{"id":327,"date":"2019-09-10T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T07:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?p=327"},"modified":"2019-09-10T08:00:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T07:00:03","slug":"constitution-of-maronitism-al-fusul-allubnaniah-1-summer-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Constitution of Maronitism: Al-fusul allubnaniah 1 \u2013 Summer 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Constitution of Maronitism in Mount Lebanon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jawad Boulos<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the second half of the Vth century, the first independent \nMaronite Church and the first organized Maronite society were created, \non the banks of the Orontes River, in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well before the Arab Islamic conquest of the Fertile Crescent, i.e., \nSyria, Lebanon and Palestine, those three countries were nearly entirely\n Christian, and formed part of four major churches: The Melchite and \nOrthodox Churches, submitted to Byzantium: the Nestorian Church; and the\n Monophysite and Jacobite Church; and the Maronite Church. The Aramean \nor Syriac languages were common to all four of these churches and their \nliturgy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Chalcedon Council which condemned the Monophysites, the \nMaronites separated themselves from the Christians of Syria, founding \ntheir own Church and independent society on the banks of the Orontes. \nThe most celebrated of these was the church consecrated to St-Maron, \nfounder of the sect. it became the main Christian Centre in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early part of the VIth centuy, 350 Maronite monks were \nmassacred in an ambush, others were persecuted, and several convents \nwere burned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maronites have acknowledged a dual nature in Christ: Divine and Human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political and religious struggles waged by the Maronites against \ntheir enemies have developed a sense of independence in them, and made \nthem feel the necessity of electing a leader to manage their affairs. \nThus was the Bishop St-John Maron declared Patriarch of Antioch, a title\n which his successors bear until this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lebanon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maronites spread out in the various regions of Northern Syria at \nfirst. Fleeing persecution, many of them left Syria by successive \ngroups, either to Cyprus, or to the deserted mountains of Lebanon where \nthey formed their own national society, in other words, the Maronite \nNation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Maronite churches were built since the second half of the VIIIth\n century, amongst which \u201cMar Moussa\u201d at Ehden, dating back to 749 A.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The merger between Maronites and Mardaites around 700 A.D. was the \nbasic factor in the advancement of the Maronite community, and the \nhistoric role which it played on the Lebanese forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syriac was the official language of the Maronites. In the XVth \ncentury, they adopted Arabic, in addition to their initial language. \nNowadays, the latter is only used for liturgy, even though it was still \nspoken in many villages of the North until the late XIXth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abbassides fought the Christians in Lebanon, and fanned the \nflames of Islamic fanaticism, compelling a large number of Maronites to \nrenounce their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Xth century, after the destruction of the Convent of St-Maron \non the banks of the Orontes, the Maronite Patriarchal See was \ntransferred to Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite poverty and adversity, the Maronites were a proud race, and \nwere fanatically attached to their independence: they defied their \nhostile destiny, and survived all attempts to annihilate them. With \npatience and tenacity, they converted their barren soil into blossoming \ngardens. They have remained solidary, attached to the excise of their \ncult under the leadership of their Patriarchs, who were both their \ntemporal and spiritual chiefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Crusades, Lebanese ports were opened to trade with Europe.\n The MAronites thus enjoyed an era of prosperity which lasted two \ncenturies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mamluks, however, put an end to this golden age, forcing the \nMaronites to leave their country, or to seck shelter in mountain \ngrottoes in order to escape persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mount-Lebanon, which was not occupied by the Mamluks, became a refuge\n for all oppressed minorities: The Maronites of the North, the Druzes of\n the Centre, the Shiites from the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ottoman invaders were not more merciful. The mountains, however, \nwere able to retain a certain measure of autonomy, continuing to act as \nhavens of refuge for all persecuted people in the Orient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the rule of Fakhreddine, Lebanon acquired a new look. This gave\n the Maronites some respite, and they enjoyed a further period of peace \nand serenity. Although they were religiously oppressed, they still \nretained a certain independence in the exercise of their liturgy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the rule of Emir Beshir II, Lebanese political society formed a\n sort of federation of communities; this in turn, enabled Lebanon to \nattain political independence in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maronites contributed considerably to the renaissance of Arabic \nliterature. They are always proud to promote the evolution of Arabity, \nbut as a culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Constitution of Maronitism in Mount Lebanon Jawad Boulos During the second half of the Vth century, the first independent Maronite Church and the first organized Maronite society were created, on the banks of the Orontes River, in Syria. Well before the Arab Islamic conquest of the Fertile Crescent, i.e., Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, those three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jawad-boulos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}