Maronites

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Maronites. Uniat Syrian Christian body whose homeland is Lebanon. Maronite scholars trace their origin to a monastery founded by the disciples of a 4th-cent. Syrian anchorite, called Maro. It seems certain, however, that they became a separate body only in the 7th cent., with their adoption of Monothelite doctrines and subsequent excommunication in 680. Following the Arab conquest, their monastery on Mount Lebanon was destroyed. They formally united with Rome at the time of the Crusades (1182), and since then have maintained relations with the West.

As a Uniat body they have their own liturgy (mostly Syriac) and their own hierarchy of patriarch and ten bishops. Outside Lebanon and Syria there are also churches in Cyprus, Egypt, and N. and S. America.

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