites are under the protection of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, but in their case the protectorate is combined with more cordial relations <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the connection between this people and the French as early as the twelfth century. This cordiality has been strengthened by numerous French interventions, from the Capitulations of <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a> to the campaign of 1861, and by the wide diffusion of the <a href="../cathen/06190a.htm">French language</a> and French culture, thanks to the numerous establishments in the Lebanon under the direction of French missionaries  <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>, <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarists</a>, and religious <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> of different orders. It is impossible to foresee what changes will be wrought in the situation of the Maronites, national and international, by the accession to power of the "Young <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a>".</p> <h3 id="B">The Maronite Church</h3> <p>The Maronite Church is divided into nine <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a>: Gibail and Batrun (60,000 <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>); Beirut and one part of the Lebanon (50,000); <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> and Sidon (47,000); <a href="../cathen/02177a.htm">Baalbek</a> and Kesraouan (40,000); Tripoli (35,000); <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> and another part of the Lebanon (30,000); Damascus and Hauran (25,000); Aleppo and Cilicia (5000); <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> (7000). The last-named <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> is under a vicar patriarchal, who also has charge of the Maronite communities in foreign parts  Leghorn, <a href="../cathen/09715b.htm">Marseilles</a>, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>  and particularly those in America.</p> <p><em>(1) The Patriarch</em></p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The official title is <em>Patriarcha Antiochenus Maronitarum.</em> The Maronite patriarch shares the title of Antioch with three other <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a>  the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a>, the Syrian <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>, and the Latin (titular)  one <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schismatical</a> (Orthodox), and one <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretical</a> (Syrian Jacobite). The question will be considered later on, whether, apart from the concession of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, the Maronite patriarch can allege historical right to the title of Antioch. Since the fifteenth century his traditional residence has been the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> of St. Mary of Kanôbin, where are the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> of the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a>. In winter he resides at Bkerke, below Beirut, in the district of Kesraouan. He himself administers the Diocese of Gibail-Batrun, but with the assistance of the titular Bishops of St-Jean d'Acre, <a href="../cathen/14461b.htm">Tarsus</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a>, who also assist him in the general administration of the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchate</a>. He has the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to nominate others, and there are also several patriarchal vicars who are not <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. The patriarch is elected by the Maronite <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, usually on the ninth day after the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> has been declared vacant. He must be not less than forty years of age, and two-thirds of the whole number of votes are required to elect him. On the next day the <a href="../cathen/05479c.htm">enthronization</a> takes place, and then the solemn benediction of the newly elected patriarch. The proceedings of the assembly are transmitted to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> may either approve or disapprove the election; if he approves, he sends the <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">pallium</a> to the new patriarch; if not, he quashes the acts of the assembly and is free to name a candidate of his own choice. The chief prerogatives of the patriarch are: to convoke national councils; to choose and <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrate</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>; to hear and judge charges against <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>; to visit <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> other than his own once in every three years. He <a href="../cathen/02599b.htm">blesses</a> the <a href="../cathen/07421b.htm">holy oils</a> and distributes them to the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a>; he grants <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgences</a>, receives the <a href="../cathen/14741b.htm">tithes</a> and the taxes for <a href="../cathen/05041a.htm">dispensations</a>, and may accept legacies, whether personal or for the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Before 1736 he received fees for ordinations and the blessing of <a href="../cathen/07421b.htm">holy oils</a>; this privilege being suppressed, <a href="../cathen/02432a.htm">Benedict XIV</a> substituted for it permission to receive a <em>subsidium caritativum</em>. The distinctive insignia of the patriarch are the <em>masnaftô</em> (a form of head-dress), the <em>phainô</em> (a kind of cape or cope), the <em>orarion</em> (a kind of <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">pallium</a>), the <a href="../cathen/14714c.htm">tiara</a>, or <a href="../cathen/10404a.htm">mitre</a> (other <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> wear only the orarion and the <a href="../cathen/10404a.htm">mitre</a>), the <a href="../cathen/04515c.htm">pastoral staff</a> surmounted with a cross, and, in the Latin fashion, the pastoral ring and the <a href="../cathen/11601a.htm">pectoral cross</a>. To sum up, the Maronite patriarch exercises over his subjects, virtually, the authority of a <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a>. He himself is accountable only to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and the <a href="../cathen/12456a.htm">Congregation of Propaganda</a>; he is bound to make his visit <em>ad limina</em> only once in every ten years. The present (1910) occupant of the patriarchal throne is Mgr. Elias Hoysk, elected in 1899.