|
The Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch ( ''(unicode:ʿīṯo suryoiṯo morunoiṯo d'anṭiokia)''; (アラビア語:الكنيسة الأنطاكية السريانية المارونية) '' al-Kanīsa al-Anṭākiyya al-Suryāniyya al-Mārūniyya''; (ラテン語:Ecclesia Maronitarum)) is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope, Bishop of Rome. It traces its heritage back to the community founded by Marun, a 4th-century Syriac monk venerated as a saint. The first Maronite Patriarch, Saint John Maron, was elected in the late 7th century. Although reduced in numbers today, Maronites remain one of the principal ethno-religious groups in Lebanon, and smaller minorities of Maronites are also found in western Syria, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan. The Maronite Church asserts that since its inception, it has always remained faithful to the Church of Rome and the Pope. In November 2012, Pope Benedict appointed Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi as a Cardinal.〔http://press.catholica.va/news_services/bulletin/news/29888.php?index=29888&lang=ge〕 Before the conquest by Arabian Muslims reached Lebanon, the Lebanese people, including those who would become Muslim and the majority who would remain Christian, spoke a dialect of Aramaic.〔The Precarious Republic: Political Modernization in Lebanon. By Michael C. Hudson, 1968〕〔(Lebanon: Its Stand in History Among the Near East Countries ) By Salim Wakim, 1996.〕 Syriac (Christian Aramaic) still remains the liturgical language of the Maronite Church. The members of the Maronite Church are part of the Lebanese people, who are the present day descendants of the Phoenicians, a Canaanite people. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a blend of both indigenous Phoenician elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. In a 2013 interview the lead investigator, Pierre Zalloua, pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions:"Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another." A number of Maronite historians assert that their people, along with their non-Christian countrymen, are also the descendants of the Arameans, Ghassanids, Assyrians, and the Mardaites; though they have, over time, developed a distinctive Maronite character, this has not obscured their Antiochene and Syriac Christian origin. ==History== The followers of Jesus Christ first became known as "Christians" in Antioch (Acts 11:26), and the city became a center for Christians - especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. According to Catholic tradition, the first Bishop was Saint Peter before his travels to Rome. The third Bishop was the Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch. Antioch became one of the five original Patriarchates (the Pentarchy) after Constantine recognized Christianity. Maron, a fourth-century monk and the contemporary and friend of St. John Chrysostom, left Antioch for the Orontes River in modern day Syria to lead an ascetic life, following the traditions of Anthony the Great of the Desert and Pachomius. Many of his followers also lived a monastic lifestyle. Following the death of Maron in 410 AD, his disciples built a monastery in his memory and formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church. The Maronites held fast to the beliefs of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. When the Monophysites of Antioch slew 350 monks, the Maronites sought refuge in the mountains of Lebanon. Correspondence concerning the event brought the Maronites papal and orthodox recognition, which was solidified by Pope Hormisdas (514–523 AD) on February 10, AD 518. A monastery was built around the shrine of St. Maro (Marun) after the Council of Chalcedon.〔Attwater, Donald; The Christian Churches of the East〕 The martyrdom of the Patriarch of Antioch in the first decade of the seventh century, either at the hands of Persian soldiers or local Jews,〔(J. D. Frendo, "Who killed Anastasius II?" ''Jewish Quarterly Review'' vol. 72 (1982), 202-4 ))〕 left the Maronites without a leader, a situation which continued because of the final and most devastating Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. In the aftermath of the war, the Emperor Heraclius propagated a new Christological doctrine in an attempt to unify the various Christian churches of the east, who were divided over accepting the Council of Chalcedon. This doctrine, the unity of Christ's will with God's, was meant as a compromise between supporters of Chalcedon, such as the Maronites, and opponents, such as the Jacobites. The doctrine was endorsed by Pope Honorius I to win back the Monophysites but problems soon arose (see his anathematization). Instead, the unity of Christ's will with God's (''mia''-thelitism) was misunderstood as Monothelitism (that Christ and God have only one will) which caused even greater controversy, and was declared a heresy at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680–681. Contemporary Greek and Arab sources misrepresented the miathelite Maronites as having accepted monothelitism,〔(Matti Moosa, The Maronites in History (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), 195-216 ).〕 thereby rejecting the sixth council and that the miathelites in fact maintained monothelitism for centuries, only moving away from it in the time of the crusades in order to avoid being branded heretics by the crusaders. The modern Maronite Church, however, rejects the assertion that the Maronites were ever monothelites or apart from the Roman Catholic Church; and the question remains a major controversy to this day.〔(Matti Moosa, The Maronites in History (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), 195–216 ).〕 In 687 AD, the Emperor Justinian II agreed to evacuate many thousand Maronites from Lebanon and settle them elsewhere. The chaos and utter depression which followed led the Maronites to elect their first Patriarch, John Maroun, that year. This, however, was seen as a usurpation by the Orthodox churches. Thus, at a time when Islam was rising on the borders of the Byzantine Empire and a united front was necessary to keep out Islamic infiltration, the Maronites were focused on a struggle to retain their independence against imperial power. This situation was mirrored in other Christian communities in the Byzantine Empire and helped facilitate the Muslim conquest of most of Eastern Christendom by the end of the century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maronite Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|