Full description of Lebanon. Lebanon: Religion and Politics - Confessional System Supreme Executive Body

Religion has traditionally been a major factor in dividing the Lebanese population. The division of government power between communities and the granting of judicial power to religious authorities dates back to the time when Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire. This practice was continued during the French Mandate, when Christian communities were granted privileges. This system of governance, although a compromise, has always caused tension in Lebanese politics.

It is believed that the Christian population has been since the late 1930s. does not have a majority in Lebanon, but the republic's leaders do not want to change the balance of political power. Leaders of Muslim communities demand increased representation in government, which causes constant sectarian tension, leading to a violent conflict in 1958 (followed by American military intervention) and a long-term civil war from 1975-1990.

The balance of power was slightly altered by the National Pact of 1943, in which political power was distributed among religious communities in accordance with the 1932 census. The Sunni elite by that time had become more influential, but Maronite Christians continued to dominate the power system. Subsequently, the interfaith balance in power was again changed in favor of Muslims. Shia Muslims (now the largest community) then increased their representation in the state apparatus and mandatory Christian-Muslim representation in Parliament was changed from 6:5 to 1:1.

The Constitution of the Lebanese Republic officially recognizes 18 religious communities, which are major players in Lebanese politics. They have the right to administer family law in accordance with their traditions. It is important that these communities are heterogeneous and there is political struggle within them.

List of officially recognized religious communities

• Evangelical Christians (including Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists)

Approximate statistics

According to CIA World Factbook

Other religions: 1.3%.

Muslims

At the moment, there is a consensus in Lebanon that Muslims make up the majority of the population of the republic. The largest religious community in the country is Shia. The second largest group is Sunni. Drusen, although small in number, also have a significant impact.

Lebanon is the only country in the Arab world (although Maltese is a dialect of Arabic, like the languages ​​of Lebanon, but Catholic Malta is not classified in the Arab world) where Islam is not the dominant religion. Islam in Lebanon is represented not only by orthodox, but also by peripheral movements, which, like Christians, were subjected to severe persecution during the Arab Caliphate.

Largely thanks to them, a unique political and ethno-confessional situation that exists there to this day was formed in Lebanon, because it was the Druze, one of the Shiite sects, that ruled this territory for many centuries. However, both Sunnis and Shiites also played important roles in building Lebanese society.

Sunnis

Sunnism is the largest denomination in Islam. Almost 90% of Muslims in the world practice Sunni Islam. The full name of the Sunnis - “people of the Sunnah and the harmony of the community” (ahl-as-sunnah wa-l-jamaa) - reflects the most important principles of traditional Islam - adherence to the values ​​enshrined in the Koran and Sunnah, and the idea of ​​​​the leading role of the community in solving vital problems. The main formal signs of belonging to Sunnism include:

• Recognition of the legitimate authority of the four righteous caliphs
• No doubt about the authenticity of the six “canonical” collections of hadith
• Belonging to one of the four legal schools of Sunni Islam (Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanafi or Hanbali).

Unlike Shiites, Sunnis reject the idea of ​​mediation between Allah and people after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, do not accept the idea of ​​​​the “divine nature” of Ali and the right of his descendants to spiritual leadership in the Muslim community. Sunnis appeared in Lebanon during the Arab conquests in the 7th century, However, secular nationalism among the Lebanese was rather weak, and the Arabization of the Greek, Syrian and Phoenician populations occurred quite quickly, but was not accompanied by “Sunniization.” The population of Lebanon (before the resettlement of the Armenians) was practically single-ethnic, but extremely diverse in religion. Islam came to Lebanon through Muslim warriors who settled on its lands, particularly in large cities, and thanks to Arabic-speaking tribes, mostly Muslim, who settled in the southern and northeastern regions of the country, although some of them professed Christianity.

