At the beginning of the re-establishment of the Word as the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America's official magazine, Metropolitan Antony Bashir wrote a series of articles introducing readers to the various Christian communities of Syria and Lebanon. They are of great interest for understanding ecumenical attitudes within the Patriarchate of Antioch in the mid-20th century.
The following is taken from The Word / Al-Kalemat vol. 1, issue 3 (March 1957), pp. 60-63, 66, 83, accessed through the The Hoda Z. Nassour and Herbert R. Nassour Jr., MD, Archive of Lebanese Diaspora, here.
The Mountaineers: The Maronites
by Metropolitan Antony Bashir
From the tenth century the Mountains of Lebanon have sheltered one of the most fascinating Christian bodies of the Middle East. The Maronites are the descendants of hardy mountaineers whose ancestors fled persecution on the plains of Syria, and whose mountain-hung villages bred a community that is almost a nation as well as a Church.
The would-be historian of the Maronites is faced at the outset by a serious difficulty: There are two versions of Maronite history, the one maintained by the Maronites themselves, and the other accepted by the Orthodox, Roman (Latin) Catholics, and all other historians. In justice to these faithful people, who have contributed so much to the Arab Christian cause, we shall present both accounts of the Maronites, and in both instances we shall rely on Roman Catholic histories. If Orthodox and Maronite writers have been less charitable to each other in the past, it is high time that both remember that they are Christian.
The Maronite Version
According to Maronite historians their communion began with the Monks, and neighboring villages, of an ancient monastery at Beit Marun on the banks of the Orontes river between Emesa, Modern Homs, and Apamea in Syria. The monks stoutly resisted the Monophysite heresy of the Jacobites and were eminently loyal to the Orthodox faith. Since the west had not yet separated from the Orthodox Church, Maronite writers say that their community was always faithful to the Pope of Rome, as in common with all Roman Catholics, they believe him to have headed the Church from Apostolic times. In the 7th Century the Maronites had their own bishops, and by 685 one of them, John Maro, took over the Patriarchate of Antioch. The Emperor Justin II tried to force them into heresy, but the Maronites resisted and under the leadership of the Patriarch defeated the Byzantines at Amium in 699. John Maro died in 707 and the Maronites revere him as St. John Maro, with a feast day on March 2. Pressed between the Byzantines and invading Arabs the Maronites emigrated to the Mts. of Lebanon from the 7th Century onward, and some two or three hundred years later the Patriarch also moved, and the Monastery of Beiut Marun was destroyed. The Maronites were unavoidably isolated from the rest of the Roman Church, but remained faithful to it, and when the Crusaders came from the West, formal contact was reestablished in 1182 and never since broken.
The Orthodox and Roman Catholic Version
On the major features of Maronite history the Orthodox and Roman Catholics are in substantial agreement, as are all other non-Maronite scholars.
The Monastery of Beit-Marun was founded on the Orontes in about 410 by the disciples of a recluse, St. Maro, who was a fellow-student of St. John Chrysostom at Antioch. The monastery became an outpost of Byzantine culture and remained Orthodox after Chalcedon, when the Monophysites left the Church. Persecuted by the Jacobites, the Monks were loyal to Byzantium and in 628 the Emperor Heraclius visited Beit Marun and showered it with gifts and privileges.
Heraclius hoped to consolidate his Syrian frontier against he advancing Arabs by establishing religious unity, and in 638 he promoted a compromise creed designed to satisfy both the Orthodox and the Monophysites. Unfortunately the creed avoided the difficulty of "one nature" by affirming one will in Christ. This was the heresy of Monotheletism (from the Greek monos, one, and thelema, will). The Monophysites were pleased by what appeared to be a Victory for their view, and Pope Honorius of Rome and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople agreed to the compromise as did many others.
The Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem, however, refused to acquiesce in the new heresy, and rallied the Church against it. In 680 an Oecumenical Council, the sixth, it was condemned, along with the heresiarchs Pope Honorius of Rome and Sergius of Constantinople.
When the Emperors returned to Orthodoxy, the Monks of Beit Marun remained Monothelite. Many witnesses, accepted by both Orthodox and Roman Catholic historians, testify to this: Michael the Syrian, a Chronicler, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John of Damascus and others. Roman Catholics add that the Maronites must have been heretics because no letter was sent to them from Rome before 1215.
After the Maronites had removed to Lebanon and the Crusaders arrived, the Latin bishops who accepted them into communion with the Papacy called the Maronites heretics. A Crusader Chronicler, William of Tyre, wrote,
"After they had adhered for 300 years to the erroneous teaching of a heresiarch named Maro, after whom they were called Maronites, and being separated from the true Church... came to the 3 Latin Patriarchs of Antioch, Amaoury, and renouncing their error were united to the true Church with their Patriarch and some bishops... There were more than 40,000 of them... The error of Maro was and is... that in J.C.... there is only one will. After their schism they had adopted other evil beliefs." Jacques de Vitry, Crusader of Lyre, wrote that they had been out of the "Church nearly 500 years," following "Maro, a heretic, who taught that there was in Jesus but one will..."
After the Crusades
Whichever account of the early Maronites is endorsed by the reader, the history is fairly certain after the first Union with the Papacy. The Maronites did not all enter the Roman obedience at one time, those on Cyprus submitting as late as 1445. The Maronites were not required to adopt the Latin rite, and were very tenacious of their own customs. An observer had written that, "it was not quite clear whether the Maronites became Roman Catholics, or the Pope became a Maronite!"
