Video/The Maronites History and Liturgy/Fron Bouna Antonio youtube Channel
This short video gives a glance into the Maronites’ History and Liturgy. Presented to : The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas – Angelicum (Roma) Prepared by : Br Charbel Nasr omm – Br Charbel Souaid omm – Br Ali Chameseddine omm Narrator : Deacon Charbel Bteich omm The History text was retrieved from www.maronite-heritage.com by Fr. Antonio Elfeghali
Aspects of Maronite History by Chorbishop Seely Bejjani The Crusades www.maronite-heritage.com
Very little is known about the Maronites in Lebanon between the time of their being established there in the seventh and eighth centuries and the coming of the Crusades in the eleventh century. During this period the Maronites and the region were dominated by the Abbasids, whose rule was often severe and who persecuted and decimated the Maronites.
When the first Crusaders arrived in Lebanon in 1098, they were surprised and pleased to find fellow Christians who welcomed them with hospitality. We are told that the Maronites were of great assistance
to the Crusaders both as guides and as a fighting force of 40,000 men known for their prowess in battle.
The Franciscan F. Suriano, writing some time later, described them as “astute and prone to fighting and battling. They are good archers using the Italian style of cross-bowing.” The Crusaders not only passed
through Lebanon on the way to the Holy Places, but established themselves in the country and built fortresses in a number of areas, the ruins of which remain to this day. Close relations were also established between the Latin hierarchy who accompanied the Crusaders and the Maronite Church.
With the coming of the Crusaders, it would seem that the Maronites made a conscious decision to seek the support of the West. Prior to this time, the Maronites lived and thought on a provincial level. Their
major concerns were to defend themselves against local heretics, a struggle based not only on a religious plane, but also on ethnic and cultural levels, and to attempt to establish a modus vivendi with Arab
rulers. With the coming of the Crusaders they began to look to the West for assistance. Ties with the Holy See became closer, Western practices were adopted, and Latin influences and changes in the Maronite liturgy took place.
The Lebanese historian, Philip Hitti, observes: “Of all the contacts established by the Latins with the peoples of the Near East, those with the Maronites proved to be most fruitful, the most enduring.
Disabilities, particularly those imposed by the Ummayyad ‘Umar, the Abbasid al-Muttawakkil, and the Fatimid al-Hakim under which the Christian minorities — at best second class citizens — lived had
conditioned them for foreign influences and rendered them especially receptive to friendly approaches from Westerners.”
The era of the Crusades produced a veritable renaissance in the Maronite Church. Numerous churches were built and works of religious art were produced at this time. Ernest Renan cites churches in the
towns of Hattoun, Maiphouq, Helta, Toula, Bhadidat, Ma’ad, Koura, and Semar-Jebail among others as examples.
The Maronite Church, www.maronite-heritage.com The Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with rome, has a history reaching back to the fifth century. The monks of the monastery of St. Maron, from which the Church takes her name, were fierce opponents of the Monophysite heresy who learned to be independent during the violent theological struggle. At one point, the Monophysites killed three hundred fifty monks loyal to the teachings of the council of Chalcedon. Correspondence of the time between St. Maron [the monastery] and Pope Hormisdas reveals that Rome recognized a degree of autonomy among the Maronites even then.
In the seventh century, during the conflict with the Arabs, the Patriarchs of Antioch moved to Constantinople and were appointed by the emperor, thus leaving the Chalcedonians in Syria without a patriarch. In response, the monks of St. Maron and other local bishops elected the first Maronite patriarch in 685.
By the mid-eighth century, most Maronites had moved to Lebanon and established a tightly-knit Christian society presided over even in temporal affairs by the patriarch. The Crusades brought the Maronites into direct contact with the West, and in 1215 the Maronite patriarch participated in the Fourth Lateran Council and later received the pallium from Pope Innocent III.
From that time on, ties have been very strong between the Maronites and Rome, leading to a degree of Latinization of this Oriental Church. The use of Syriac, however, has been retained in the Maronite Liturgy.
Because of constant political turmoil and intermittent war with Muslims, many Maronites have left Lebanon. The Maronite patriarch still resides in [Lebanon] but has jurisdiction over dioceses in Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Australia, Brazil and the United States.