According to other sources, Lebanese Sunnis trace their origins to the Tanukh tribal confederation that once lived here. It is worth noting the isolation of Lebanese Sunnis from the rest of the Sunnis in the Middle East, which existed until recently.

Sunnis make up about 21% of Lebanon's total population and play an important role in its political life. However, they are not the largest Muslim community in Lebanon, and are inferior to the Shiites in terms of population.

According to established tradition, the Prime Minister of the Lebanese Republic is elected from among Sunni Muslims. This community elects about 20 of its deputies to parliament.

Shiites

Shiites (Arabic Shia شيعة - adherents, group, faction, party) - a general term that in a broad sense means followers of a number of movements of Islam - Twelver Shiites, Alawites, Ismailis, etc., recognizing the exclusive right of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad to lead the Muslim community - the Ummah , to be an imam. In a narrow sense, the concept, as a rule, means Twelver Shiites, the second most adherent (after Sunnis) direction in Islam, who recognize the only legitimate successors of the Prophet Muhammad as Ali ibn Abu Talib, the fourth righteous caliph, and his descendants along the main line. The movement arose during the period of the third righteous caliph Osman. The impetus for its emergence was a dispute over the succession of community leadership. Arguments in favor of Ali were his family ties with the Prophet Muhammad (he was the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet), as well as his outstanding personal qualities. The founder of the Shiite religious doctrine is considered to be a Jew from Yemen, Abdullah ibn Saba, who converted to Islam (mid-7th century). His name is associated with the propaganda of the idea that every prophet had an assistant, or “receiver in the spiritual will” (wasi). Muhammad, according to Ibn Saba, by personal order, chose Ali as his successor in teaching and government and clearly destined him for this.

Until the 20th century, the Shiites experienced the heyday of their community in Syria in the 18th century under the famous Sheikh Dagher el-Omar, who established a semi-independent pashalyk in Galilee during the Ottoman rule.

For many centuries, Shiite clans lived on the territory of Lebanon, but were few in number, so K. D. Petkovich notes that “Persecuted and persecuted, in the 19th century they ceased to play a noticeable political role and weakened. At present they do not even constitute an independent tribe, like their other Lebanese neighbors.”

Now the Shiites are the largest Muslim community in Lebanon, making up 40% of the country's population. They live mainly in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, and in South Lebanon, the region of Lebanon bordering Israel, they make up 80% of the population. Moreover, this ethno-confessional community has the least political rights, since at the time the Lebanese Constitution was written in 1926 and the creation of its oral part - the National Pact (1943), Shiites made up 18% of the population, so their representation in parliament was 19 out of 128 deputies, and the only significant post traditionally occupied by a Shiite is the chairman of parliament. Due to the inadequate representation of this large community in the structures public administration, the Shiite group creates numerous organizations, some of which are legitimate parties fighting for their rights under the law (for example, the Amal party of Nabih Berri), while others are characterized by many sources as fundamentalist and even extremist.

The Shiites of Southern Lebanon have become the backbone of the Lebanese “Party of Allah” (“Hezbollah”), which is considered by the United States and a number of other countries to be a terrorist organization, but in Lebanon it is a legitimate party represented in the Lebanese parliament (23 parliamentary seats). Lebanese Hezbollah has left the world organization of Twelver Shiites of the same name, which advocates Islamic rule and the introduction of Sharia law, as this is contrary to the Lebanese Constitution. Hezbollah of Lebanon is formally open to citizens of the country of any religion and, thanks to the financial support of Iran (which finances the world party of the same name, which does not operate in Lebanon), has a media system, a network of social and charitable organizations throughout Lebanon. It is one of the most important socio-political and military organizations in the country, usually in alliance with Michel Aoun's Christians and the Amal party.

