Category:AP

This category refers to the canonical Antiochian Patriarchate, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, whose headquarters are in Damascus, Syria.

Patriarchate web-site : https://www.antiochpatriarchate.org/

Orthodoxwiki article about the Antiochian Patriarchate : https://orthodoxwiki.org/Church_of_Antioch

A History of the Holy See of Antioch Based on the work of Dr. Joseph Zaitoun 23/08/2016

A History of the Holy See of Antioch

About the establishment of the city of Antioch

Ancient history

Seleucus I Nikator, a general under Alexander the Great, was a Macedonian army officer who founded the Seleucid Empire. He rose from governor of Babylon to king of an empire centring on Syria and Iran. Seleucus was the son of Antiochus, a general of Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. Seleucus participated in the conquest of the Persian empire as one of Alexander’s officers, and in 326 BC he commanded the Macedonian infantry against King Porus of India in battle on the Hydaspes River. In 324, Alexander ordered a mass wedding ceremony at Susa (in Persia) to put into practice his ideal of uniting the peoples of Macedonia and Persia. On this occasion Seleucus married Apama, the daughter of Spitamenes, the ruler of Bactria. Of all the Macedonian nobles, he was the only one who did not repudiate his wife after Alexander’s death. After Alexander died (323 BCE), Seleucus was given the command of the hetairoi (companions) cavalry and took part in the regent Perdiccas’s campaign to oust Ptolemy, the governor (satrap) of Egypt. In Egypt, however, he joined with others in the assassination of Perdiccas. When the empire was divided in 321, he was given the governorship (satrapy) of Babylon. At the same time, Antigonus Monophthalmus (the One-Eyed) had been placed in command of a campaign against Eumenes of Cardia, a supporter of Perdiccas. In 317 Seleucus aided Antigonus but, after Eumenes’s execution in 316, Antigonus demanded that Seleucus give an accounting of the income from his satrapy. Seleucus refused to give the accounting and escaped capture by fleeing to Ptolemy in Egypt.

From 316 to 312 Seleucus remained in Ptolemy’s service. He took the initiative in forging a coalition among Ptolemy, Lysimachus (the ruler of Thrace), and Cassander (who laid claim to Macedonia) against Antigonus, whose desire to become the ruler of the whole of Alexander’s empire was a threat to them all. In the resulting coalition war (315–311), Seleucus was made one of Ptolemy’s generals and jointly with him commanded the Ptolemaic troops that defeated the force of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, at the Battle of Gaza in southern Syria (312).

Seleucus once again turned his attention to returning to Babylonia, and in August 312 he was able to reconquer Babylon with only a small army. This conquest marked the beginning of the Seleucid era, which is dated Dios 1 (October 7), 312, in the Macedonian calendar and Nisan 1 (April 3), 311, in the Babylonian calendar. Antigonus ordered Nicanor, one of his generals, to invade Babylonia from the east and his son Demetrius to attack it from the west, but they failed to oust Seleucus. When Antigonus made peace with his enemies in 311, Seleucus was not included.

Little is known about the next few years of Seleucus’s reign; he presumably used them to consolidate his gains. In the year 305 he followed the example of the other successors and assumed the title of king (basileus). He embarked on an expansion of his kingdom throughout the Iranian east (the upper satrapies) as far as India, but his advance was eventually halted by Chandragupta (called Sandrocottus or Androcottus in Greek and Latin sources), the founder of the Mauryan empire of India. In a pact concluded by the two potentates, Seleucus agreed to territorial concessions in exchange for 500 elephants. Their pact also contained a marriage clause, in which Seleucus may have agreed to send a daughter to India, but details of the arrangement are unknown.

Developments in the west were also a factor in causing Seleucus to end his campaign in India (303). He had joined a coalition that Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus had once again formed against Antigonus and Demetrius. In the winter of 302 Seleucus was back in Asia Minor and, together with Cassander and Lysimachus, defeated Antigonus in the Battle of Ipsus (301). The victors divided the lands of their enemy among them, with Seleucus being given Syria. The southern part of Syria, Coele Syria, had in the meantime been occupied by Ptolemy, who had not taken part in the war. This gave rise to the long series of Syrian wars between the Seleucids and Ptolemies. For the time being, however, Seleucus declined to enforce his claim; he merely transferred his capital from Seleucia on the Tigris to the newly founded city of Antioch on the Orontes (301–300).

Ptolemy, anxious to improve relations with Lysimachus, had given him his daughter Arsinoe in marriage. To provide a counterbalance, Seleucus asked for the hand of Stratonice, the daughter of Demetrius, and in 298 the wedding was held with much pomp at Rhosus in Syria. Soon, however, Seleucus’s territorial demands (e.g., the surrender of Ciliciaand the cities of Tyre and Sidon) ruptured the previously harmonious relationship with Demetrius.