In the 16th Century two Councils brought the Maronites closer to the Papal Norm, but in 1936 the Council of the Lebanon gave the Maronite communion the character that it has since preserved. This Council, attended by 14 Maronite and 2 other Papal bishops, marks the real break with the historical past of the Maronites and the beginning of a new era. A letter circulated before the Council outlined the abuses to be corrected: The bishops, by ancient custom, had a number of women living with them; the sacrament was not reserved for the sick; the clergy sold the holy oils and marriage dispensations; there were too many bishops and the diocesan boundaries were not fixed; the Maronites of Aleppo were celebrating the Liturgy in Arabic, and priests were making their own Arabic translations of the Syriac service books. The Council of the Lebanon reformed these abuses and ordered the addition of the Papal interpolation, the filioque, to the Creed, the mention of the Pope's name in the liturgy, the restriction of confirmation to bishops rather than priests. The Maronites were ordered to use unleavened western altar bread in the future, and the laity were forbidden to receive the wine in communion. A previous council, in 1606, had adopted the Gregorian calendar.
In 1753 Pope Benedict Lambertini settled a quarrel between the Maronites and the newly converted Melkites. The Maronites were converting Melkites into Maronites and the Melkite leader Seraphim Tanos fought back by destroying pictures of St. John Maro, whom he called a Monothelite. A few years later Rome intervened again to suppress the activities of a nun of Aleppo, Anne Ajjemi, who developed rather wild fancies and gained the support of the Maronite Patriarch Joseph Estephan. The Patriarch was suspended by the Pope from 1779 to 1784.
The Maronites in Lebanon were led by an Emir under the Turks, but were always in danger of Moslem persecution. The Druses, a deviation of Islam, were also ruled by an Emir appointed by the Ottomans, and in 1845 the Maronite and Druse Emirs declared war on each other. In 1860 while the Turkish authorities looked on, the Druses attacked the Maronites and in less than a month 360 villages were destroyed, 600 Churches and monasteries were ruined, and almost 8,000 Maronites were killed. France intervened to protect the Maronites and Lebanon was given a new form of government designed to maintain peace.
The Maronite Church jealously guarded its independence through the centuries and accepted the Papacy on its own terms. Roman Catholic writers say that the Maronite Patriarch Paul Masad refused to attend the Vatican Council in 1870 for fear of losing his independence, and the four Maronite bishops who did attend voted against Papal infallibility right to the end. During World War II some of the bishops declared their independence, but unity was restored, and when the late Patriarch Peter Arida died, Rome disregarded the rights of the bishops to elect and appointed a successor. Thus it appears that Maronite autonomy is a thing of the past.
Size and Organization
The Maronites claim some half million members, most of them in Lebanon. There are over forty parishes in the United States. The head of the Church, under the Pope is called the "Patriarch of Antioch and All the East", who resides at Bkerke or Dimam in Lebanon. There are normally about a dozen Metropolitans and bishops assisting the Patriarch, and the Maronites keep alive the ancient office of Chorbishop. These prelates are priests who wear the Mitre, carry the crosier, and administer confirmation and minor orders. There are about 1,000 monks and 400 Nuns in the Church, and the Monasteries own approximately one-third of the real estate in Lebanon.
The People
The Maronite laity are similar in life and social status to the Orthodox, although more of them are located in remote villages. Roman Catholic writers say, "the general standard of ecclesiastical education is not high". This is not surprising when one recalls the persecutions the communion has suffered, and the difficult lot of the married village priests, who must often farm for a living.
Churches, Services and Vestments
The official Maronite liturgical language is Syriac, although Arabic is used for many services, and since Syriac is a dead language among the people, the rubrics (directions) in the liturgical books are written in "Karshuni": Arabic written in Syriac characters. The services are similar to those used by the Arab Orthodox before the Byzantine rite was introduced by the Greeks, and to those still used by the Jacobites, but many revisions have been made under Roman influence. In 1952 the epiclesis was dropped, and the liturgy commonly used today is adapted from the Roman (Latin) mass. The Latin altar bread is used, and Latin vestments are more common than the ancient Syriac style used by the Jacobites. Ashes are used at the beginning of Lent, [as are] the Latin rosary, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and most late Latin devotions. Maran, the hermit, has feast days on February 9 and July 31, and the Patriarch John Maron, March 2nd. The Church buildings and furniture are identical with those of the Latins.
A New Saint
The Maronites in America are currently promoting the canonization of a monk of Lebanon, "Mar Sharbel". Father Sharbel of Beka Kafra was born in 1837 and in due course became a monk. He lived for fifteen years in a monastery at Annaya in Lebanon, and then spent 25 years as a hermit near the community. In December 1898 he became suddenly ill while celebrating the liturgy, and shortly died. His reputation for sanctity attracted pilgrims and in 1928 Rome asked to begin the process of declaring him a saint. In 1949 his grave was opened and his body was found undecayed, the attendant publicity gave great impetus to his popularity, and it is believed that the Papacy will soon add his name to the Calendar of Saints. A number of our illustrations show scenes at Father Sharbel's grave and monastery.
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