Eastern Orthodoxy in Syria

Eastern Orthodoxy in Syria represents Christians in Syria who are adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodox tradition is represented in Syria by the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch,^{[note 1]} the largest and oldest Christian community in the country.^[1]

Dual self-designation: "Melkites" and "Eastern Romans"

Members of the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Greek Catholic Rite in Syria and the Hatay province of Turkey (formerly part of Northern Syria), still call themselves Rūm which means "Eastern Romans" or "Asian Greeks" in Arabic, both referring to the Byzantine inheritance, and indeed they follow its central Greek-language version of the Constantinian or Byzantine Rite.

In that particular context, the term "Rūm" is used in preference to "Yūnāniyyūn" which means "European Greeks" in Classical Arabic (ultimately derived from the Ionians).

Members of these communities also call themselves "Melkites", which literally means "monarchists" or "supporters of the emperor" in Semitic languages (a reference to their ancient allegiance to Macedonian and Roman imperial rule), but, in the modern era, the term tends to be more commonly used by followers of the Greek Catholic Church of Antioch.

Presence in neighboring countries

These churches also exist in other parts of the Middle-East, notably Southern Turkey, Lebanon and Northern Israel and some Greek Orthodox intellectuals have been noted in the past for their secularist "pan-Arab" or "pan-Syrian" leanings, notably during the colonial and post-colonial eras. The Greek Orthodox Christians also have a long and continuous association with Orthodox Christian European nations such as Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania.

Notable Orthodox Christians in Syria

Michel Aflak - Philosopher, founder of the secularist Baath party^[2]
Dawoud Rajiha - Minister of Defense from 2011 to 2012^[3]
Qustaki al-Himsi - Writer and poet of the Nahda movement
Abd al-Masih Haddad - Writer of the Mahjar movement and journalist
Constantin Zureiq - Longtime history professor at the American University of Beirut and proponent of secular Arab nationalism
Halim Barakat - Arab novelist and sociologist
George Wassouf - One of the most successful Arab singers selling over 60 million records worldwide
Nassif Zeytoun - Singer and the 2010 winner of the Arabic reality television show Star Academy
Nasib Arida - Poet and writer of the Mahjar movement and a founding member of the New York Pen League.
Ignatius IV of Antioch - Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All The East from 1979 to 2012
John X of Antioch - Primate of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All The East
Jules Jammal - Military officer and martyr
Joseph Sweid - Minister of State since 2011 and a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Mary Ajami - Feminist and pioneering Arabic-language writer

Cities, towns and villages with a Greek Orthodox Christian majority or large minority in Syria

Mhardeh, Al-Suqaylabiyah, Kafr Buhum, Safita, Wadi al-Nasara, Al-Kafrun, Mashta al-Helu, Maten al-Sahel, Marmarita, Hawash, Rabah, Syria, Kafr Ram, Deir Mama, Al-Bayda, Syria, Ma'loula, Saidnaya, Al-Suwayda, Salkhad, Zweitina, Ayn al-Barda, Muklous, Uyun al-Wadi

Notes

^ In English translations of official documents, the Church of Antioch refers to itself as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East

References

^ Syria: US State Department The July–December, 2010 International Religious Freedom Report
^ Helms, Christine Moss (1984). Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 978-0815735557.
^ "Syria's Assad replaces defense minister with army chief of staff". Ha'aretz. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2012.

