MABOVITBS
685
MABomrsa
Qjrias being the liturgical language, thou^ the Gos-
pel is read in Arabic for the benefit of the people,
tiany of the priests, who are not sufficiently leamea to
perform the Liturgy in Syriac, use Arabic instead, but
Arabic written in ^iiac characters (Karahuni), The
Liturgy is of the Syrian type, i. e., the Liturgy of St.
James, but much c&sfigured by attempts to adapt it to
Roman usages. Adaptation, often useless and ser-
vile, to Roman usages is the distinguishing character-
istic of the Maromte among Oriental Rites. This
appears, not onlv in the Liturgy, but also in the admin-
istration of all the Sacraments. The Maronites conse-
crate unleavened bread, they do not mingle warm wa-
ter in the Chalice, and the}^ celebrate many Masses at
the same altar. Communion under both kinds was
discouraged by Gregory XIII and at last formally
forbidden in 1736, though it is still permitted for the
deacon at high Mass. Benedict XIV forbade the com-
municating of newly baptized infants. Baptism is ad-
ministered in the Latin manner, and since 1736 confir-
mation, which is reserved to the bishop, has been given
separately. The formula of absolution is not depre-
cative, as it is in other Eastern Rites, but indicative,
as in the Latin, and Bilaronite priests can validly ab-
solve Catholics of all rites. The orders are: tonsure,
paaUe, or chanter, lector, sub-deacon, deacon, priest.
Ordination as psalte may be received at the ag^ of
seven; as deacon, at twenty-one; as priest, at tmrty,
or, with a dispensation, at twenty-five. Wednesday
and Friday of everv week are days of abstinence; a
fast lasts until middav, and the abstinence is from
meat and eggs. Lent fasts for seven weeks, beginning
at Quinquagesima; the fast is observed every day ex-
cept Saturoays, Sundays, and certain feast days; fish
is allowed. There are neither ember days nor vigils,
but there is abstinence during twenty days of Advent
and fourteen days preceding the feast of Sts. Peter
and Paul. Latin devotional practices are more cus-
tomary among the Maronites than in any other Uniat
Eastern Church — ^benediction of the Blessed Sacra-
ment, the Way of the Cross, the Rosary, the devotion
to the Sacred Heart, etc.
(6) The Faithful. — In the interior of the country the faithful are strongly attached to their faith and very respectful to the monks and the other clergyr. Sur- rounded by Mussulmans, schismatics, and heretics, they are proud to call themselves Roman Catholics; but education is as yet but little developed, despite the laudable efforts of some of the bishops, and although schools have been established, largely through the ef- forts of the Latin missionaries and the support of the society of the Ecoles d'Orient, besides the Collie de la Sagesse at. Beirut. Returning emigrants do nothing to raise the moral and religious standard. The in- fluence of the Western press is outrageously bad. Wealthy Maronites, too often indifferent, if not worse, do not concern themselves about this state of affairs, which is a serious cause of anxiety to the more intelli- gent and enlightened among the clergy. But ^e Maronite nation as a whole remains faithful to its tra- ditions. If they are not exactly the most iniportant community of Elastem Uniats in point of numbers, it is at least true to say that they form the most effective fulcrum for the exertion of a Catholic propaganda in the Lebanon and on the Syrian coast.
II. HiaroRY OF the Maronites. — All competent au- thorities agree as to the history of the Maronites as far back as the sixteenth century, but beyond that period the unanimity ceases. They themselves assert at once the high antiquity and uie perpetual orthodoxy of their nation; but lx>th of these pretensions have constantly been denied by their Christian — even Cath- olic — rivals in Syria, the Bielchites, whether Catholic or Orthodox, the Jacobite Svrians, and the Catholic Syrians. Some European scholars accept the Biaro- nlte view; the majority reject it. So many points in (ke Ji^rimitive history of the nation are still obscure
that we can here only set forth the aiguments ad-
vanced on either side, without drawing any conclusion.
The whole discussion gravitates around a text of the twelfth century. William of Tyre (De Bello Sacro, XX, viii) relates the conversion of 40,000 Maronites in the year 1 182. The substance of the leading text is as follows: "After they [the nation that had oeen con- verted, in the vicinity of Byblos] had for five hundred years adhered to the false teaching of an heresiarch named Maro, so that they took from him the name of Maronites, and, being separated from the true Church had been following their own peculiar liturgy [ab eccle- sia fidelium sequestrati seorsim sacramenta conficerent sua], they came to the Patriarch of Antioch, Aymery. the thira of the Latin patriarchs, and, having abjured their error, were, with their patriarch and some oish- ops, reunited to the true Church. They declared themselves ready to accept and observe the prescrip- tions of the Roman Church. There were more than 40,000 of them, occupying the whole region of the Ld> anon, and they were of great use to the Latins in the war against the Saracens. The error of M^ro and his adherents is and was, as may he read in the Sixth Council, that in Jesus Christ there was, and had been since the beginning, only one will and one ener;^. And after their separation they had embraced stm other .pernicious doctrines."
We proceed to consider the various interpretations given to this text.
A. The Maronite Position, — ^Maro, a Syrian monk, who died in the fifth century and is notioed by Theo- doret (ReligionisHistoria, xvi), had ^thered together some disci^es on the banks of the Orontes, between Emesa and Apamea. After his death the faithful built, at the place where he had lived, a monastery which they named after him. When Syria was di- vided by heresies, the monks of Blit-Marun remained invariably faithful to the cause of orthodoxy, and ral- lied to it the neighbouring inhabitants. This was the cradle of the Maronite nation. The Jacobite chroni- clers bear witness that these populations aided the Em- peror Heraclius in the struggle against Monophysitism even by force (c. 630). Moreover, thirty years later when Mu'awyaii, the future caliph, was governor of Damascus (658-59), they disputed with the Jacobites in his presence, and the Jacobites, beingworsted, had to pay a large penalty. The Emperor Ueraclius and his successors having meanwhile succumbed to the Monothelite heresy, which was afterwards condemned in the Council of 681, the Maronites, who until then had been partisans of the Byzantine emperor (Mel- chites), broke with him, so as not to be in communion with a heretic. From this event dates the national independence of the Maronites. Justinian II (Rhin- otmetes) wished to reduce them to subjection: in 694 his forces attacked the monastery, destroyed it, and marched over the mountain towards Tripoli, to cem-
glete their conquest. But the Maronites, with the atholic Patriarch of Antioch, St. John Maro, at their head, routed the Greeks near Amiun, and saved that autonomy which they were able to maintain through succeeding a^es. They are to be identified with the Mardaltes of Syria, who, in the Lebanon, on the frontier of the Empire, successfully struggled with the Byzantines and the Arabs. There the Crusaders found them, and formed very close relations with them. William of Tyre relates that, in 1182, the Maronites to the number of 40,000, were converted from Monothelitism; but either this is an error of in- formation, due to William's having copied, without critically examining, the Annals of Eutychius, an Egyptian Melchite who calumniated the Bilaronites, or else these 40,000 were only a very small part of the na- tion who had, through ignorance, allowed themselves to be led astray by the Monothelite propaganda of a bishop named Thomas of Kfar-tas. Besides, the Biar- onites can show an unbroken list of patriarcha Vmi-