</p> <p><em>(2) The Episcopate</em></p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> are nominated by the patriarch. The title of <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm"><em>Archbishop</em></a> (metropolitan), attached to the Sees of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>, <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a>, <a href="../cathen/15109a.htm">Tyre</a> and Sidon, and Tripoli, is purely honorary. A <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> without a <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> resides at Ehden. It has been said above that the patriarch nominates a certain number of <a href="../cathen/08025a.htm">titular</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, besides his spiritual functions, exercises, especially outside of the Vilayet of the Lebanon, a judicial and <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil jurisdiction</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> are assisted by <a href="../cathen/16024c.htm">chorepiscopi</a>, <a href="../cathen/01693a.htm">archdeacons</a>, economi, and periodeutes (<em>bardût</em>). The <a href="../cathen/16024c.htm">chorepiscopus</a> visits, and can also <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrate</a>, churches. The <a href="../cathen/16024c.htm">chorepiscopus</a> of the episcopal residence occupies the first place in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> in the absence of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>. The periodeutes, as his name indicates, is a kind of vicar forane who acts for the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> in the inspection of the rural <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. The economus is the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> coadjutor for the administration of <a href="../cathen/12466a.htm">church property</a> and the episcopal mensa.</p> <p><em>(3) The Clergy</em></p> <p>Of the 300 <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> some are given by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> to regulars, others to seculars. Priests without <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> are <a href="../cathen/03481a.htm">celibate</a> and dependent on the patriarch. The others are married  that is to say, they marry while in <a href="../cathen/10332b.htm">minor orders</a>, but cannot marry a second time. There are about 1100 <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular priests</a> and 800 regulars. The <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> is carried on in five patriarchal and nine <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a>. Many study at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and a great number in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, thanks to the "&OElig;uvre de St Louis" and the burses supported by the French Government. The <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> standard of the Maronite <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> is decidedly higher than that of the <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schismatical</a> and <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretical</a> <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> who surround them. The married <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> of the rural <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> are often very simple men, still more often they are far from well-to-do, living almost exclusively on the <em>honoraria</em> received for Masses and the presents of farm produce given them by the country people. Most of them have to eke out these resources by cultivating their little portions of land or engaging in some modest industry.</p> <p><em>(4) The Religious</em></p> <p>These number about 2000, of whom 800 are <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>. They all observe the rule known as that of St. Anthony, but are divided into three congregations: the oldest, that of St. Anthony, or of Eliseus, was approved in 1732. It was afterwards divided into Aleppines and peasants, or Baladites, a division approved by <a href="../cathen/04034a.htm">Clement XIV</a> in 1770. In the meantime another Antonian congregation had been founded under the patronage of Isaias, and approved in 1740. The Aleppines have 6 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>; the Isaians, 13 or 14; the Baladites, 25. The Aleppines have a <a href="../cathen/12451a.htm">procurator</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, residing near S. Pietro in Vincoli. The <a href="../cathen/09093a.htm">lay brothers</a> give themselves up to manual labour; the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, to <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a>, with the care of <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a>, having charge of a great many <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>. The monastic habit consists of a black tunic and a girdle of leather, a cowl, mantle, and sandals.  There are also seven <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, containing about 200 religious, under a rule founded by a former <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>. At Aintoura, also, there are some Maronite sisters following the Salesian Rule.</p> <p><em>(5) The Liturgy</em></p> <p>The Maronite is a <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a> Rite, Syriac being the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> language, though the Gospel is read in Arabic for the benefit of the people. Many of the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, who are not sufficiently learned to perform the Liturgy in Syriac, use Arabic instead, but Arabic written in Syriac characters (<em>Karshuni</em>). The liturgy is of the Syrian type, i.e., the liturgy of St. James, but much disfigured by attempts to adapt it to Roman usages. Adaptation, often useless and servile, to Roman usages is the distinguishing characteristic of the Maronite among <a href="../cathen/04312d.htm">Oriental Rites</a>. This appears, not only in the Liturgy, but also in the administration of all the Sacraments. The Maronites <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrate</a> unleavened bread, they do not mingle warm water in the Chalice, and they celebrate many Masses at the same altar. <a href="../cathen/04175a.htm">Communion under both kinds</a> was discouraged by <a href="../cathen/07001b.htm">Gregory XIII</a> and at last formally forbidden in 1736, though it is still permitted for the <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a> at high Mass. <a href="../cathen/02432a.htm">Benedict XIV</a> forbade the communicating of newly <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a> infants. Baptism is administered in the Latin manner, and since 1736 confirmation, which is reserved to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, has been given separately. The formula for <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> is not deprecative, as it is in other <a href="../cathen/04312d.htm">Eastern Rites</a>, but indicative, as in the Latin, and Maronite <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> can validly absolve <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> of all rites. The orders are: <a href="../cathen/14779a.htm">tonsure</a>, <em>psalte</em>, or