Druze

The teachings of the Druze are one of the branches of extreme Shiism, although representatives of this community themselves often do not consider themselves Muslims. The Druze doctrine arose in Egypt under the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (996-1021). On the throne, he pursued an extremely controversial religious policy, forcing many researchers to doubt his mental balance. Here is what K. D. Petkovich writes about him in his work: “He cursed the first Muslim caliphs, the companions of Mohammed, in the mosques of Cairo, and a few days later lifted the excommunication. Forced Jews and Christians to retreat from their faith, then ordered them to return to their confession again. For entertainment, he ordered half of the city of Cairo to be burned, and the other half was given over to his soldiers for plunder. Not content with this, he forbade Muslims to observe their customs (Ramadan, Hajj, Salat, etc.), and finally extended his extravagance to the point that he ordered them to worship him as a deity.”

In 1017, Caliph al-Hakim declared himself the incarnation of God on earth and ordered to honor him accordingly. This year was the 1st year of the Druze religion.

In 1021 the caliph mysteriously disappeared, there are different versions this event. According to one, he was killed by his own sister Sitt-al-Muluk, who became the regent of his son and, in fact, the sovereign ruler of Egypt. There is also a version that al-Hakim left Egypt, fearing assassination, and then took an active part in organizing the Druze community in the Lebanese mountains under the name Hamza al-Khali, one of the main inspirers of the movement for the deification of the caliph.

The religion of the Druze consists of a peculiar combination of the tenets of Islam of an Ismaili nature with elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and pre-Islamic cults. The main tenet of their faith is monotheism, faith in the deified al-Hakim. The Druze believe in his second coming, that is, in the “hidden imam.”

An integral element of their doctrine is the belief in the transmigration of souls, and they believe that the souls of dead Druze are transmigrated into the bodies of those who are born, and since the number of souls is constant, it is not possible to accept new members into the community. The Druze community has been closed to entry (daawa) since the 11th century. A Druze cannot change religion without losing his nationality. A Druze is only one whose mother and father belong to the Druze community.

The social organization of the Druze is characterized by division into initiated and uninitiated, endogamy, isolation and secrecy. Druze sacred texts and some elements of the ritual are accessible only to initiates, since this religion is esoteric in nature. “The Druze law must be hidden from non-believers more carefully than “the trace of an ant walking on a piece of black marble on a dark night.”

The Druze follow the principle of “tykiyya” (“mental reservation”, when a person says to himself that he is a Druze, but acts like an adherent of any other religion). Thanks to this principle, a Druze living among hostile infidels may not differ from those around him. The interests of the community are paramount for the Druze; for their sake, it is not considered reprehensible to deceive non-believers.

Religious worship and rituals do not occupy a significant place in the daily life of the Druze. They do not follow the rules of Sharia, eat pork and drink wine, do not have mosques and do not attach any importance to the cult of the dead, and therefore their belonging to Islam seems doubtful.

With the movement of the Druze from Egypt to Syria and after the closure of the da'wah, the Druze community began to develop as an important political force in the medieval Levant. Druze dynasties began to enter into alliances with various external forces.

The Druze community ruled Mount Lebanon for many centuries. The Al-Maani dynasty became the most influential clan in Lebanon after the Ottoman victory over the Mamluks in 1516 because, according to F. Hitti, “together with the conquerors they defied fate.”

In any case, it was the rise to power of the Ma'anids that marked a turning point in Druze history, whose influence flourished during the reign of Emir Fakhr ad-Din II al-Ma'ani (1585-1633). During his reign, the territory under his control occupied almost all of modern Syria, from the edge of the Antioch Plain in the north to Safad in the south.

By 1667, his nephew Ahmed Al-Ma'ani managed to restore the power of the Al-Ma'ani clan over the Maronite region of Kesrouan in central Lebanon and the southern regions of the country, creating the Ma'anid Emirate, which became the core of modern Lebanon. The Druze, as well as the Maronites, played a vital role in the formation confessional democracy in Lebanon. After the Druze emirs ruled all of Mount Lebanon for several centuries, the political importance of their community diminished somewhat and by the 20th century was no longer so all-encompassing. This is evidenced by the number of their seats in parliament (6 deputies out of 128), as well as only 1-2 ministerial posts, usually the ministers of displaced persons, information or agriculture.

