The Syrian Maronites number not less than 250,000 and are scattered all
over the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. They are found in largest
numbers in the northern districts of Lebanon and there they have
control of local affairs. They are also found as far south as Mount
Hermon in the country of the Druses. The hostility of these two races
led to the massacres of 1860 in which thousands of the Maronites were
slain. They take their name from John Maron, their first patriarch
and political leader, who died in 701 A. D. They were mixed up with
the Monophysite controversy in the sixth and seventh centuries. In
an attempt to reconcile them, John Maron, a Monothelite (one will)
leader, at the time of the Moslem invasion, conducted them into the
high mountains of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, where for five hundred
years they maintained their independent existence in the face of
every attempt to subdue or dislodge them. They developed qualities of
manly strength and industry. Their language was the Syrian and their
government a simple feudal system. They had a patriarch with Episcopal
dioceses at Aleppo, Balbek, Jebeil, Tripoli, Ehden, Damascus, Beirut,
Tyre, and Cyprus.
This interesting people was discovered to the world by the Crusaders
and through them were brought under the wing of the Roman Catholic
Church at the Council of Florence in 1445. They adopted the Arabic
language but retained their old Syriac ritual. They are to-day
recognized as followers of the Church of Rome with a form of worship
somewhat modified to meet their special conditions. The Jesuits and
forces of the Catholic Church have made every effort to prevent the
Protestant missionaries from getting a foothold among them. Much,
however, has been done for them by both the Presbyterian Board North,
and the Free Church of Scotland. The Irish Presbyterian Church of
Damascus is reaching the Maronites in that part of the country.
Education is greatly transforming the race and through this they are
becoming more and more responsive to evangelical religion.