chanter, <a href="../cathen/09111a.htm">lector</a>, sub-deacon, <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a>, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>. Ordination as <em>psalte</em> may be received at the age of seven; as <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a>, at twenty-one; as <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, at thirty, or, with a <a href="../cathen/05041a.htm">dispensation</a>, at twenty-five. Wednesday and Friday of every week are days of abstinence; a fast lasts until midday, and the abstinence is from meat and eggs. <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a> lasts for seven weeks, beginning at <a href="../cathen/12614a.htm">Quinquagesima</a>; the fast is observed every day except Saturdays, <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sundays</a>, and certain feast days; fish is allowed. There are neither <a href="../cathen/05399b.htm">ember days</a> nor vigils, but there is abstinence during twenty days of <a href="../cathen/01165a.htm">Advent</a> and fourteen days preceding the feast of Sts Peter and Paul. Latin devotional practices are more customary among the Maronites than in any other <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm#catholic">Uniat</a> <a href="../cathen/05230a.htm">Eastern Church</a>  benediction of the <a href="../cathen/05584a.htm">Blessed Sacrament</a>, the Way of the Cross, the <a href="../cathen/13184b.htm">Rosary</a>, the devotion to the Sacred Heart, etc.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p><em>(6) The Faithful</em></p> <p>In the interior of the country the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> are strongly attached to their <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and very respectful to the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> and the other <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. Surrounded by <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulmans</a>, schismatics, and <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>, they are proud to call themselves <a href="../cathen/13121a.htm">Roman Catholics</a>; but <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> is as yet but little developed, despite the laudable efforts of some of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and although <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> have been established, largely through the efforts of the Latin missionaries and the support of the <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> of the Ecoles d'Orient, besides the Collège de la Sagesse at <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a>. Returning emigrants do nothing to raise the moral and religious standard. The influence of the Western press is outrageously bad. Wealthy Maronites, too often indifferent, if not worse, do not concern themselves about this state of affairs, which is a serious cause of anxiety to the more intelligent and enlightened among the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>. But the Maronite nation as a whole remains faithful to its traditions. If they are not exactly the most important community of Eastern Uniats in point of numbers, it is at least <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> to say that they form the most effective fulcrum for the exertion of a <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> propaganda in the Lebanon and on the <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a> coast.</p> <h2 id="section2">History of the Maronites</h2> <p>All competent authorities agree as to the history of the Maronites as far back as the sixteenth century, but beyond that period the unanimity ceases. They themselves assert at once the high antiquity and the perpetual <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a> of their nation; but both of these pretensions have constantly been denied by their <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>  even <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a>  rivals in <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchites</a>, whether <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> or Orthodox, the <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobite Syrians</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> Syrians. Some <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> scholars accept the Maronite view; the majority reject it. So many points in the primitive history of the nation are still obscure that we can here only set forth the arguments advanced on either side, without drawing any conclusion.</p> <p>The whole discussion gravitates around a text of the twelfth century. <a href="../cathen/15639a.htm">William of Tyre</a> (De Bello Sacro, XX, viii) relates the conversion of 40,000 Maronites in the year 1182. The substance of the leading text is as follows: "After they [the nation that had been converted, in the vicinity of <a href="../cathen/03092c.htm">Byblos</a>] had for five hundred years adhered to the <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> teaching of an heresiarch named Maro, so that they took from him the name of Maronites, and, being separated from the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> Church had been following their own peculiar liturgy [ab ecclesia fidelium sequestrati seorsim sacramenta conficerent sua], they came to the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, Aymery, the third of the Latin <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a>, and, having <a href="../cathen/01044d.htm">abjured</a> their <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a>, were, with their patriarch and some <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, reunited to the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> Church. They declared themselves ready to accept and observe the prescriptions of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Roman Church</a>. There were more than 40,000 of them, occupying the whole region of the Lebanon, and they were of great use to the Latins in the <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> against the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a>. The <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> of Maro and his adherents is and was, as may be read in the Sixth Council, that in <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ</a> there was, and had been since the beginning only one will and one energy. And after their separation they had embraced still other pernicious doctrines."</p> <p>We proceed to consider the various interpretations given to this text.