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Who Are the Maronites?
“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
Acts 11:26
The first Maronites were direct descendants of the people
who had received the Faith from the Apostle Peter. The
Maronite Rits is a direct continuation of the Church of
Jesus Christ and His Apostles, the Church of the Bible, the
Church of the Creeds, the Church of the Fathers and the
Church of the seven Ecumenical Councils. They originated as
an ecclesiastical grouping of Christians who assembled
around the hermit monk Maron about the year 400 A.D. on the
mountain slopes of Cyr, near Antioch, Syria. For more
information and beautiful photographs of Lebanon please
visit:
www.maronite-heritage.com
After Maron's death in the year 410 A.D., his disciples
saved his remains and in spite of strong persecution, his
tomb became a place of religious pilgrimage. St. John Maron,
the first Patriarch of the Maronite people, was a monk of
the monastery of St. Maron, who was elected by the religious
community to secure the Apostolic succession to the See of
Antioch. Accordingly, the Maronite Patriarchate was
initiated by the election of John Maron in 686 A.D. and has
continued, since his death in 707 A.D., to the present time.
A total of 76 Patriarchs have ascended to the Antiochene
See, including the present successor, Mar Nasrallah Boutros
Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch and the Entire East.
Learn about our wonderful Maronite
Saints.
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History of
the U.S. Maronite Rite
www.usamaronite.org
The Maronite Rite was brought to the United States in the
early 1900's with the immigration of many Maronites from
Lebanon due to famine and persecution. The Maronites of the
United States became an Exarchate in 1965, and in 1971 the
Eparchy (or Diocese) of St. Maron was established with the
See in Brooklyn. In 1994, the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon
was established with its See in Los Angeles. The See was
moved to St. Louis in 2001, to better serve its parishes.
There are over 54 Maronite parishes and several missions in
the U.S.
Bishop Robert Shaheen, who presides over the Eparchy of Our
Lady of Lebanon, is the first Maronite Bishop to be
American-born, and the first such bishop to be ordained
outside of Lebanon.
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