rite; there are at least three Greek rites, those of Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople. Once there were more. These are totally different, they represent the first main distinctions of Eastern rites; yet they are all Greek. The equally different Nestorian and Jacobite rites, to say nothing of those of the Maronites and Malabar Christians, are all in the same language — Syriac. Yet in such absolutely different languages as Arabic and Rumanian we find the same rite of Constantinople. So language is no test of rite. The only real test of a rite is its order, forms, and arrangements; and the note of each is the place of its origin. If people would realize this there would be less confusion of ideas on the subject. We should speak of the Roman, Byzantine, Alexandrine, Antiochene rites. Then it is clear what we are talking about; and it remains a very small detail in what language any of these may be used.
Lastly, in the East at any rate, it makes very little difference in what place a man may live, as far as his rite or the branch of the Church to which he belongs is concerned. Certainly, originally all depended on this. A man was not asked to which Patriarchate he would like to belong. That was settled for him by his birth as a native of some land, just as in the West the Ordinary you must obey is the bishop of the place in which you were born or now live. But the dismemberment of the old Patriarchates by later schisms, the wandering of people from one place to another, have changed all that in the Catholic Church too. There are communities of many different rites living now side by side in the same towns, each having its own parish church, sometimes its own bishop. In Beyrut there are a Catholic Maronite Archbishop, a Catholic Syrian bishop, and a Catholic Melkite bishop each ruling his own flock; while the Latins there obey none of these, but the Latin Delegate.
A man belongs to his "nation" — that is, to his rite — wherever he may dwell. His children inherit this quality from him, to whatever new city their business may take them. It is, indeed, exceedingly difficult for a man to change the rite he has inherited, both from the point of view of Catholic Canon Law and that of Turkish State Law. It clings to him, like his family name. So we cannot now adequately define the flocks ruled by the various Patriarchs of the Catholic Church by showing maps. It was so once; it should be so in theory. In practice we must try to give a statement of the chief places where members of the various Eastern Churches now happen