In 294 a sensational scandal occurred at the court of Seleucus. Antiochus, his son by Apama, fell in love with his beautiful stepmother, Stratonice, and his unrequited passion affected his health. Seleucus gave him Stratonice, assigned him as commander in chief to the upper satrapies, and appointed him co-regent. In 285 Seleucus took Demetrius prisoner, thus foiling his attempt to conquer Asia, and interned him in Apamea, where he died in 283. Subsequently, Seleucus intervened in dissensions in the house of Lysimachus, who had had his son Agathocles assassinated. In February 281 Lysimachus fell in a battle against Seleucus at Corupedium, and Seleucus gained control of Lysimachus’s kingdom. He was now near his goal of reestablishing Alexander’s empire. He crossed over to Europe to enter Macedonia, but at the end of August or beginning of September 281, he was murdered by Ptolemy Ceraunus, who had been passed over by his father, Ptolemy, as successor to the Egyptian throne. Seleucus’s son and successor, Antiochus I, entombed his father’s ashes in Seleucia, initiated (probably) the posthumous cult of his father, and ordered his veneration as Zeus Nicator.

Seleucus was an energetic ruler, creating the Seleucid empire, which gained its greatest expansion under his rule. He took great interest in the administration of his territories and founded many new cities. He also encouraged scientific research: Patrocles explored the Caspian Sea and Megasthenes the Ganges River. A bronze bust—a very impressive likeness of him, conveying his imposing personality—was found in Herculaneum (in Italy) and is now in Naples.

Nicator shared for a time in the remainders of the empire after the death of the king. The region of the East until Sindh was under his mandate. Alexandria and the rest of North Africa went to Ptolemy in 300 BC.

- He wanted to build a new capital of his immunity, unlike the Swedish on the mouth of the Asi (Orontes River, and ascended to the mountain of Al-Aqra on April 23, 300 BC. The ancient port of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) lies 30 kilometres (19 mi) to its south. Texts discovered there in the 1920s, including the Baal Cycle, showed its residents considered the peak of Mount Sapan (Akkadian, Ugaritic, & Phoenician: Ṣapānu) to house the lapis and silver palace of their storm god Baʿal (lit. "The Lord") and his sister ʿAnat.[7] Baʿal is now often identified with Hadad and his variations understood as local cults. The form Baʿal Zephon was worshipped widely: his temple at Ugarit held a sandstone relief dedicated to him by a royal scribe in Egypt and the king of Tyre called on him as a divine witness on a treaty with the emperor of Assyria in 677 BCE.[8] It appears in the Hebrew Scriptures as Mount Zaphon (Hebrew: צפון‎).[6][n 1] In ancient Canaanite religion, Mount Sapan was sometimes accounted as the home of all the gods, not only Baʿal and his sister. As Mount Zaphon, it appears in that role in the Hebrew Scriptures' Book of Isaiah, along with the Mount of the Congregation.[12] From its importance and its position at the northern end of Canaan, it also became a metonym[13][14][15] and then the word for the direction "north" in the Hebrew language. The Hittite name persisted in neo-Hittite culture into the ninth century BC and so when Greeks settled on the north side of Mount Hazzi they continued to call its main peak 'Mount Kasios'", Lane Fox points out, observing that it was the Mount Olympus of the Near East.[16] The cult of the god of the mountain was transferred, by interpretatio graeca, to Zeus Kasios, the "Zeus of Mount Kasios", similar to Ras Kouroun in the Sinai. Tiles from the Greco-Roman sanctuary at the site, stamped with the god's name, were reused in the Christian monastery that came to occupy the eastern, landward slopes of Kazios.[17]

When kings and emperors climbed Mount Kasios to sacrifice at its peak sanctuary, it was a notable cultural occasion. Seleucus I Nicator sought there the advice of Zeus in locating his foundation, a Seleuceia (one of many) on the coast

The victim presented to the god Zeus, and the eagle came and carried the victim and flew to Mount Silibus. Then he returned on the first of May and went up to the mountain knocks and presented the victim again to the god Zeus, the Eagle came again and carried this victim and flew to a fortified site at the foot of Mount Silibus protected from the appearance of another mountain, he realized that the god Zeus guided him to the place of his capital desired. He built this capital, and named it Antioch after his father Antiochus.

The location of this city was marked by its occurrence on the curve of the Orontes River, which brought together the benefits of the land and the sea that was nearby. The ferret was then good for navigation, so that the boats (regardless of the weight of their submersible) delayed their water to Antioch. And linking the Selcus Antioch Babylon (and was the greatest cities of the East, the capital of the East of Alexander) two roads paved to facilitate the transfer of armies, and a market for the movement of traders and goods. And sought the two eastern settlers of their subjects, it was easier for them to stay in the area of Al-Assi.

Antioch grew up in four neighborhoods, each surrounded by a double shield, the remains of which are still visible, called Tetrapolis (the four cities). It is worth mentioning that Seleucus established 4 cities: Antioch Epidaphne (Antakya) (after his father), Seleuceia (Salukiah) in Pieria (after himself), Apameia (Afamiyya) (after his wife) and Laodiceia (Lothikias, Latakia) after his mother's name.

- In 64 BC, the Romans opened Pompey Syria, making Antioch the capital of the state of Syria, and called it the eye of the East, and made it the seat of the Roman governor general, and linking Palestine with its autonomy for the privacy of the Jews.

