THE SYRIAC CATHOLIC CHURCH

It shared the same history, ritual and language as the Syriac Orthodox Church until the XVIth century. At that time, under the action of the western missionaries notably the capuchins, and thanks to the Maronites, the "Union Movement, penetrated the Syriac church extensively. The Church took the name of Syriac Catholic when Ignatius Andre AKHIDJAN was elected patriarch in 1662. The union was not finalized until 1783.

SITUATION IN LEBANON
Only one diocese gathers the Syriacs Catholics of Lebanon. Their number is estimated to about thirty thousand. It is however desirable to mention the name of two convents having played a major role in the history of the community: the one of Saint Ephrem at Chebanie and the one of Charfe, known to be the patriarchal seminary and the seat of the Patriarch in summer.

Bound to the complex history of the Antioch patriarchate, two communities of Syriac ritual deserve to be mentioned. An important fraction, indeed, of the Indies turned in the XVIIth century toward the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch, and fell under its jurisdiction. Today it constitutes a semi-autonomous church, called Syriac Orthodox church of the Indies. In 1930, a part of this church passed to Catholicism, while keeping the Syriac ritual. It was named the Malankare church .

The number of the faithfuls of the Syriacs Orthodox of the Indies is estimated to close to two million; the Catholic Malankare to half a million.

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