</p> <h3 id="A">The Maronite position</h3> <p>Maro, a <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, who died in the fifth century and is noticed by Theodoret (Religionis Historia, xvi), had gathered together some disciples on the banks of the Orantes, between Emesa and <a href="../cathen/01592b.htm">Apamea</a>. After his death the faithful built, at the place, where he had lived, a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> which they named after him. When <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> was divided by <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresies</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Beit-Marun remained invariably faithful to the cause of <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>, and rallied to it the neighbouring inhabitants. This was the cradle of the Maronite nation. The Jacobite chroniclers bear witness that these populations aided the Emperor Heraclius in the struggle against <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysitism</a> even by force (c. 630). Moreover, thirty years later when Mu‘awyah, the future caliph, was governor of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> (658-58), they disputed with the <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a> in his presence, and the <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a>, being worsted, had to pay a large penalty. The Emperor Heraclius and his successors having meanwhile succumbed to the <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelite heresy</a>, which was afterwards condemned in the Council of 681, the Maronites, who until then had been partisans of the Byzantine emperor (Melchites), broke with him, so as not to be in communion with a <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretic</a>. From this event dates the national independence of the Maronites. Justinian II (Rhinotmetes) wished to reduce them to subjection: in 694 his forces attacked the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, destroyed it, and marched over the mountain towards Tripoli, to complete their conquest. But the Maronites, with the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, St. John Maro, at their head, routed the Greeks near Amiun, and saved that autonomy which they were able to maintain through succeeding ages. They are to be identified with the Mardaïtes of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, who, in the Lebanon, on the frontier of the Empire, successfully struggled with the <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantines</a> and the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>. There the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusaders</a> found them, and formed very close relations with them. <a href="../cathen/15639a.htm">William of Tyre</a> relates that, in 1182, the Maronites to the number of 40,000, were converted from <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>; but either this is an <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> of information, due to William's having copied, without critically examining, the Annals of <a href="../cathen/05639a.htm">Eutychius</a>, an <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> who <a href="../cathen/03190c.htm">calumniated</a> the Maronites, or else these 40,000 were only a very small part of the nation who had, through <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorance</a>, allowed themselves to be led astray by the <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelite</a> propaganda of a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> named Thomas of Kfar-tas. Besides, the Maronites can show an unbroken list of <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> between the time of St. John Maro and that of <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Pope Innocent III</a>; these <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a>, never having <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">erred</a> in <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, or strayed into <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a>, are the only legitimate heirs of the Patriarchate of Antioch, or at least they have a claim to that title certainly not inferior to the claim of any rival.  Such is the case frequently presented by Maronites, and in the last place by Mgr. Debs, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/02392a.htm">Beirut</a> (Perpétuelle orthodoxie des Maronites).</p> <h3 id="B">Criticism of the Maronite position</h3> <p><em>(1) The Monastery of St. Maro before the Monothelite Controversy</em></p> <p>The existence since the sixth century of a <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> of St. Maro, or of Beit-Marun, between Apamea and Elmesa, on the right bank of the Orontes, is an established fact, and it may very well have been built on the spot where Maro the solitary dwelt, of whom Theodoret speaks. This <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> suffered for its devotion to the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, as is strikingly evident from an address presented by its <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> to the <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">Metropolitan</a> of <a href="../cathen/01592b.htm">Apamea</a> in 517, and to Pope Hormisdas, complaining of the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysites</a>, who had massacred 350 <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> for siding with the <a href="../cathen/03555a.htm">Council of Chalcedon</a>. In 536 the apocrisarius Paul appears at Constantinople subscribing the Acts of the Fourth &OElig;cumenical Council in the name of the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Maro. In 553, this same <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> is represented at the Fifth &OElig;cumenical Council by the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> John and the <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a> Paul. The <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> emperors, particularly Justinian (Procopius, "De Ædific.", V, ix) and Heraclius, gave liberal tokens of their regard for the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>. The part played by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Maro, isolated in the midst of an almost entirely <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> population, should not be underrated. But it will be observed that in the texts cited there is mention of a single <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a>, and not by any means of a population such as could possibly have originated the Maronite nation of later times.