Christians

At the end of the 12th century, the rapprochement between the Maronite Church and the Roman Holy See began. In 1580, Pope Gregory XIII founded a special theological seminary in Rome for the Maronite clergy. From that time on, the Roman throne became seriously interested in the Maronites.

But only in the 18th century did all Maronite hierarchs admit their dependence on the Pope. This happened simultaneously with a radical restructuring of the Maronite Church under the leadership of Patriarch Sarkis al-Rizzi, who held a council of prelates. The decisions of this meeting provided for the recognition of the main provisions Catholic cathedrals, streamlining the family and marriage code (in particular, the rejection of ortho-cousin marriages), introduction Julian calendar, the separation of monks from nuns and both from the laity.

Fearing accusations of plotting, the papal legates negotiated with the Eastern Christians as secretly as possible. The pope's envoys opposed the final Arabization of the Maronite Church and favored the preservation of Latin in worship.

Despite the significant rapprochement with Roman Catholicism, the cult and rituals of the Maronite Church retain many archaic Christian institutions and customs, in many ways similar to the rituals of the ancient Syrian Christian communities. Aramaic is considered the liturgical language, but Arabic is also used in worship. Some temples use the East Syrian rite borrowed from the Nestorians.

Latinization was a purely external and rather fragile shell, covering up truly profound changes in the Maronite church organization. Their essence was that throughout the 18th century. The Maronite Church became the largest owner of land in Lebanon. Until now, Maronite monasteries own vast lands in Lebanon, where the residence of the Maronite patriarch is located. Many Maronites over the centuries were large feudal lords, therefore, in this ethno-confessional community a layer of prosperous and wealthy clans was formed, many of which trace their history back to the times crusades. At the same time, most Maronites were simple peasants.

The historical significance of the Maronite Church for the history of Lebanon was enormous. It was under the influence of this large (by Lebanese standards) Christian community that Lebanon began to differ greatly from other Arab countries in the level of Westernization and the emergence of democratic tendencies even during the time of Turkish rule. The entire confessional system of governance, which is a unique phenomenon in world political history, initially arose mainly from the coexistence and confrontation of the Maronites and Druze, who until the 20th century were the most numerous and powerful communities in Lebanon.

Now the Maronite Church is the largest Christian community in Lebanon, plays an important role in the political life of the country through Maronite representation in parliament, and also has its own media, schools and other organizations. The Lebanese President is a Maronite.

Greek Orthodox

The Greek Orthodox Church is the oldest church in Lebanon. Her official name- The Antiochian Orthodox Church (in documents in Arabic - the Roman Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East) is an autocephalous local Orthodox church. The Patriarchate of Antioch is one of the four ancient Eastern Patriarchates of the Byzantine Orthodox Church. According to legend, the church was founded around 37 AD. e. in Antioch by the apostles Peter and Paul. Despite the separation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople at the Council of Chalcedon, the autocephaly of the Antiochian Church was confirmed at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451. In dogmatic, ritual and cult terms, the Antiochian Orthodox Church is not much different from other Orthodox churches.

As K. D. Petkovich writes in his “Note”: “The Orthodox settled in Lebanon due to the same reasons that prompted other nationalities or religious communities to seek refuge there, that is, persecution and persecution for religious beliefs by the ruling power in Syria religion".

The Orthodox in Lebanon had no political aspirations, however, the International Commission of 1861, at the insistence of the Russian commissar G. Novikov, endowed the Orthodox in Lebanon with the same rights as other nationalities, granting them the Orthodox kaimakami in Kure in northwestern Lebanon.

