Syrian Catholic Church

      an Eastern Catholic church of the Antiochene rite, in communion with Rome since the 17th century. The Christians of Syria had been Monophysites (monophysite) since the 5th century; that is, they rejected the rulings of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and believed in the existence of only one nature in Christ. Attempts at unification with Rome were made, without success, in 1237 and 1247. With the establishment of the Capuchins and Jesuits in Aleppo in 1626, however, conversions to Catholicism followed; and Andrew Akhidjan, a Syrian Catholic priest, was elected bishop of Aleppo (1656) and then patriarch of all Syrians (1662). Following his death and for about a century thereafter, the Catholics were severely persecuted by the Jacobites (as the Monophysite Syrians were called); not until 1782, when Michael Jarweh, the bishop of Aleppo, was elected patriarch, did a continuous series of Syrian Catholic patriarchs begin. The patriarchs resided successively in Dayr az-Zafaran, Sharfeh, Aleppo, Mardin (in Turkey), and finally Beirut. There are patriarchal vicariates or exarchies in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Egypt, five archdioceses (Aleppo, Baghdad, Damascus, Hịmṣ, and Mosul), and one diocese (Hassakeh). Catholic Syrians observe the Liturgy of St. James in Syriac, though certain readings are in Arabic, the language spoken by the faithful.

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