</p> <p><em>(2) St. John Maro</em></p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> founder of the Maronite nation, the patriarch St. John Maro, would have lived towards the close of the seventh century, but, unfortunately, his very existence is extremely <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a>. All the Syriac authors and the Byzantine <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> Timotheus derive the name <em>Maronite</em> from that of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a> Beni-Marun. The words of Timotheus are: <em>Maronîtai dè kèklentai àpò toû monasteríon aútôn Marò kalonménou èn Suría</em> (in P.G. LXXXVI, 65 and note 53). <a href="../cathen/12769a.htm">Renaudot</a> absolutely denies the existence of John Maro. But, supposing that he did exist, as may be inferred from the testimony of the tenth-century <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> Patriarch <a href="../cathen/05639a.htm">Eutychius</a> (the earliest text bearing on the point), his identity has baffled all researches. His name is not to be found in any list of <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> Patriarchs of Antioch, whether Greek or Syriac. As the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> of the seventh and eighth centuries were <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a>, there was no reason why St. John Maro should have been placed at the head of an alleged <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> branch of the <a href="../cathen/01567a.htm">Church of Antioch</a>. The episcopal records of Antioch for the period in question may be summarized as follows: 685, election of Theophanes; 686, probable election of Alexander; 692, George assists at the <a href="../cathen/04311b.htm">Trullan Council</a>; 702-42, vacancy of the See of Antioch on account of <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a> persecutions; 742, election of Stephen. But, according to Mgr Debs, the latest Maronite historian, St. John Maro would have occupied the patriarchal See of Antioch from 685 to 707.</p> <p>The Maronites insist, affirming that St. John Maro must have been <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a> because his works present him under that title. The works of John Maro referred to are an exposition of the Liturgy of St. James and a treatise on the Faith. The former is published by Joseph Aloysius Assemani in his "Codex Liturgicus" and certainly bears the name of John Maro, but the present writer has elsewhere shown that this alleged commentary of St. John Maro is no other than the famous commentary of Dionysius bar-Salibi, a <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> author of the twelfth century, with mutilations, additions, and accommodations to suit the changes by which the Maronites have endeavoured to make the Syriac Liturgy resemble the Roman (Dionysius Bar Salibi, "expositio liturgiæ", ed. Labourt, pref.). The treatise on the Faith is not likely to be any more authentic than the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> work: it bears a remarkable resemblance to a <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> treatise of <a href="../cathen/09179b.htm">Leontius of Byzantium</a>, and should therefore, very probably, be referred to the second half of the sixth century and the first half of the seventh  a period much earlier than that which the Maronites assign to St. John Maro. Besides, it contains nothing about <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>  which, in fact, did not yet exist. John Maro, we must therefore conclude, is a very problematic <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a>; if he existed at all, it was as a simple <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a>, not by any means as a <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>.</p> <p><em>(3) Uninterrupted Orthodoxy of the Maronites</em></p> <p>It is to be remembered that before the rise of <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Maro, to whom the Maronites trace their origin, were faithful to the <a href="../cathen/03555a.htm">Council of Chalcedon</a> as accepted by the Byzantine emperors; they were <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchites</a> in the full sense of the term  i.e., Imperialists, representing the Byzantine creed among populations which had abandoned it, and, we may add, representing the Byzantine language and Byzantine culture among peoples whose speech and manners were those of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>. There is no reason to think that, when the Byzantine emperors, by way of one last effort at union with their Jacobite subjects, Syrian and <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a>, endeavoured to secure the triumph of <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>  a sort of compromise between Monophysistism and Chalcedonian <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>  the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Maro abandoned the Imperialist party and faithfully adhered to <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>. On the contrary, all the documents suggest that the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Beit-Marun embraced <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>, and still adhered to that <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresy</a> even after the Council of 681, when the emperors had <a href="../cathen/01044d.htm">abjured</a> it. It is not very difficult to produce evidence of this in a text of Dionysius of Tell-Mahré (d. 845) preserved to us in the chronicle of Michael the Syrian, which shows Heraclius forcing most of the Syrian <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> to accept his Ecthesis, and those of Beit-Marun are counted among the staunchest partisans of the emperor. One very instructive passage in this same chronicle, referring to the year 727, recounts at length a quarrel between the two branches of the Chalcedonians, the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> and the <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelites</a>, where the former are called Maximists, after St. Maximus the confessor, the uncompromising adversary of the <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelites</a>, while the latter are described as the "party of Beit-Marun" and "monks of Beit-Marun". We are here told how the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of St. Maro have a <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> in their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, how they convert most of the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchites</a> of the country districts to <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a> and even successfully contend with the Maximists (i.e., the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>) for the possession of a church at <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>. From that time on, being cut off from communion with the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> (Catholic) <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/01570a.htm">Antioch</a>, they do as the <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a> did before them, and for the same reasons: they set up a separate Church, eschewing, however, with equal horror the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysites</a>, who reject the <a href="../cathen/03555a.htm">Council of Chalcedon</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> who condemn the <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelite</a> Ecthesis of Heraclius and accept the Sixth &OElig;cumenical Council. Why the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Beit-Marun, hitherto so faithful to the Byzantine emperors, should have deserted them when they returned to <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>, we do not <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a>; but it is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that in this defection the Maronite Church and nation had its origin, and that the name <em>Maronite</em> thenceforward becomes a synonym for <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm"><em>Monothelite</em></a>, as well with Byzantine as with <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> or <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> writers. Says the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, referring to this period: "The Maronites remained as they are now. They ordain a patriarch and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> from their <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">convent</a>. They are separated from Maximus, in that they confess only one will in Christ, and say: 'Who was crucified for us'. But they accept the Synod of Chalcedon." <a href="../cathen/06484a.htm">St. Germanus of Constantinople</a>, in his treatise "De Hæresibus et Synodis" (about the year 735), writes: "There are some <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> who, rejecting the Fifth and Sixth Councils, nevertheless contend against the <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a>. The latter treat them as men without sense, because, while accepting the Fourth Council, they try to reject the next two. Such are the Maronites, whose <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> is situated in the very mountains of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>." (The Fourth Council was that of Chalcedon.) <a href="../cathen/08459b.htm">St. John Damascene</a>, a <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctor of the Church</a> (d. 749), also considered the Maronites <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>. He reproaches them, among other things, with continuing to add the words <em>staurotheis dì emâs</em> (Who didst suffer for us on the Cross) to the Trisagion, an addition susceptible of an <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> sense, but which had eventually been prohibited in order to prevent misunderstanding [<em>maronísomen prosthémenoi tô trisagío tèn staúrosin</em> ("We shall be following Maro, if we join the Crucifixion to our Trisagion"  "De Hymno Trisagio", ch. v). Cf. <em>perì òrthoû phronematos</em>, ch. v.]. A little later, Timotheus I, <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of the <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorians</a>, receives a letter from the Maronites, proposing that he should admit them to his communion. His reply is extant, though as yet unpublished, in which he felicitates them on rejecting, as he himself does, the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of more than one energy and one will in Christ (<a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a>), but lays down certain conditions which amount to an acceptance of his <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorianism</a>, though in a mitigated form. Analogous testimony may be found in the works of the <a href="../cathen/10157b.htm">Melchite</a> controversialist Theodore Abukara (d. c. 820) and the Jacobite <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologian</a> Habib Abu-Raïta (about the same period), as also in the treatise "De Receptione Hareticorum" attributed to the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> Timotheus (P.G., 86, 65). Thus, in the eighth century there exists a Maronite Church distinct from the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and from the <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysite</a> Church; this Church extends far into the plain of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a> and prevails especially in the mountain regions about the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Beit-Marun. In the ninth century this Church was probably confined to the mountain regions. The destruction of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Beit-Marun did not put an end to it; it completed its organization by setting up a patriarch, the first known Maronite patriarch <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from 1121, though there may have been others before him. The Maronite mountaineers preserved a relative autonomy between the Byzantine emperors, on the one hand, who reconquered Antioch in the tenth century, and, on the other hand, the <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulmans</a>. The <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusaders</a> entered into relations with them. In 1182, almost the entire nation  40,000 of them  were converted. From the moment when their influence ceased to extend over the hellenized lowlands of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>, the Maronites ceased to speak any language but Syriac, and used no other in their liturgy. It is impossible to assign a date to this disappearance of hellenism among them. At the end of the eighth century the Maronite Theophilus of <a href="../cathen/05282a.htm">Edessa</a> <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knew</a> enough Greek to translate and comment on the Homeric poems. It is very likely that Greek was the chief language used in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Beit-Marun, at least until the ninth century; that <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> having been destroyed, there remained only country and mountain villages where nothing but Syriac had ever been used either colloquially or in the liturgy.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>It would be pleasant to be able at least to say that the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a> of the Maronites has been constant since 1182, but unfortunately, even this cannot be asserted. There have been at least partial defections among them. No <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> the patriarch Jeremias al Amshîti visited <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in 1215, and he is known to have taken home with him some projects of <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> reform. But in 1445, after the <a href="../cathen/06111a.htm">Council of Florence</a>, the Maronites of <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a> return to <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholicism</a> (<a href="../cathen/07191a.htm">Hefele</a>, "Histoire des counciles", tr. Delare, XI, 540). In 1451, <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">Pius II</a>, in his letter to Mahomet II, still ranks them among the <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a>. Gryphone, an illustrious <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flemish</a> <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> of the end of the fifteenth century, converted a large number of them, receiving several into the Order of St. Francis, and one of them, Gabriel Glaï (Barclaïus, or Benclaïus), whom he had caused to be <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Lefkosia in <a href="../cathen/04589a.htm">Cyprus</a>, was the first Maronite scholar to attempt to establish his nation's claim to unvarying <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a>: in a letter written in 1495 he gives what purports to be a list of eighteen Maronite <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> in succession, from the beginning of their Church down to his own time, taken from documents which he assumes to come down from the year 1315.  