ST. MARO made choice of a solitary abode on a mountain in the diocese of
Syria and near that city, where, out of a spirit of mortification, he
lived for the most part in the open air. He had indeed a little hut,
covered with goat skins, to shelter him from the inclemencies of the
weather; but he very seldom made use of it for that purpose, even on the
most urgent occasions. Finding here a heathen temple, he dedicated it to
the true God, and made it his house of prayer. Being renowned for
sanctity, he was raised, in 405, to the dignity of priesthood. St.
Chrysostom, who had a singular regard for him, wrote to him from
Cucusus, the place of his banishment, and recommended himself to his
prayers, and begged to hear from him by every opportunity.[1]
St. Zebinus, our saint's master, surpassed all the solitaries of his
time, with regard to assiduity in prayer. He devoted to this exercise
whole days and nights, without being sensible of any weariness or
fatigue: nay, his ardor for it seemed rather to increase than slacken by
its continuance. He generally prayed in an erect posture; but in his old
age was forced to support his body by leaning on a staff. He gave advice
in very few words to those that came to see him, to gain the more time
for heavenly contemplation. St. Maro imitated his constancy in prayer:
yet he not only received all visitants with great tenderness, but
encouraged their stay with him; though few were willing to pass the
whole night in prayer standing. God recompensed his labors with most
abundant graces, and the gift of curing all distempers, both of body and
mind. He prescribed admirable remedies against all vices. This drew
great multitudes to him, and he erected many monasteries in Syria, and
trained up holy solitaries. Theodoret, bishop of Cyr, says, that the
great number of monks who peopled his diocese were the fruit of his
instructions. The chief among his disciples was St. James of Cyr, who
gloried that he had received from the hands of St. Maro his first
hair-cloth.
God called St. Maro to his glory after a short illness, which showed,
says Theodoret, the great weakness to which his body was reduced. A
{415} pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his
burial. The inhabitants of a large and populous place carried off the
treasure, and built to his honor a spacious church over his tomb, to
which a monastery was adjoined, which seems to have been the monastery
of St. Maro in the diocese of Apamea.[2]
Footnotes:
1. St. Chrys. ep. 36.
2. It is not altogether certain whether this monastery near Apamea, or
another on the Orontes, between Apamea and Emesa, or a third in
Palmyrene, (for each of them bore his name,) possessed his body, or
gave name to the people called Maronites. It seems most probable of
the second, the abbot of which is styled primate of all the
monasteries of the second Syria, in the acts of the second council
of Constantinople, under the patriarch Mennas, in 536, and he
subscribes first a common letter to pope Hormisdas, in 517. The
Maronites were called so from these religious, in the fifth century,
and adhered to the council of Chalcedon against the Eutychians. They
were joined in communion with the Melchites or Loyalists, who
maintained the authority of the council of Chalcedon. The Maronites,
with their patriarch, who live in Syria, towards the seacoast,
especially about mount Libanus, are steady in the communion of the
Catholic church, and profess a strict obedience to the pope, as its
supreme pastor; and such has always been the conduct of that nation,
except during a very short time, that they were inveigled into the
Greek schism; and some fell into Eutychianism, and a greater number
into Nestorianism; they returned to the communion of the Catholic
church under Gregory XIII. and Clement VIII., as Stephen Assemani
proves, (Assemani, Act. Mart. t. 2, p. 410,) against the slander of
Eutychius in his Arabic Annals, which had imposed upon Renaudot. The
Maronites keep the feast of St. Maro on the 9th, the Greeks on the
14th of February. The seminary of the Maronites at Rome, founded by
Gregory XIII. under the direction of the Jesuits, had produced
several great men, who have exceedingly promoted true literature
especially the Oriental; such as Abraham Eckellensis, the three
Assemani, Joseph, Stephen Evodius, and Lewis, known by his Judicious
writings on the ceremonies of the church. The patriarch of the
Maronites, styled of Antioch, resides in the monastery of Canabine,
at the foot of mount Libanus; he is confirmed by the pope, and has
under him five metropolitans, namely, of Tyre, Damascus, Tripolis,
Aleppo, and Niocsia, in Cyprus. See Le Quien. Oriens Christianus. t.
3, p. 46.