Sources

Brock, Sebastian P. (2011a). "Liturgy". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 248–251.
Brock, Sebastian P. (2011b). "Melkite". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. p. 285.
Brock, Sebastian P. (2011c). "Melkite literature in Syriac". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 285–286.
Dick, Iganatios (2004). Melkites: Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Roslindale, MA: Sophia Press. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
Griffith, Sidney H. (2001). "Melkites, Jacobites and the Christological Controversies in Arabic in Third/Ninth-Century Syria". Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years. Leiden: Brill. pp. 9–55. ISBN 9004120556.
Griffith, Sidney H. (2008). "John of Damascus and the Church in Syria in the Umayyad Era: The Intellectual and Cultural Milieu of Orthodox Christians in the World of Islam" (PDF). Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 11 (2): 207–237. doi:10.31826/hug-2011-110111.
Grillmeier, Aloys; Hainthaler, Theresia (2013). Christ in Christian Tradition: The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600. Vol. 2/3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921288-0.
Hohmann, Gregory (2000). "Loyalty to the Emperor and Change of Rite: What Induced the Melkite Church to Exchange the Syrian for the Byzantine Tradition". The Harp. 13: 49–56. doi:10.31826/9781463233013-008. ISBN 9781463233013.
Kiminas, Demetrius (2009). The Ecumenical Patriarchate: A History of Its Metropolitanates with Annotated Hierarch Catalogs. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9781434458766.
Leonhardt, Christoph (2018). "The Greek- and the Syriac-Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch in the Context of the Syrian Conflict" (PDF). Chronos: Revue d'Histoire de l'Université de Balamand. 33: 21–54. doi:10.31377/chr.v33i0.92. S2CID 54732620. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-09.
Madey, John (1997). "The Rite of Notification and Acceptance of the Episcopal Election in the Melkite Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch". The Harp. 10: 85–89. doi:10.31826/9781463232993-013. ISBN 9781463232993.
Meyendorff, John (1989). Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450-680 A.D. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 9780881410563.
Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Panchenko, Constantin A. (2021). Orthodoxy and Islam in the Middle East: The Seventh to the Sixteenth Centuries. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Publications. ISBN 9781942699330.
Poujeau, Anna (2010). "Monasteries, Politics, and Social Memory: The Revival of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in Syria during the Twentieth Century". Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 177–192.
Rompay, Lucas van (2008). "The East: Syria and Mesopotamia". The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 365–386. ISBN 9780199271566.
Roussos, Sotiris (1998). "Diplomacy and Communal Identity: Greece and the Greek Orthodox in Syria and Lebanon, 1919-1940". Chronos: Revue d'Histoire de l'Université de Balamand. 1: 33–65.
Roussos, Sotiris (2009). "Diaspora Politics, Ethnicity and the Orthodox Church in the Near East". Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. 61 (1–2): 137–148. doi:10.2143/JECS.61.1.2045833.
Roussos, Sotiris (2010). "Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the Middle East". Eastern Christianity in the Modern Middle East. London-New York: Routledge. pp. 107–119. ISBN 9781135193713.
Roussos, Sotiris (2014). "Globalization Processes and Christians in the Middle East: A Comparative Analysis". The Journal of the Middle East and Africa. 5 (2): 111–130. doi:10.1080/21520844.2014.928924. S2CID 154336287.
Walbiner, Carsten (1999). "Bishoprics and Bishops of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in the 16th and 17th Centuries". تاريخ كنيسة أنطاكية للروم الأرثوذكس: أية خصوصية؟. طرابلس: منشورات جامعة البلمند. pp. 121–134.
Walbiner, Carsten (2003). "The Split of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (1724) and the Emergence of a New Identity in Bilâd al-Shâm as Reflected by some Melkite Historians of the 18th and Early 20th Centuries". Chronos: Revue d'Histoire de l'Université de Balamand. 7: 9–36.
Winkler, Dietmar W. (2013). "Christianity in the Middle East: Some historical remarks and preliminary demographic figures". Syriac Christianity in the Middle East and India: Contributions and Challenges. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 107–125. doi:10.31826/9781463235864-011. ISBN 9781463235864.

[1] In English translations of official documents, the Church of Antioch refers to itself as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East

[2] Syria: US State Department The July–December, 2010 International Religious Freedom Report

[3] Helms, Christine Moss (1984). Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 978-0815735557.

[4] "Syria's Assad replaces defense minister with army chief of staff". Ha'aretz. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2012.

[note_n0-5] The ROC severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2018, and later severed full communion with the primates of the Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and the Church of Cyprus in 2020.

[note_n1-6] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Autocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.

[note_n3-7] UOC-MP was moved to formally cut ties with the ROC as of May 27th 2022.

[note_n2-8] Semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church whose autonomy is not universally recognized.

[note 1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]