It is obvious to remark how recent all that is.  The <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> Suriano ("Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell' Oriente di fr. Fr. Suriano", ed. Golubovitch), who was <a href="../cathen/04696b.htm">delegated</a> to the Maronites by <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">Leo X</a>, in 1515, points out many traits of <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorance</a> and many abuses among them, and regards Maro as a <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelite</a>. However, it may be asserted that the Maronites never relapsed into <a href="../cathen/10502a.htm">Monothelitism</a> after Gryphone's mission. Since James of Hadat (1439-48) all their <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> have been strictly <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a>.</p> <h3 id="C">The Maronite Church since the sixteenth century</h3> <p>The Lateran Council of 1516 was the beginning of a new era, which has also been the most brilliant, in Maronite history. The letters of the patriarch Simon Peter and of his <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> may be found in the eleventh session of that council (19 Dec., 1516). From that time the Maronites were to be in permanent and uninterrupted contact with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. Moses of Akbar (1526-67) received a letter from <a href="../cathen/12129a.htm">Pius IV</a>. The patriarch Michael sought the intervention of <a href="../cathen/07001b.htm">Gregory XIII</a> and received the <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">pallium</a> from him. That great pontiff was the most distinguished benefactor of the Maronite Church: he established at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> a <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> for them, and then the Maronite College to which the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> could send six of their subjects. Many famous <em>savants</em> have gone out of this college: George Amira, the grammarian, who died patriarch in 1633; Isaac of Schadrê; Gabriel Siouni, professor at the Sapienza, afterwards interpreter to King Louis XIII and collaborator in the Polyglot Bible (d. 1648); <a href="../cathen/01057a.htm">Abraham of Hakel (Ecchelensis)</a>, a very prolific writer, professor at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and afterwards at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, and collaborator in the Polyglot Bible; above all, the Assemani  Joseph Simeon, editor of the "Bibliotheca Orientalis", Stephanus Evodius, and Joseph Aloysius. Another Maronite college was founded at <a href="../cathen/12662b.htm">Ravenna</a> by <a href="../cathen/08020b.htm">Innocent X</a>, but was amalgamated with that at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in 1665. After the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a> the Maronite College was attached to the <a href="../cathen/12456a.htm">Congregation of Propaganda</a>.</p> <p>In the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchate</a> of Sergius Risius, the successor of Michael, the <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuit</a> Jerome Dandini, by order of <a href="../cathen/04027a.htm">Clement VIII</a>, directed a <a href="../cathen/04423f.htm">general council</a> of the Maronites at Kannobin in 1616, which enacted twenty-one canons, correcting abuses and effecting reforms in <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> matters; the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> reforms of the council of 1596, however, were extremely moderate. Other <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchs</a> were: <a href="../cathen/08508b.htm">Joseph II</a> Risius, who, in 1606, introduced the Gregorian Calendar; John XI (d. 1633), to whom <a href="../cathen/11581b.htm">Paul V</a> sent the <a href="../cathen/11427a.htm">pallium</a> in 1610; Gregory Amira (1633-44); Joseph III of Akur (1644-47); John XII of Soffra (d. 1656). The last two of these <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> converted a great many <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a>. Stephen of Ehdem (d. 1704) composed a history of his predecessors from 1095 to 1699. Peter James II was deposed in 1705, but Joseph Mubarak, who was elected in his place, was not recognized by <a href="../cathen/04029a.htm">Clement XI</a>, and, through the intervention of <a href="../cathen/12456a.htm">Propaganda</a>, which demanded the holding of another council, Peter James II was restored in 1713.</p> <p>Under Joseph IV (1733-42) was held a second national council, which is of highest importance. <a href="../cathen/04030a.htm">Pope Clement XII</a> delegated Joseph Simeon Assemani, who was assisted by his nephew Stephanus Evodius, with an express mandate to cause the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> to be <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> in the Lebanon. The <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuit</a> Fromage was appointed synodal orator. According to the letter which he sent to his superiors (published at the beginning of Mansi's thirty-eighth volume), the chief abuses to be corrected by the ablegate were: (1) The Maronite <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, in virtue of an ancient custom, had in their households a certain number of religious <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>, whose lodgings were, as a rule, separated from the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> only by a door of communication. (2) The patriarch had reserved to himself exclusively the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrate</a> the <a href="../cathen/07421b.htm">holy oils</a> and distribute them among the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in consideration of money payments. (3) Marriage <a href="../cathen/05041a.htm">dispensations</a> were sold for a money price. (4) The <a href="../cathen/05584a.htm">Blessed Sacrament</a> was not reserved in most of the country churches, and was seldom to be found except in the churches of <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> communities. (5) Married <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> were permitted to remarry. (6) Churches lacked their becoming ornaments, and "the members of Jesus Christ, necessary succour", while, on the other hand, there were too many <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>  fifteen to one hundred and fifty <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>. (7) The Maronites of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a> had, for ten or twelve years past, been singing the Liturgy in Arabic only.