The Muslim rulers of Lebanon predominantly pursued a policy of religious tolerance, so most of the population continued to adhere to the Christian religion, but quickly began to undergo a process of Arabization. In the Middle Ages, almost all liturgical books and the Bible were translated into Arabic, and divine services were also performed in it.

The Greek Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian community in Lebanon, making up about 8-11% of the country's population. Unlike other large religious communities (for example, the Druze and Maronites), there were no large feudal nobility among the Orthodox. Basically, representatives of this community are peasants, as well as artisans, office workers and small traders. Orthodox intellectuals of Syria and Lebanon stood at the origins of Arabic (but not pan-Arabic, since they did not consider Egypt, except Sinai with its Orthodox shrines, the Maghreb, and the Arabian Peninsula to be part of the future single state) secular nationalism, were guided by Moscow, which supported it. All Christian Palestinians, like the Christian Arabs of Israel, except the Armenians, are also Greek Orthodox [ ] . During the civil war, when the Orthodox Palestinians and Moscow found themselves on the side of the Muslims, the Orthodox Lebanese did not create their own militia, although some Orthodox Christians fought in the Maronite militias, but there were many Orthodox Christians in the Lebanese Communist Party and the Syrian Social National Party of Lebanon, who fought in side with Muslims, Palestinians and their leftist allies. The Orthodox Christian community of Lebanon is, in church and administrative terms, subordinate to the Patriarch of Antioch, who has a residence in Damascus. Hence, not only from connections with Orthodox Palestinians and Moscow, is the focus of this community on contacts with Syria, right up to the ideas of unifying the states of Syria and Lebanon. It was only after the outbreak of unrest in Syria that they first founded their political party- all other communities have had their own parties since independence and earlier. The Greek Orthodox community has its own representatives in parliament (about 11 people).

Greek Catholics - Melkites

Greek Catholics are Uniates belonging to one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The word "melkite" comes from the Syriac "malko" - "king, emperor."

This is how adherents of the non-Chalcedonian churches called those Churches of the ancient patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem that accepted the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (Byzantine emperors also accepted the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon). The Melkites separated from the Antiochian Orthodox Church in 1724. As V.I. Dyatlov writes, “The very formation of the Greek Catholic community in Syria in the 18th century. was largely the result of major socio-economic changes in this country: the growth of trade with Europe (only the volume of trade between France and the Levant increased 4 times in the 18th century), the strengthening of coastal cities, and the overall development of commodity-money relations. The strengthening of France’s economic and political positions in Syria and the growing activity of Catholic missionaries also influenced this process.”

According to T. Philip, the emergence of this religious community was a consequence of the formation of “a new, Arabic-speaking middle class, which provided a link between Syria and the world economy.”

According to the remark of K. D. Petkovich, “Although the apostate bishops elected from among themselves a patriarch with the title of Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, nevertheless, the Turkish government for a long time did not recognize either the Uniate clergy or the Uniate Church, separate from the Orthodox. Only in 1827 were the Syrian Uniates recognized.”

Further, K. D. Petkovich describes in his work how the Melkites en masse converted Orthodox Christians to the union during the time of Egyptian rule in Syria (1832-1841). In fact, according to the Russian consul, this happened fraudulently, since the ritual and clothing of the Melkite clergy are practically no different from the Orthodox, and the believers did not notice the substitution. After the departure of the Egyptians, the Orthodox churches returned to their ritual, and the Melkites began to increasingly use Maronite churches for their services.

From the very beginning, this community was characterized by very high economic activity. But nevertheless, being a small community, they did not claim political supremacy. Despite this, high level education, knowledge of several foreign languages and “natural abilities” gave many of them the opportunity to successfully occupy many responsible government positions.

The spiritual head of the Greek Catholics of Lebanon is the Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and the whole East. He has two residences, one of which is located in Egypt, in the city of Alexandria, and the other in the capital of Syria, Damascus.

