About the Maronite Church
The Church of Antioch, faithful to Peter
The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope of Rome. Her name, her spirituality, and her apostolate are woven into every page of Lebanon's history. She is heir of the Faith of Peter and of the Church of Antioch, where "the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:26), and where Saint Peter dwelt before going on to Rome.
Saint Maron, our father
The Church takes her name from Saint Maron, a monk of the fourth century who lived in holy solitude on a mountain near Antioch. His holiness drew thousands of disciples, who after his death formed communities of faith so ardent that they gave his name to their whole people: the Maronites.
The Monastery of North Lebanon
From the seventh century, the Maronites organized themselves around the Monastery of Saint Maroun of North Lebanon, and took the historic step of praying for, acknowledging, and affirming the Pope of Rome and his newly universal patron, Saint Peter's successor — unbroken communion with the See of Peter, kept against every pressure from that day to this.
The language of Christ
The Maronites kept the Syriac tongue — the very language our Lord spoke — in their liturgy. To this day, the Qurbono (Divine Liturgy) rises from our altars partly in Aramaic, in hymns and antiphons whose melodies descend through fifteen centuries. Saint John Maron, a monk of that same tradition and its finest liturgist, became the first Maronite Patriarch in 686.
Cedars of faith
Persecuted through the centuries, the Maronites took refuge in the valleys of the high mountains, among the cedars, growing strong as their trees did, faith and loyalty to Sons and daughters of Lebanon. The Maronite Church is now a global Church: more than six million Maronites inhabit the world — in Lebanon, the Middle East, and countries of expansion that include over a hundred parishes and missions across the United States, in two eparchies: Saint Maron of Brooklyn and Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.
- We are spiritual children of Saint Maron, our father and patron.
- We are heirs of the Faith of Peter and of the Church of Antioch.
- We keep unveiled the image of the Mother of God and the eternal Cedars of Lebanon in our iconostasis and in our hearts.
- We celebrate the one true Eucharist, the Lord's own sacrifice, in the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Tradition.