Church of Antioch

- The Church of the City of Antioch is one of the oldest churches after Jerusalem. Christianity accepted the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to heaven three years. After the martyrdom of St. Stephen in Jerusalem in the year 37 CE, Antioch came from Cyprus and Kairouan, succeeded in their preaching, and the news of their success spread to the church in Jerusalem. The world sent the sign of Barnabas to whom he joined great crowds, and encouraged him to go to Tarsus, Paul the Apostle) to Antioch, and took together to preach there the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Antiochian Church flourished and became famous in the world and called the church Christian, and called the Christians for the first time Christians. The messengers came out to the countries of the world in the east and west, as they came out of Damascus, where they planted the seeds of the Christian religion, making them legitimate rights to the new churches in the eastern regions. This is why we see the Bishop of Antioch advancing from the early Christian epochs to the other bishops of the East. He presided over the spatial councils in the East (Ankara in 315 and Caesarea in 316). The honorable traditions show us that the apostles of Barnabas and Paul founded the Church of Antioch about 42 years of Christ. And that Peter the Apostle was the first bishop to be erected on her and stayed in her care for eight years, from the year 45 to the year 53, and Antioch was the capital of the East in those days of about 700,000 people.

The distance between Antioch and Tarsus is about 250 km.

The distance between Antioch and Damascus is about 400 km.

In 325 CE, the first ecumenical council was held in Nicea, and the Church of Antioch was recognized by the presidency over the other bishops of the East.

Then came the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 Christianity established the works of the First Synod. The third ecumenical council in 431 admitted Christianity to the independence of the Church of Cyprus from Antioch. The fourth ecumenical council in 451 gave Christianity the title of Patriarch of Antioch. Political incidents and religious insurrections have separated some provinces from Antioch as well as the establishment of patriarchy The First Church in Antioch The Cave of St. Peter in the City of Antioch

Which included the Assyrian Church in Mesopotamia and Persia, which entered the Nestorius heresy. The third ecumenical council, in 431, boycotted Christianity, and then they separated from Antioch in the year 498, including the Syriac Syriac Church, which fell into the one-nature heresy, Christian, and separated in the year 513 Christian. Among them were the Maronites who also departed from the Antioch Patriarchate with the election of their first patriarch, John Maroun in 685, and they were the first church to unite with the Franks in the Levant in 1182, The reign of Patriarch Jeremiah the Amchite, and declared her subordination to Pope Romah.

• In the year 1050, the Orthodox Church of the Church of Antioch became independent of the Church of Antioch. It became an independent Orthodox Church, which was annexed by the Russian Church in 1840. It was then restored to independence with the success of the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917.

The language of the Antiochian Church

- The Antiochian throne remained for many centuries, from its inception until the Islamic conquest of the region in 633. A Christian, a clergyman and a people, known for its Greek accent, despite the presence of a few people in northern Syriac speaking Syria. This reduces the presence of inks among patriarchs, bishops and other Greek clergymen and language who were in charge of the Holy Antioch. It is well known that the famous Antioch school, and its many students such as John Chrysostom and others, as well as the school of Adessa Uralha (Orfa), and the school of Nisibin (Diyarbakir). These two schools taught Greek and Syriac together, and a great number of men, including patriarchs and bishops, were added to these schools. Since the conquest of Antioch by the Christians in 635, the Greek language has been slowly diminishing with the Arabic language of conquerors.

They used their Patriarchs, especially the Nestorians, as opponents of the Orthodox clergy, facilitating them to stay in the Antiochian Holy Places for the Orthodox Patriarchs, since those heretics were not Greeks. To cross the borders of Persia to Antioch. Nevertheless, Greek remained the language of the Church and its men until the eleventh century, when for the first time men appeared fluent in both languages. The people did not know any language other than Arabic, forcing some of the church members to localize some liturgical books. The Sheikh of Arabization and the deacon was Abdullah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki, the bishop. The selection of the clergy in general remained of those who knew Greek and Arabic. The exchange between the clergy remained unremarkable among all the churches, and the four patriarchs were united in their natural course of faith and the possibility of calamities. One of the most significant positions is the position taken by the Antiochian Chair during the great and most serious schism in the Christian world in 1051.

Then came the invasions of the Franks conquered the city of Antioch on June 29, 1098. On the day of the Day of the Holy See, after a seven-month siege during which they committed acts of rape and wanton destruction against their Orthodox brethren (unfortunately), their hearts were not ashamed ... Since they entered Antioch, they have deposed their Patriarch John VII after they put him in a wooden cage like animals and rolled him on the mountain. , And established a Latina named Bernard ...! The Patriarchal edifice in Damascus, the Archbishopric of Damascus since the year 705 to 1344, to become the seat of the Patriarch of Antioch and the Bishop of Damascus until now. They also replaced all the clergy and were fluent in Arabic as well as in their native language. During the reign of the Franks about two centuries ago, the legal patriarchs had to stay in Constantinople. We recall that one of the invasions of the Franks conquered Constantinople in an unprecedented manner, especially that they were brothers in Christ. They violated the sanctities and practiced the prostitutes with prostitutes and prostitutes on the sacred table in the Cathedral of Agia Sophia. And continued to occupy them for more than seventy years and this invasion has weakened the Roman state much, which facilitated the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed II dropping after a bitter struggle.