Representatives of this community make up about 6% of the Lebanese population and about 12% of Lebanese Christians. More than 2/5 of all Greek Catholics live in the Bekaa governorate, of which the vast majority are in the city of Zahli, which is the center of the Lebanese Melkites. According to established tradition, the Melkite community elects six of its deputies to parliament.

Armenian Apostolic Church

The fourth largest number of Christian adherents (Muslims and Georgians only mistakenly consider Armenians to be non-Christians due to the fact that the AAC in the liturgy on many days does not use the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is generally accepted among all other Christians, but the Nicene Creed with additions, mainly borrowed from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, read by the Syro-Jacobites who have always been in Eucharistic communion with the AAC, but there are days when only the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is read in Armenian churches) the church is the Armenian Apostolic Church. This is the Armenian national autocephalous church, belonging to the Orthodox churches of the pre-Chalcedonian tradition, although it is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed established only by the Council of Chalcedon that is the only creed of all, except the Armenian, of these churches. Therefore, of all these churches, only the Armenian can rightfully be called pre-Chalcedonian, and the rest are more correctly called only anti-Chalcedonian in the sense of opposition to the Chalcedonites, but not to the Council of Chalcedon. These churches, which arose after the Council of Chalcedon, implement many of its decisions, such as the spread of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed to the entire Church, more earnestly than the Chalcedonites themselves. The Armenian Church, in general, condemns not the theology of the council, but the fact that its representatives were not invited to the council, and the council did not consider the issue of providing military assistance to Armenia. Nerses Shnorali showed that since in the orthodox theology of the Armenian Church “essence” and “nature” are not synonymous, unlike the understanding of the Greek Orthodox and Sevirians, then when only the term “essence” is used in the Chalcedonian Creed and its interpretations, the theology of the AAC, in contrast to the theology of the Anti-Chalcedonians themselves, it is fully consistent with the Chalcedonian Creed. They agreed with him Patriarch of Constantinople and theologians of Constantinople. At the head of the Armenian Church is the Catholicos of all Armenians, who has his residence in Etchmiadzin, near Yerevan, but the Lebanese Armenians are subordinate to the Cilician Catholicosate, which is absolutely independent in everything except religious matters - and then in theory, which recognizes only the primacy of honor for the Catholicos of all Armenians.

Armenians are the largest non-Arab national minority in Lebanon, making up about 6% of the country's total population. Orthodox Armenians make up about 4/5 of Lebanon's Armenian population, or about 6% of the country's total population. Of these, more than 67% live in Beirut, about 25% in the cities of the Mount Lebanon governorate. Armenians preserve their language, traditions, customs and have their own religious and cultural organizations, schools, colleges, periodicals, etc. Orthodox Armenians are represented in parliament by several deputies.

The majority of Armenians moved to these areas already in the 20th century as a result of fleeing the genocide perpetrated by the Young Turks in 1915. Most Armenians were tortured and killed between 1915 and 1924, but some managed to escape to inaccessible areas of the Ottoman Empire, one of which traditionally was Lebanon.

There are several Armenian parties in Lebanon: Hunchak - social democratic party, Ramkavar Azatakan - liberal democratic party, Armenian Revolutionary Union Dashnaktsutyun. Orthodox Armenians, being the only national minority in Lebanon (representatives of other faiths are predominantly Arabs), have representation in the Lebanese Parliament and nominate four deputies out of 99.

Syro-Jacobites

Jacobites are adherents of miaphysitism. This community was formed in Mesopotamia and Syria in the 6th century. The founder of the church is considered to be the Syrian bishop Jacob Baradeus (Baradeus). They are part of their own independent (autocephalous) church, headed by the Patriarch of Antioch and the East. In terms of cult and ritual, the Jacobites are not much different from the Orthodox, but they retain more ancient customs in their ritual. They cross themselves with one finger, thereby signifying the unity of God. Jacobites, historically closely associated with the Armenian apostolic church, recognize the one divine-human nature of Christ. But they did not accept the Orthodox confession of Nerses Shnorali. The services of their West Syriac rite are performed in Aramaic, which is not understandable to most parishioners. Along with the white clergy, monks have a great influence on believers. Being the fifth largest Christian community in Lebanon, the Jacobite Syrians do not play a big role in the political life of modern Lebanon; they are represented in parliament by one deputy.

