Maronites
CYRIL HOVORUN
A Christian community shaped in Syria in the 5th century, around the monastery of St. Maron (Beth Maron). Originally Chalcedonian, in the 7th century they adopted Monothelitism as part of the official Orthodoxy currently being promoted by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, retaining a formal profession of two natures and one will in Christ even after the condemnation of Monothelitism at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. The Maronite Church, having been separated from the Latin, Byzantine, and the non- Chalcedonian communions for centuries, accepted union with Rome in the 12th century. Presently, it is one of the Eastern Catholic churches sui iuris, headed by its own patriarch. Nowadays Maronites constitute the majority of the Christian population of the Lebanon, and are spread across the Middle East, with an extensive international diaspora.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Mahfouz, J. (1987) Short History of the Maronite Church. Beirut.
Moosa, M. (1986) The Maronites in History. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.