• The number of Latin Patriarchs on the Antiochian throne was 10 to 1268, when the hypocrites opened the city of Antioch after a siege, destroyed it and destroyed it, and killed and captivated its 100,000 inhabitants. He knew when he was besieged that the Frankish army had withdrawn from them before his arrival (Peppers) Acre was joined by the Frankish forces under the command of the king of Acre.

The status of Jerusalem and its apostolic throne was better than that of Antioch, Constantinople, and Alexandria at the hands of the Francophone invaders until the liberation of the Ayyubid religion of Jerusalem and its entry into his right and his Christian Orthodox assistant Issa al-Awam. Thus, the Latin spiritual presence passed from the region until the Latin monks reestablished a patriarchal The East in Jerusalem in 1845 included all the Latins in the Levant, and with the help of French, Austrian, and Catholic monarchies in Astana at the court of the Ottoman caliphs and the Ottoman governors in the states took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, N Resurrection Church and other churches. They also seized the Church of Ananias the Apostle in Damascus ...

After their expulsion, the Franks left vast commercial and economic relations between the East and the West and the many Catholic monasticism that established the Maronite entity under the authority of the Pope after the amendment of their faith in Catholicism in 1182 by the Latin Patriarch Enri in 1183.

As we have already mentioned, the Franks was an organized papal element in the patriarchal area The monastery of Our Lady of Balamand where Patriarch Athanasius Dabbas placed the printing press Antioch. Then came the era of the Mamluks and the Seljuk Turks. They were famous for persecuting the Christians, attacking the people, cruelty, injustice and revenge. It was a painful time that did not change any important in favor of the Church except its constant struggle to defend its entity, restore its strength and restore some of its remaining property and endowments.

- The Antioch patriarchs lived in the city of Antioch until the destruction of Bebars in 1268. As a result, five patriarchs were transported throughout Asia Minor, Constantinople and Cyprus. After the death of Patriarch Antioch I, it was decided to move the seat of Antioch to the city of Damascus, the most important city in the Levant and the most important spiritual city after Antioch, since its bishop followed the Patriarch in Antioch in terms of importance. It was therefore decided to call the Bishop of Damascus Joachim, The Apostle Ananias (the first bishop of Damascus) Patriarch of Antioch. Soon after, Joachim died and his successor Ignatius II was appointed in 1344. He was the first Patriarch to reside in Damascus in the present Patriarchate House in Old Damascus. From that date, the series of Bishops of Damascus united with the Patriarchate of Antioch (to God's will) and the Patriarch became the Bishop of Damascus. The main road at the Monastery of St. Paul's vision is in the planet - After the fall of Constantinople in the hands of the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II in 1453, there was a great horror among the Christians of the Antiochian Church (they were about 90% Orthodox and about 10% of the owners of one nature) and in particular in distant places or isolated from the cities. Year 1517 Christian. And followed by Egypt under the leadership of Sultan Selim I, and the Turks did not hesitate to commit barbaric acts and brutality.

Evolution of Catholicism

In this era, the first of the papal religious missions began to appear in a missionary campaign by the Jesuits who had just finished the Protestant tide in Europe, the Greek Orthodox Church of Albania and the eastern coast of Italy. The Jesuits were men of knowledge and supplied with money, and they were made of the capital of the "Mellum Rom", ie, Constantinople, a center for them and a starting point for their proclamation throughout the State.

Ottoman and specifically in the Levant. And because of the multiplication of the number of educated at the expense of the Vatican between Christians and other Catholics, who received an Orthodox name, and received the flag in the School of the spread of faith in Rome and in the Greek language.

As a result of this, the arrogance of the Orthodox has increased in order to quote the sciences. The spiritual leaders have not been able to answer the people's desire to open new organized schools, considering the general state of poverty among the parish and shepherd, and the Ottoman authorities not allowing them to open these schools. The Christians opened up to just a writer, and if that was done, it would be a secret to the eyes of the authorities.

The Patriarchs took the Antiochians and the Tartars to fight and travel abroad to Eastern Europe, beginning the Orthodox people and the spiritual and official authorities to collect the subsidies for the restoration of the ruined churches and the attempt to open schools. Patriarch Makarios Ben Al-Zaim traveled to Russia, Russia and the Balkans in the year 1648 to collect subsidies. His journey lasted for eight years, where he suffered a lot of success. The Hassidic princes, Antioch. Then he came back Patriarch Makarios son of the leader

On his second trip to Russia in 1861, he was a Christian for five years. His son, Archdeacon Paul, the son of the leader, lost the two journeys, but died on the way back in Karag (Georgia) and was buried in Tbilisi.