Syro-Catholics

For the first time, the idea of ​​​​establishing church communion between Rome and the Syro-Jacobites arose during the Crusades, when good relations were often established between Latin and Syrian bishops, but these contacts did not lead to concrete results. The second attempt at union was made at the Ferrara-Florence Council, but it also did not lead to the real establishment of church communion, remaining on paper.

The situation began to change in the 17th century. Relations between Rome and the Syro-Jacobite Church were strengthened, also as a result of the activities of the missions of the Jesuits and Capuchins large number Syrians converted to Catholicism. Two parties arose in the church - supporters and opponents of the union. After the election of Andrei Akhidzhyan, a supporter of the union, as patriarch in 1662, the church split. After Akhidjian’s death in 1677, each side elected its own patriarch, which finally formalized the schism and the emergence of the Eastern Catholic Church, separate from the Syro-Jacobite Church. The Syriac Catholic Church adopted an orthodox Christology, abandoning miaphysitism but retaining the West Syriac liturgical rite. Andrei Akhidzhyan is revered by Syro-Catholics as the first patriarch under the name Ignatius Andrei I.

After the death of the second patriarch of the church, Ignatius Peter VI, in 1702, the line of Syrian Catholic patriarchs was interrupted by the extreme hostility of the Ottoman Empire towards Catholics of the Eastern Rite. For most of the 18th century, the church existed underground.

The Syrian Catholic Patriarchate was renewed in 1782, when the Synod of the Syro-Jacobite Church elected Metropolitan Michael Jarvich of Aleppo as patriarch. Soon after this, he declared himself a Catholic, fled to Lebanon and built the monastery of the Virgin Mary in Sharf, which still exists and is considered the spiritual center of the Syro-Catholics. After Jarvich (Ignatius Michael III), the line of Syro-Catholic patriarchs was no longer interrupted.

In 1829, the Syrian Catholic Church was recognized by the Ottoman authorities, and in 1831 a patriarchal residence was built in Aleppo. Due to persecution, the residence was moved to Mardin (southern Türkiye) in 1850. The stable growth of the church at the expense of the Syro-Jacobites was stopped by a massacre in Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the residence of the patriarch was moved to Beirut, where many believers fled. Rituals in the Syro-Catholic Church are performed according to the West Syrian ritual. Liturgical languages ​​are Aramaic and Arabic.

Armenian Catholics

Regular contacts between the Armenian Church and the Holy See began in the era of the Crusades. The first union with Rome was signed in 1198-1199. Cilician Armenians, but its action was stopped by the Mongol invasion in 1375.

In 1439, the Council of Florence restored the union and intensified the activities of the Armenian “brothers of the union.”

The Armenian Catholic Church dates its history back to 1742, when Pope Benedict XIV appointed Bishop of Aleppo Abraham Pierre 1 Ardzivian as Patriarch of the Armenian Catholics with the see in Sis.

In 1750, the see was moved to Lebanon, and after the settlement of territorial disputes between the secular and ecclesiastical administrations, it was located in Constantinople from 1867 to 1928. Since 1928, the see of the Armenian Catholic Church has been located in Beirut. According to official statistics for 1951, there were 14,218 Armenian Catholics in Lebanon. According to the last official census in 1932, there were 5,800 of them.

Armenian Catholics are represented by one deputy in the Lebanese parliament.

Nestorians

The Nestorians constitute a special Christian community. Usually the followers of their church are called Assyrians based on their nationality, and their church is Assyrian.

Notes

See also

Links

• Lebanon Religion Map (unavailable link)