They serve by far the greater number of churches.[1] As an example, in the diocese of Sidon of forty-six priests, thirty are Salvatorian monks, the other sixteen are married. In Ba'albek, of fifteen priests ten are Shuwairites, one Alepin, four secular. Most bishops are monks;[2] though this is not a rule.
Besides these three monastic Congregations there is a Congregation of priests, on the lines of those we know in the West, which must be mentioned with special honour. Lord Germanos Mu'aḳḳad was Metropolitan of Ba'albek from 1887 to 1894. He had difficulties there and resigned. So the Patriarch gave him the title of Laodicea (Laḏaḳiyeh), and he went to live in the Lebanon. Here, in 1896, with the encouragement and blessing of Pope Leo XIII, he founded the Congregation of Missionaries of St Paul. They are trained and have their convent in his house, at Harissa near Bkerki, close to the great statue of our Lady of the Lebanon. His idea was to train priests who should go out to give missions, in the same manner as the Latin Redemptorists. The Congregation is still small; but it has done, and is doing most noble work. Under the guidance and with the example of their saintly founder, the missioners reach perhaps the highest level of zeal, piety, and sound learning that you will find in the Melkite Church. Already they have done untold good in raising the level of religion in the country parishes. Lord Germanos of Laodicea was the chief influence in the late Synod of 'Ain-Trāz.[3] He died the death of the righteous on February 11, 1912. May he rest in peace; cuius memoria in benedictione erit.[4] His work has not died with him. As a legacy to his Church he leaves his missioners of St Paul; in their admirable work he still lives.
There are nuns of each Congregation. Dair alBishārah (Convent of the Annunciation) close to the monastery of St Saviour, is Salvatorian; Dair anNiyāḥ (Convent of Rest) at Kafar Taiy near Beirut is Alepin; Dair anNiyāḥ near Mār Sim'ān and Dair alBishārah at Zūḳ-Mīkā'īl are Shuwairite.
The Melkites are now well provided with colleges for the education of their clergy. The chief, most important, and meritorious of these is the College of St Anne at Jerusalem, under the direction of Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers.
- ↑ As a result, of 315 Melkite monks alive in 1911, 220 lived not in monasteries, but serving parish churches (Charon, iii, 599).
- ↑ Two-thirds at present.
- ↑ July, 1909. See Echos d'Orient, 1912, p. 356 seq.
- ↑ I have rarely met any man who gave the impression of being a saint as did Germanos Mu'aḳḳad.