- In his absence, and because of his forgiveness (from a genuine Christian point of view) of entering the Orthodox parish houses, missionary missions took advantage of the poverty of the people, on the one hand, and on the other, his desire to quote modern science.

The Western monks entered the homes of Orthodox Christians in Aleppo and Damascus as "men of knowledge and good, leading them to help their brethren in Christ." They took advantage of this and invested the naivete of the Orthodox Orthodox people and bribed him to contravene his faith, inciting him to proclaim the union in a Roman church when the time came, In the elections of the Patriarchal Ordination and in the Order of the monastery of Balamand, and paid a team of these monks were from Aleppo to the establishment of the Habbanid monastic, and took some of the children who wish to receive the flag to Rome, to create conditions conducive to union with the Holy See. By the end of the 17th century, a large number of priests and families had already appeared by name and Catholica. The first bishop of the Antiochian sanctuary called the catholic kingdom. He was the Roman-born Aftimus, the disciple of the Jesuits, and the Roman school, who was the Archbishop of the city of Rome. Thanks to him, after the death of Patriarch Athanasius Dabbas in 1724, his nephew Seraphim Tanas was ordained a patriarch and in violation of church laws. But the Damascene people who remained in their faith with the legal bishops found that the best way to resist this tide was to choose a Greek Patriarch of origin and language, and from the Archbishop of Constantinople, given that the parmanaments granted to the Patriarch of Constantinople were given to the Christians of the Ottoman Empire (Patriarch Mala Bashi) Christianity, and gave him many rights and privileges than that given to other heads of the rest of the Orthodox chairs. They asked him to send a patriarch to the Antioch throne in a hurry to stop the deterioration that took place after Sayyid Tanas and the Patriarchal Orthodox Patriarchs and their right to the Pope, especially since Mr. Tanas sent to the Pope the instrument of submission to him and to the Catholics.

The role of Greek patriarchs on the Antioch throne

Saints Peter and Paul are the founders of the Holy Antioch Patriarch Silbstras came quickly through Aleppo, and was welcomed by her flock with pleasure and affection. At that time, the Lent, gave him a banquet, and with a bad order of the Western monks (unfortunately). They asked the parish to put the fish on the table, in violation of the Orthodox fast, And the heart of the table. It was the spark that ignited the wildfire, and most of Aleppo's Orthodox Catholics overturned

They declared disobedience. (Even the most important patriarchs were Mr. Maximus Mazloum al-Halabi and he was the one who followed him. The Ottoman Empire recognized its church as a separate sect from its mother, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, after 100 years of actual schism. 1834), and it is certain that this schism could have been achieved without careful and meticulous management and had produced the desired result.

As soon as Silbstras arrived on the outskirts of Damascus, Tanas left him with his uncle and his followers of the priests with the monasteries quickly and with him all the assets of the Mariamite cathedral from a papal analysis, holy vessels and ancient icons brought by Patriarch Ibn Al Zaeem and Patriarch Dabbas of the Orthodox world. And all the assets of the Patriarchal House to the monastery of the Savior in the region of Sidon at the time of his uncle Aftimus.He moved from an Orthodox Orthodox monastery to a patriarchal residence. He also took over all the churches of the Patriarchs and became Catholics. Later, the Catholics took over several churches in the parish of Silvias (Zahle, Bekaa, Sidnaya, Maaloula, Yabroud, and Qara with many of its cities ...) Patriarch Malatius II

Thus the team of Aziz and Ghosn Warf were separated from the Antiochian Orthodox tree and joined the papal presidency, which did not succeed in holding the Antiochian throne. The same was done with the Eastern Churches (Syriac in the Levant and the Copts in Egypt and the Assyrians in Mesopotamia and the Armenians). Western churches were established in the eastern Orthodox region, and Roman churches were established for them, and they supported them with money. And in all forms necessary support for survival and continuity, all of which arose almost in the early 18 th century.

In 1724, the Catholic Patriarch Cyrilus Tanas established parishes for the diocese of the Orthodox dioceses, supported by the establishment of modern monarchies under the supervision of the Pontifical paganism, which lasted for all the elements of success, spread throughout all the dioceses and opened modern schools and benefited from the support of the distinguished ambassadors of France and Austria The Ottoman court, and tried to attract the Orthodox if he helped or exploited the differences, especially in the villages to nominate a priest or a selector and just family differences. They turned to Catholicism, especially in poor Hauran and other areas. The dissidents maintained the rites of their mother church, including keeping the word Orthodox in the liturgy books, wearing the Orthodox priestly dress and sticking more to the Greek liturgical language, especially now.