</p> <p>With great difficultly, J. S. Assemani overcame the ill will of the patriarch and the intrigues of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>: the Council of the Lebanon at last convened in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of St. Mary of Luweïza, fourteen Maronite <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, one Syrian, and one <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> assisting. The abuses enumerated above were reformed, and measures were taken to combat <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorance</a> by establishing <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. The following decisions were also taken: the Filioque was introduced into the Creed; in the Synaxary, not only the first six councils were to be mentioned, but also the Seventh (Nicæa, 787), the Eighth (Constantinople, 869), the <a href="../cathen/06111a.htm">Council of Florence</a> (1439), and the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a>; the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> was to be named in the Mass and in other parts of the liturgy; confirmation was reserved to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>; the <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">holy chrism</a> and the <a href="../cathen/07421b.htm">holy oils</a> was set for <a href="../cathen/10068a.htm">Holy Thursday</a>; the altar bread was to take the circular form in use at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, must be composed only of flour and water, and must contain no oil or salt, after the Syrian tradition; the wine must be mixed with a little water; communion under both species was no longer permitted except to <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> and <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>; the <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">ecclesiastical hierarchy</a> was definitely organized, and the ceremonial of <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">ordination</a> fixed; the number of <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">bishoprics</a> was reduced to eight.</p> <p>The publication of the decrees of this council did not, of course, completely transform Maronite manners and customs. In 1743, two candidates for the <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">patriarchate</a> were chosen. <a href="../cathen/04034a.htm">Clement XIV</a> was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to annul the election: he chose Simon Euodius, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/04611a.htm">Damascus</a> (d. 1756), who was succeeded by Tobias Peter (1756-66). In the next patriarchal reign, that of Joseph Peter Stefani, a certain Anna Agsmi founded a congregation of religious <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> of the Sacred Heart; the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> suppressed the congregation and condemned its foundress, who, by means of her reputation for <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a>, was disseminating grave <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">errors</a>. Joseph Peter, who defended her in spite of everything, was placed under <a href="../cathen/08073a.htm">interdict</a> in 1779, but was reconciled some years later. After him came Michael Fadl (d. 1795), Peter Gemaïl (d. 1797), Peter Thian (1797-1809), and Joseph Dolci (1809-23). The last, in 1818, abolished, by the action of a synod, the custom by which, in many places, there were pairs of <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a>, one for men, the other for <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>. Under Joseph Habaïsch the struggles with the Druses (see I, above) began, continuing under his successor, Joseph Ghazm (1846-55). Peter Paul Massaad (1855-90) during his long and fruitful term on the patriarchal throne witnessed events of extreme gravity  the revolt of the people against the sheikhs and the massacres of 1860. The Maronite Church owes much to him: his firmness of character and the loftiness of his aims had the utmost possible effect in lessening the <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> consequences and breaking the shock of these conflicts. The immediate predecessor of the present (1910) patriarch, Mgr. Hoyek, was John Peter Hadj (1890-99).</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">I. For the councils of 1596 and 1736 see MANSI, <em>Sacrarum conciliorum nova et angmplissima collectio</em> (Florence and Venice, 1759-98). For the history of the Maronites, MICHAEL THE SYRIAN, <em>Chronicle,</em> ed. NAU in <em>Opuscules Maronites</em> in <em>Revue de l'Orient Chrétien,</em> IV.<br> II. ANCIENT WORKS.  Maronite: NAÏRONI, <em>Dissertatio de origine nomine ac religione Maronitarum</em> (Rome, 1679); IDEM, <em>Evoplia fidei</em> (Rome, 1694); J. S. ASSEMANI, <em>Bibliotheca orientalis,</em> I (Rome, 1719), 496 sqq. Western: DANDINI, <em>Missione apostolica al Patriarrca e Maroniti</em> (Cesena, 1656), French tr., SIMON, <em>Voyage du Mont. Liban</em> (Paris, 1685); LE QUIEN, <em>Oriens Christianus,</em> III: <em>Ecclesia Maronitarum de Monte Libano,</em> 1-100. See also the works of the travellers and missionaries among the Maronites; the chief, besides WILLIAM OF TYRE, are JACQUES DE VITRY; LUDOLF OF SUCHEN, <em>De itinere hierosolymitano</em>; GRYPHONE, SURIANO, FROMAGE.<br> III. MODERN WORKS.  Maronite: DEBS, <em>La perpétuelle orthodoxie des Maronites</em> (Beirut, s. d.); CHEBLI, <em>Le patriarcat Maronite d'Antioche</em> in <em>Revue de l'Or. Chrét.,</em> VIII, 133 sqq.; for the Maronite theory, NAU, <em>Opuscules maronites</em> in <em>Rev. de l'Or. chrét.,</em> IV. Western: LAMMENS, <em>Fr. Gryphon et le Liban au XVI<sup>e</sup> siècle</em> in <em>Revue de l'Or. Chrét.,</em> IV, 68 sqq.; and especially the articles of VAILHÉ in <em>Echos d'Orient, Origines religieuses des Maronites,</em> IV, 96, 154; V, 281; <em>Melchites et Maronites,</em> VI, 271; <em>Fra Suriano et la perpétuelle orthodoxie des Maronites,</em> VII, 99; <em>Le monothélisme des Maronites d'après les auteurs Melchites,</em> IX, 91; <em>L'Église Maronite du V<sup>e</sup> au IX<sup>e</sup> siècle,</em> IX, 257, 344; also NEHER, in <em>Kirchenlex.,</em> s.v. <em>Maroniten</em>; KESSLER in <em>Realencyc. für prot. theol.</em>, s.v. <em>Maroniten.</em></p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Labourt, J.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Maronites.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09683c.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Labourt, Jérôme.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Maronites."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 9.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09683c.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron.</span> <span id="dedication">With thanks to St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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