Maronite Church

Eastern-rite community centered in Lebanon (see Eastern Rite Church).

It traces its origin to St. Maron, a Syrian hermit of the 4th–5th century AD, and St. John Maron, under whom the invading Byzantine forces were defeated in 684. For several centuries the Maronites were considered heretics, followers of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, who taught that Jesus had only a divine will and not a human will. No permanent affiliation with Rome took place until the 16th century. A hardy mountain people, the Maronites preserved their freedom in Lebanon during the Muslim caliphate. In 1860 the Ottoman government incited a massacre of the Maronites by the Druze, an event that led to the establishment of Maronite autonomy within the Ottoman empire. The Maronites obtained self-rule under French protection in the early 20th century. Since the establishment of a fully independent Lebanon in 1943, they have constituted a major religious group in the country. Their spiritual leader (after the pope) is the patriarch of Antioch, and the church retains the ancient West Syrian liturgy.

* * *

▪ Christianity

      one of the largest Eastern-rite communities of the Roman Catholic church, prominent especially in modern Lebanon; it is the only Eastern-rite church that has no non-Catholic or Orthodox counterpart. The Maronites trace their origins to St. Maron, or Maro (Arabic Mārūn), a Syrian hermit of the late 4th and early 5th centuries, and St. John Maron, or Joannes Maro (Arabic, Yūḥanna Mārūn), patriarch of Antioch in 685–707, under whose leadership the invading Byzantine armies of Justinian II were routed in 684, making the Maronites a fully independent people.

      Though their traditions assert that the Maronites were always orthodox Christians in union with the Roman see, there is evidence that for centuries they were Monothelites, followers of the heretical doctrine of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, who affirmed that there was a divine but no human will in Christ. According to the medieval bishop William of Tyre, the Maronite patriarch sought union with the Latin patriarch of Antioch in 1182. A definitive consolidation of the union, however, did not come until the 16th century, brought about largely through the work of the Jesuit John Eliano. In 1584 Pope Gregory XIII founded the Maronite College in Rome, which flourished under Jesuit administration into the 20th century and became a training centre for scholars and leaders.

      Hardy, martial mountaineers, the Maronites valiantly preserved their liberty and folkways. The Muslim caliphate (632–1258) could not absorb them, and two caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) paid them tribute. Under the rule of the Ottoman (Ottoman Empire) Turks, the Maronites maintained their religion and customs under the protection of France, largely because of their geographic isolation. In the 19th century, however, the Ottoman government incited a neighbouring mountain people of Lebanon, the Druzes (Druze), against the Maronites, a policy that culminated in the great Maronite massacre of 1860. As a result of this incident, the Maronites achieved formal autonomy within the Ottoman Empire under a nonnative Christian ruler. In 1920, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Maronites of Lebanon became self-ruling under French protection. Since the establishment of a fully independent Lebanon in 1943, they have constituted one of the two major religious groups in the country. The government is run by a coalition of Christian, Muslim, and Druze parties, but the president is always Maronite.

      The immediate spiritual head of the Maronite church after the pope is the “patriarch of Antioch and all the East,” residing in Bkirkī, near Beirut. The church retains the ancient West Syrian liturgy, even though the vernacular tongue of the Maronites is Arabic. Contact with Rome has been close and cordial, but it was not until after the Second Vatican Council that the Maronites were freed of papal efforts to Latinize their rite. French Jesuits conducted the University of St. Joseph, at Beirut.

      Maronites are also found in southern Europe and North and South America, having emigrated in the 19th century under the pressure of persecutions. The émigrés keep their own liturgy and have their own clergy, some of whom are married.

* * *