Roman Catholics received a confession from Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the Egyptian campaign against the Levant (1831-1840) in an independent patriarchate.With the support of his senior advisor Hanna Catholic Sea, and with the assistance of Prince Bashir al-Shihabi Maronite, who fought the Ottoman Empire alongside the Egyptian campaign. The Ottomans then recognized the efforts of the ambassadors of Austria and France, Theodosius Abu Rajiliwantkuma of Greece, including Patriarchs stationed on the Antioch.After intensive shuttle tours by the famous Catholic Patriarch Maximus Mazloum to the European capitals, the decision-maker in the sick man (the Ottoman Empire) and to the Vatican City, and with the direct intervention of the leaders of the Latin monarchs living in Istanbul, influential in the High Gate, the state recognized the Roman Catholic Patriarch under the name of " Patriarchate of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and the East of the Melkite Catholics "in 1834. The Patriarch Mazloum immediately moved the Patriarchal headquarters from Deir Al-Moukhal to Damascus, proving the presence in Damascus, capital of the Antioch, and the importance of Damascus spiritually, administratively and politically.He bought from the representative of the Jewish community, the readers of the great synagogue in the Zaytoun neighborhood (the agent was residing in Istanbul) and turned the synagogue into a cathedral named Sayyida al-Nayha (opposite the Mariamite Orthodox Cathedral)

Patriarch Gregorius Haddad

The patriarchal patriarchal house was also built alongside it. In 1862 Patriarch Gregorius Joseph built the patriarchal school on its campus to rehabilitate the priests.

Developments in the Antiochian Chair in the Modern Era

Since the division of Roman Catholics between 1724 and 1898, six Greek Patriarchs of the Ecumenical Council (Constantinople) and three of the Jerusalem Holy See were appointed as apostates. It is worth noting that the entire 18th century with the first third of the 19th century was burdened with the following events

• Exhaustion of Christians by the high taxes, and unjust laws in general, and Orthodox specifically because of the revolutions of the Greek liberals in 1770, and (1821 - 1830), including facilitating the activity of papal missionaries in the country.

• Some internal incidents in the Antiochian chair and the conflict between some presidents on the patriarchal authority and the maneuvers of foreign hostages to widen all odds by their students, including the flourishing Roman Catholic cults, which attracted many to Catholicism for the above reasons.

• Storm problems with Roman Catholics.

The harshness of the Ottoman Empire against the Orthodox in its own country was not known at the time. The mother was discovered and spread recently from the letters of Napoleon to the Sultans of Bani Usman, in which he says: "Look for your true enemy within your country, not outside, and this enemy is the Orthodox people who protect him. Russia within your country and protects all other Orthodox nations, especially Greece ... etc ... etc ... "

• The sectarian strife of 1860 that began in Mount Lebanon in 1849 between the Druze and the Maronites, and spread the year 1860 to Zahle and Damascus and its surroundings, Mount Druze and Mount of Sheikh and spent tens of thousands of Christians and destroyed their villages and neighborhoods and opened the door of migration to those who survived to escape to Beirut and from there to Egypt, Sudan and the Americas ... A similar strife struck Aleppo in 1850.

The last Patriarch of Greece was Antioch Patriarch Emeridon, who resigned and returned to his country in 1898. Under the pressure of a popular Damascusite, Patriarch Malatios the Damascene was elected by the Antiochian Synod and opposed by 3 Greek Bishops (Aleppo, Kilikia and Erzurum). And the Patriarchate (Constantinople, Alexandria and Jerusalem) cut off the company with the Patriarchate of Antioch, and did not recognize Patriarch Malateus for being an Arab.He was the first Arab Patriarch since the death of Patriarch Dabbas in 1724 and the rise of Catholicism.This historic event was declared by Abu Khaldoun as "the first steps of the emergence of Arab nationalism in Syria".

The company continued to cut with Antioch until 1910, when the three Patriarchs recognized Patriarch Gregorius Haddad after four years of his Salami letters to them as usual. It is necessary to mention a great personality that appeared in Damascus and played a pivotal role in the preparation of Arabization. It was the martyr Yusuf Muhanna Al Haddad, the martyr in St. Joseph the Damascene, the teacher in his school, who reopened the school of the Patriarchate and established it according to the modern foundations. In 1851, The Roman Patriarchate, was joined by the men of the Ecclesiastes who then Arabized the Antioch, and in particular the Dominican Patriarch, and certainly this was an unprecedented academic line in the Levant, which was about twenty years earlier than the Jesuit and American universities. Study and destruction Patriarch Alexandros III

In 1860, he had achieved his ambition by presenting the Asian as well as being the first and oldest school in the Levant (founded in 1635), the first theological and scientific university, having prepared for this with his demonic student Dimitri Shehadeh Damasche in Istanbul.

In 1836 and 1840, after being elected unanimously by the Damascus Orthodox people as priests. Al-Khoury Yusuf went to care and diligence to preserve the Orthodox flock and his sons in Damascus, Hasbaya and Bloudan. He managed to limit the spread of Catholicism in Damascus and elsewhere, and returned a large group of them to Orthodoxy. He also stopped the activity of the English Protestant missionaries and returned some of the new converts to the faith fold.

As for the Assyrian schools (the National Orthodox Patriarchate of Damascene), he studied university materials in addition to the high theological studies, and he was planning to make the Assyrian university such as the universities of Khalki, Athens, Moscow, and Petersburg, and in the absence of the strife of 1860 and his death and the destruction of the school. The Levant and before the American and Jesuit universities in Beirut for about two decades.

