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Maronite Church/History

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Muslim rule

Now under Arabic rule after the Muslim conquest of Syria, the Maronites' relationship with the Byzantine Empire improved. The imperial court, seeing its earlier mistake, saw an advantage in the current situation. Thus, Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV provided direct ecclesiastical, political and military support to the Maronites. The new alliance soon coordinated devastating raids on Muslim forces, providing a welcome relief to the besieged Christians throughout the Middle East. Some of the Maronites relocated to Mount Lebanon at this time and formed several communities that became known as the Marada. That is from the view of 17th Century Patriarch Estephan El Douaihy (also known as Stephane Al Doueihi Arabic: أسطفان الدويهي‎, “The Father of Maronite History” and the “Pillar of the Maronite Church”).


The most widely accepted theory stipulates that the Maronites fled Jacobite monophysite persecution, because of Monothelite heresy as advanced by Sergius of Tyr a scholar of the 10th century. It is most probable, because nearly all the sects became Monothelite after that it was introduced by Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople. The Maronite migration to the mountains was over a long period, but the main migration must have occurred during the 7th century.

Around 1017, a new Muslim sect emerged calling themselves the Druze. At this time the Maronites, as dhimmi, were required to wear black robes and black turbans so to be easily identified; they were also forbidden to ride horses.

It was late in the 11th century when the Crusaders made their way to the lands of the Levant to overthrow Islam; on their way they passed through Lebanon where they came across the Maronites. The Maronites had been largely cut off from the rest of the Christian world resulting in part from a blockade that was said to have lasted for around 400 years. The Church in Rome had been unaware that the Maronites were still in existence. The crusaders and Maronites established ties and from this point provided each other with mutual assistance.

After 637, the Maronites were effectively isolated from Christians of the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe. As a result they appointed their own Patriarch, starting with John Maron, who had been a bishop of Batroun, Mount Lebanon. Through him, the Maronites of today claim full apostolic succession through the See of Antioch. Nonetheless, controversy surrounds this claim as some Maronites have been accused of having fully adopted the Monothelite heresy; this led to a number of civil wars (e.g. 1282 and 1499).

Following the conquest of Eastern Christendom outside of Anatolia and Europe by the Muslims, and the establishment of secured lines of control between Islamic Caliphs and Byzantine Emperors, little was heard from the Maronites for 400 years. Secure in their mountain strongholds, it was not until the crusader Raymond of Toulouse on his way to conquer Jerusalem in the Great Crusade that the Maronites were re-discovered in the mountains near Tripoli, Lebanon. Raymond later returned to besiege Tripoli after his conquest of Jerusalem and relations between the Maronites and European Christianity were re-established.


  Part of a series of articles on the

Syriac Sertâ book script

Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East

Current primacy
Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeïr

originally from Antioch
moved to Bkerké (Mount-Lebanon)

Liturgical Languages
Syriac · Arabic

The Maronites Saints
St. Maroun
Saint Charbel · Saint Rafqa
St. Nimatulah Hardini

History · Political movements
History of Phoenicians
Byzantine Empire · Crusades
Lebanese Maronite Order
History of Lebanon · Lebanese diaspora
Lebanese politics


It was in the 16th century when Western religious groups started settling in Lebanon. The migration began in 1626 with the Capuchins, followed by the Jesuits. The groups moving at this time did this in order to serve the Lebanese, opening schools for the Maronite people until there was a school next to each church. This made it possible for the Maronites to acquire a formal eduction. The Maronites were on the forefront of the cultural Renaissance in the Middle East.

However, connection to Rome was arduously maintained and through diplomacy and maneuvering, European powers helped keep the Maronite community from destruction. Eventually, a Maronite College was established at Rome on July 5, 1584. From this college, the Maronite community obtained some valuable assistance in maintaining their Christian identity. In 1610, the Maronite monks of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya imported one of the first printing presses in what is known as the Arabic-speaking world; however that press was printing in the Syriac language and not Arabic. The monasteries of Lebanon would later become key players in the Arabic Renaissance of the late 19th century as a result of developing Arabic, as well as Syriac, printable script.

Ottoman rule

Following the defeat of the Mamelukes by the Ottoman Empire, and to reward their new Druze ally who fought with them in the battle of Marj Dabek (1516), the Ottomans rewarded Prince Fakher el Din al Maani I, with the Principality of Lebanon, where he established a Druze-Maronite alliance lasting for hundreds of years and resulted in the establishment of a prosperous principality which would be the base of the modern Lebanese Republic.

The Maronites were partners in governing the new principality; often the post of Moudabbir (roughly Prime Minister) and the post of Army Commander were given to a Maronite, usually a Khazen or a Hobeich of Keserwan. During this period (1516-1840), the Maronites started returning to southern Mount Lebanon where they had lived before they were almost exterminated by the Mamelukes in 1307. Thus the historic Keserwan and all the Druze mountains were repopulated. It was this love and affection between the Maronites and Druze that helped establish the Lebanese identity.

Fakhr-al-din II, who was said to have been brought up by a Maronite family, fought for Lebanese independence for over 50 years. In the mid 16th century, 25,000 Ottoman troops launched an attack on Lebanon. During the ensuing battles, Fakhr and three of his sons were captured and subsequently executed in Constaintinople on the 13th day of April 1635


In 1856, the Maronites' uprising took place against governor (Dawood pasha). Youssef Karam was the son of Sheikh Boutros Karam, at that time the Sheikh was lord of Ehden and surrounding district.

In 1997, Pope of the Catholic Church, John Paul II visited Lebanon to give hope to Lebanese Catholics. He said, "Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message.

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