The catholic syriaque Church or syriaque Catholic church is one of the Eastern Catholic churches. The chief of the Church carries the title of patriarch of Antioche and all East of the Syrians , with residence with Beirut with the Lebanon (titular current: Its Bliss Mar Ignace Pierre VIII Abdel-Ahad since the February 16th 2001).

The title of Patriarche of Antioche is very disputed and is currently carried also by four other chiefs of Church.

History

Article détaillé : Church of Antioche

Antioche, “queen of the East”

The Syrian Church of Antioche takes its name of the town of Antioche which, after the Roman conquest, became the capital of imperial Syria and was called " Queen of Orient". They is there that one of the first communities of Christians was formed (Acts of the Apostles, 11,19-26) and that for the first time, the disciples of Christ were called " Chrétiens" ( ac . 11,26). The apostles Pierre and Paul remained in this cosmopolitan city, which offered to the disciples of Jesus a medium favorable to their expansion.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 after Jesus-Christ, Antioche remained the only metropolis of Christendom in the East and exerted its jurisdiction on Syria, Phénicie, Arabia, Palestine, Cilicie, Cyprus and Mésopotamie.

The Church of Antioche had as of the beginning a strong missionary spirit. One owes him the evangelization of Mésopotamie and the Persian Empire, to which this area was almost completely annexed as from the year 363 after Jesus-Christ. In the middle of the 4th century, the city counted 100  000 faithful.

The araméen was then the language most spoken in this area and it is still used by the Christians of the North of the Iraq, especially in the area of Ninive.

When Constantinople became the capital of the Roman Empire, Antioche lost much of its importance. However she knew a new splendor under the Arab domination (S). Its missionaries went then to Central Asia, in India, with the Tibet, in China, Mandchourie and with Java.

Beginnings of the Syrian Church of Antioche

Secular antagonism between the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire leads to the scission of the Church of Antioche: The Western Syrian Church, i.e. in the West of Euphrate (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) The Eastern Syrian Church, i.e. in the East of Euphrate (Mésopotamie, Persia, India). In 410 after JC, the council of Séleucie - Ctésiphon recognized the autonomy of the Eastern Syrian Church which, thereafter, adopted the nestorianism.

Syria was also the battle field of christologic controversies which are at the origin of religious division in the East. Indeed, the ecumenical council of Chalcédoine (451) condemned the Monophysisme (which recognized only one nature in Christ) and proclaimed the official doctrines of the Catholic church, namely: the presence of two natures, divine and human, in the single Person of Christ.

The majority of the Syrian population refused the conciliar decisions, because probably of divergences concerned with the terminology more than of theology and it separated from the Catholic church. However this separation was not immediate. It was consumed only starting from the second council of Constantinople, into 553, after which the Byzantine imperial capacity made pressure on the unsubdued monophysites. At this point in time the charismatic figure of the Syrian monk Jacques Baradaï appeared, who raised the flag of religious nationalism. Crowned bishop, in secrecy, by the patriarch of Alexandria in exile, Jacques was made the organizer of the Church monophysite, also called, in its honor " Jacobite".

However all Syria did not join itself the new Church. The company more cultivated and hellenized was subjected without problems to the decisions of the council of Chalcédoine, which was worth the name of " to him; Melchite" (of melek : king), i.e. partisane of the Byzantine emperor. The Moslem conquest of 636 did nothing but devote this division.

Starting from this date, the Church Syrian, anxious to preserve its identity, was folded up more on itself, gathering around its bishops. Also the dash missionary of the Church and the number of faithful started to decrease.

The catholic Syrian Church

The catholics of Syrian rite, at the origin, from Jacobites passed to the union with Rome, as from the 17th century, while preserving their language, their rite and their own ecclesiastical legislation. They constitute a Church with share, with its hierarchy, under the authority of a patriarch.

During centuries spent, various attempts at union were made, in particular at the time of the crusades. During S, the popes sent Dominican missionaries and franciscains, in order to seal the union of the two Churches. The results were limited. A project of union was presented to the council of Lyon in 1245 and one transitory union was carried out in 1444, following the council of Florence of 1439.

It is only at the 17th century that the will of union leads to the formation of the Catholic Syrian Church. Indeed, about the middle of the century, the missionaries Capuchins and Jesuits succeeded in bringing back to Rome the majority of Jacobites d' Alep, so that in 1656 the first Catholic Syrien bishop of this city, André Akhijan, which, later, in 1662, will be recognized by the Sublime Turkish Door, like catholic patriarch of Antioche. However the orthodoxe Syrians to counter this movement of conversions, had recourse to the Turkish secular arm and, throughout the 18th century, persecuted the catholic Syrians hard. The violences exerted against the latter were such as their small Church missed disappearing and remained, of the remainder, without patriarch of 1706 with 1782.

During this period, Métropolite Mikhael Jarweh, Orthodoxe Syrian archbishop of Alep (Syria), convert with Catholicism.

In 1782, the Saint Synod of the orthodoxe Syrian Church elects it like patriarch. Shortly after its establishment, it was declared catholic. It was made recognize like patriarch of all the Syrians and asked Rome confirmation of its load.

In 1783, the Catholic Syrian Church was thus consisted the return to the communion with Rome of part of the Orthodoxe Syrian Church (ex Jacobite).

Meanwhile, the orthodoxe ones reacted and élirent a new Patriarch in their camp, which was confirmed at once by the Sublime Door.

Vis-a-vis this unexpected change, the Jarweh patriarch flees precipitately in Baghdad and from there gained the Lebanese mountain where it settled in 1801, in the north of Beirut, in the monastery of Charfet, famous for its library where more 3&thinsp are preserved; 000 manuscripts syriaques and Arab. After the Jarweh patriarch, there was an uninterrupted series catholic patriarchs.

In 1830, the Turkish government approved civil separation and nun between the two Churches sisters; but it is only into 1843 that the Catholic Syrien patriarch was recognized by the Turkish Sultan like the civil chief of his community.

In 1831, the patriarch Pedro Jarweh transferred her residence from Charfet (Lebanon) to Alep (Syria). In 1851, following a popular rising of the Moslems of this city against the Christians, the patriarchal seat was established in Mardin where an important Syrian community lived. In 1920, it was fixed again at Charfet, where it is currently in summer and in Beirut, in winter.

Tribulations of the Syrian Church of Antioche

The most crucial years were those of the First World War. In 1915, in Tur Abdin, approximately 200  000 Christians were attacked by Kurd bands fanaticized by the proclamation of the Holy war. A third of them perished massacred. The survivors took refuge in Syria, in Lebanon and in Iraq. Since then the center of gravity of the Syrian Church moved Turkish areas of Tur Abdin, Mardin and Nisibis with the arable countries bordering. It remained in Tur Abdin only 15  000 faithful.

The Holy Father encouraged us to start the lawsuit of beatification of our martyrs of 1914-1918.

Patriarch of Antioche and all East

The Syrian Church of Antioche, like all the Eastern Churches, is of patriarchal structure. Its supreme leader carries the title of " patriarch of Antioche, the town of God and all Orient". He is the direct and legitimate heir to the apostolic Church of Antioche, governed by the first bishop martyr, holy Ignace. This is why the patriarchs make precede their name by that of Ignace, as a sign of apostolic continuity.

Extension of the Syrian Church of Antioche

The Catholic Syrians are today approximately 150.000 in the world. They live mainly in Iraq (42.000), in Syria (26.000) and 55.000 of them live in the diaspora.

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