As we have said, the disciples of this saint, Qanwamn, Arabized the Antioch, and they took the episcopal chairs in the Antiochian dioceses, in addition to the great secularists, most prominent of them was Dimitri Shehadeh al-Sabbagh al-Damasche, who emigrated in Constantinople from 1846 to 1890 and played a leading role in Renaissance The Antiochian throne, especially in the Arabization of the Antioch authority (we will talk about it later, God willing).

The bottom line of this stage is that the precious results reached by the Greek Patriarchs on the Antioch and the Arab armies, is the fruit of a continuous heroic struggle that does not continue.Therefore, we can conclude that if there were no compelling reasons, including internal and regional, with serious political and economic dimensions that were solved by Orthodoxy in our country, the tide of attack against it would have stopped immediately.

National Patriarchs

Of course, the Patriarch Malateus began an internal reform initiated by the opening of the Seminary of the Seminary in Balamand in 1900. In a few years he managed to send a mission of the academic students to carry out their higher theological studies in the schools of Khalki, Athens and Moscow. He then elected national bishops to fill the vacant parishes including Kilikia (Mersin, ...), which was elected by the Archbishop Alexandros Tahan Damascene, but the parish in that diocese was mostly Greek did not recognize the Bishop of the fact that he is an Arab as it tells the Patriarchal documents.

- Patriarch Malatius I died in 1906 and with his patriarchate short and ended in death by a stroke, he made corrective leaps in the Holy Antioch.

He was succeeded by the Bishop of Tripoli, Gregorios Haddad, from his father in Lebanon. He was the best successor to the best predecessor in the maintenance of Orthodox allegiance and jihad for it and continued until his death in 1928.

The reign of Patriarch Gregorius IV witnessed radical changes at the national, Orthodox and international levels. In 1910, relations with the Orthodox Churches were restored. In 1913, he visited Russia at the invitation of Tsar Nicholas, and the Romanovs' celebrations, 300 years after their accession to the Russian throne.

Expulsion of Turks and national rule

In 1914-1918, the First World War, with all its cruelty and tragedies, was the famine of Sverberl, epidemics and swarms of locusts, the deaths of tens of thousands of Orthodox, and other sons of Lebanon and the Levant ... and a massive emigration to the Americas.

The biography of this great patriarch attests to the acts of mercy he has performed, and has been heavily consumed to secure the feeding of the hungry of all religions, sects and sects. He won the admiration of opponents such as the killer and then General Guru, and the admiration of lovers like Sharif Hussein bin Ali, Prince of Mecca, and his son, Prince Faisal, has taken the last written recognition that Arab Christians are citizens of the first degree, have what their brothers in Arabism and the homeland of rights and duties . This recognition was received in the newspaper Al-'Amira with the instrument of allegiance to Faysal Malka in Syria in 1920.

He was the only Patriarch who gave King Faisal at the railway station of the foot south of Damascus after the Battle of Maysaloun on 24 July 1920 and the entry of the French Damascus victorious, and Faisal cried of this meeting,

Everyone, especially when the patriarch said to him, "This hand that you have promised will remain faithful to the covenant forever." Faisal tried to kiss the hand of the patriarch, just as the Russian Czar Nicholas did in 1913 in Moscow. It is a wonderful position in his evidence that the king of Syria, Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali Sharif of Mecca and the King of the Arabs and the successor of the Muslims accept the hand of the Patriarch !!.

Antioch in the French Mandate

Since the entry of the French invaders Syria, Patriarch Gregorius stood the position of the enemy against them. They exchanged him for hostility, and various pretexts prevented him from providing assistance and compensation for the Orthodox villages other than the Catholic villages, and others. The Orthodox were banned from public office and jobs, especially in departments controlled by the French, such as customs, the Hijazi railway, and the Rigi (tobacco and tobacco). At the time of his death they tried to divide the Orthodox Church into two Syrian and Lebanese sections and to play this tone by establishing two Orthodox Patriarchs in both Syria and Lebanon in order to strike this national church rooted in this land, especially when the Antiochian crisis was elected by the Antiochian Patriarchs.

The Archbishop of Lattakia Ersanius Haddad al-Beiruti, and the other team elected the Bishop of Tripoli Alexandros Tahan Damascene. The Orthodox Patriarchs called for a halt to the controversy after a period of 3 years from 1928 to 1931 in which the Antiochian throne suffered from loss and loss thanks to French conspiracies. A High Orthodox Committee has declared that the Orthodox Patriarchates represented the validity of the election of the Castros under the Antioch patriarchal election law. Arsanyos is to retain the title of patriarch and his residence in Lattakia, and one of the Patriarchs will take over Antioch after the death of the other.

In 1935, a new crisis arose, with Mr. Abefanios, the Archbishop of Akkar, establishing the independent Syrian Orthodox Church, which was not recognized by the official authorities, the Mandate authorities or other Patriarchs. All dioceses until they were resolved by the return of Mr. Epiphanius to obey the Synod. Patriarch Ignatius IV Patriarch of the Arabs and Patriarch of the Lebanese Accord In 1939, the Second World War, which lasted until 1945, began with its tragedies and its impact on the internal situation, which negatively affected the Orthodox Church, but its national position remained rejecting the French mandate. It was an honorable position that was admired and appreciated by all the other actors in the country. The issue of Palestine began with Patriarch Gregorius by rejecting the Balfour Declaration and intensifying with Patriarch Alexandros, where he began to encourage his Orthodox Antioch to join the 1948 "Salvation Army" to defend it against the Zionist gangs as well as to assist the arming of the Syrian army (despite the poverty of the Antioch) And the diocese of Damascus in particular, which lost most of its endowments as a result of feeding Patriarch Gregorius to all the Hungry in the famine of Barlak travel 1914-1918 and endowment mortgages and then selling them to fulfill debts), and motivating expatriates to donate those who did not give up giving, He had a chair Antioch in the dioceses was credited with collecting these donations in favor of the Palestinian cause, as they did when the French pounded Damascus with artillery in 1925 and destroyed the old district of Sidi Amoud and burned down. And in 1945 when the French hit Damascus and destroyed a number of neighborhoods and bombed the parliament and destroyed his protector. The donations received from Antioch of Migratory Orthodoxy were distributed to all the people of the homeland without distinction of religion and doctrine.

The well-known national position of the Orthodox Church continued to shine in the triple aggression against Egypt in 1956, and here is the Syrian Orthodox hero, the son of Lattakia, and the student at the Maritime College in Egypt, presenting himself as the Egyptian defense and drowning in the martyrdom operation of the French barge Jean d'Arc in the Suez Canal. Mr. Shukri al-Quwatli praised the hero in his homage to the Holy Mass held by the patriarchate for the same convenience in the Mariamite Cathedral in Damascus, congratulating Patriarch Alexandros and the Orthodox community on the martyr. "This is not strange to its patriotism and nationalism."

Alexandros continued his patriarchal duties until his death in 1958. He was succeeded by Patriarch Theotosius Abu Rajaili from Beirut. He continued until 1969, when he died at the Roman Hospital in Beirut. He was succeeded by Archbishop Elias Moawad.

Patriarch Elias IV was a monk on the one hand and a politically gifted patriot on the other. He was named "Patriarch of the Arabs" by the first Lahore Conference in 1974,

Jerusalem. He supported the Palestinian and Arab resistance and the armed struggle in order to regain it. He continued the patriarchal rule until 1979

While his death. Where he was succeeded by the current Patriarch Ignatius Hazeem, and is limited by the census of the achievements of Patriarch Ignatius IV, urban and spiritual, in addition to the national vision, where he was also the title of "Patriarch of the Arabs" of the Taif Islamic Conference, and contributed to the cessation of the Lebanese civil war and " "He said. The greatest achievement of Patriarch Ignatius IV is to realize his dream of transforming Balamand from a mere clerical monastic monastery into a major university that competes with the world's oldest universities.In addition, the number of churches in Damascus alone has risen from four to 12 churches, and the number of monasteries in Syria has increased from 3 monasteries to 7 monasteries, etc. The number of dioceses Patriarch John X 2012 - ...

Antioch currently has 20 dioceses spread across four corners of the world.And the number of children of the chair is nearly 18 million Orthodox, looking to the city of Antioch, the capital city, and to Damascus accepted them wherever they were and where they resolved.

Patriarch Ignatius IV died on December 5, 2012, at the age of 93 years. The Holy Antiochian Council chose the Bishop of Western Europe John (Yazji) as his successor and was installed in the Church of the Holy Cross in Damascus in the name of Patriarch John X. The largest in the Levant in terms of geographical area and the importance of Orthodoxy numerically and faithfully, and its great role in the dissemination of Christianity, especially Damascus, the history and present Saul's oppressor, "Paul the Apostle" and was launched into the world, the capital of the Holy Antioch and Syria, In addition to the destruction of churches and monasteries more than 65 churches and monasteries, namely Maaloula, Harsta, Arbayn and Darya, in addition to the destruction of churches and monasteries, ... the displacement of the parishes, the people saw And the number of Christians in general and the Orthodox in particular was frightening and their number was decreasing in an unprecedented manner despite the attempts of His Beatitude to stop immigration ... New dioceses were opened in Europe to accompany immigrants, find priests and try to help the rest who are living in suffocating economic crises As well as the loss of security, kidnapping and indiscriminate bombing of cities, villages and individuals ... in all dioceses of the homeland in Syria and Iraq, while Lebanon's internal political situation hindered the election of a president amidst acute social and living crises. D, the small and geographically significant in importance to the Holy Antioch throne ... is the second wing after Syria ...

It remains to be concluded that the number of patriarchs on the throne, the first of whom is Peter the Apostle, and the last of them is John 10, is 166 Patriarchs. And that the number of bishops of Damascus since Hananiah Apostle until the transfer of the Patriarch to Damascus with Patriarch Ignatius II in 1344 58 bishops to unite the series of bishops of Damascus with a series of patriarchs Antioch and remain Antioch chair Khaldakma Damascus eternal capital Khaleda.

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