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Intrinsically linked to the power-sharing Maronite Catholic community, and historically tied to the fate of Lebanon, the Maronite Church was deeply involved in, and affected by, the 1975–90 Civil War. This study seeks to understand the changing role of the patriarchs during this time, recognizing that their relative withdrawal from politics – declining to assert the temporal authority of their predecessors – does not equate to the marginalization of the church as a whole. Analysing the internal politics of the church as a microcosm of the community's struggle, the study examines in detail a threefold relationship between the patriarchate, the papacy, and the monastic orders.

The Qadisha Valley (also known as Wadi Qadisha in Arabic) is located in northern Lebanon and is one of the longest valleys in the Mount Lebanon range. It combines a beautiful unique landscape with numerous historical and archaeological sites. Carved out by the Qadisha River in a deep gorge, the valley is an oasis of peace, serenity, and spirituality for many. It has sheltered Christian monastic communities for centuries. The Qadisha Valley is an important area for early Christian monastic movements that have been coming to live and pray there since the fifth century AD, mainly the Maronite Church between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1998, the valley was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural landscape.

What might have befallen the “Jews of Arab lands” in the shadow of the Holocaust certainly did not apply in the case of Lebanon. Lebanese Jewish life was markedly different from Jewish life elsewhere in the Arab-defined Middle East. This chapter speaks to a relatively “stable” Lebanese Jewish experience, in an era when the world at large was committing collective suicide, when the Jews of Europe were on the cusp of destruction, and when Middle Eastern Jewry was being slated for a similar fate.

Maronites who are identified as Monothelet by some historians mostly lived in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus. They were recognized in Yohannes Maron’s leadership as a different community in Christian world. A long period following Maron’s death is not known well. During the period of the Crusades, they built close relationship with the Christian World. Although they had lived under ottomans sovereignty following the conquest of Syria and Egypt by Ottomans, they were particularly affected by French cultural and political influences. In nineteenth century there were important changes in social and economical architecture of Ottomans and rest of the world. Consequently, coastal regions with rich economical surroundings and port-town such as Izmir, Mersin, Beirut, and Haifa developed rapidly. The fact that a Maronite church was started out at Mersin in this period indicates the formation of a Maronites community. For different reasons, over the time, Maronites emigrated from their homeland to different countries. In nineteenth century majority appear to immigrate to America and a small number of the community settled in Adana, Tarsus, and Mersin. There are different views about the reason for their migration. In this study, demographical records of Maronites who settled in Mersin were evaluated.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, members of the Maronite Church from the Middle East, especially Lebanon, began immigrating to the United States. Due to economic hardships, political tension, and religious discrimination, Maronite immigration has continued through the early twenty-first century. The large-scale immigration of Maronites resulted in the creation of Maronite parishes and after numerous requests to the Holy See, two Maronite dioceses were founded successively in the second part of the twentieth century. Attempting to protect its identity and its traditions in the U.S., the Maronite Church has faced challenges concerning its freedom and autonomy, its relation with the mother church in Lebanon, priestly vocations, and its relationships with other churches, especially Latin Catholicism.

The paper briefly describes relations between Antioch and Alexandria, i.e. between Syro-Mesopotamian and Coptic Christians. Short periods when Arians held power in both patriarchates are omitted, as well as pro-imperial patriarchates established after the Council of Chalcedon, known as Melkites. Also the Maronite Church, which was gradually established in 15 th century from Antiochian Church, together with Uniate Churches (from both Alexandrian and Antiochian roots, starting from 16 th century) are omitted. The scope of these relations included exchanges of patriarchs; lasting to this very day common stance on dogmas; commonalities in liturgy and religious practices (which also last to this day). Both patriarchates offered support and asylum to each other in times of persecution, especially after the Council of Chalcedon.

Taking into account the Maronites connections with the West the article rises aquestion: in what areas did the Syriac Christian community constitute a bridge between the East and the West? Although not all critical remarks of Kamāl Ṣalībī (b. 1929) on the Maronite view of history are accepted without reservation, his remark that “the awareness of the historic truth constitutes the ultimate foundation for the possibility to build a healthy society” seems valuable. The postulate of the verification of over-interpretation is always valid, nevertheless the discussion: what is a myth and what is the truth in the history of Lebanon continues.

aris al-Shidyaq, in later life known as Ahmad Faris, is the most curious Arab literary personality of the 19th Century. He was born in the Lebanon in 1804. His family belonged to the Maronite church, which is in communion with Rome; since the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic theocratic state, confessional loyalties were extremely important in it, and-not least among the minorities-religious authorities were entrusted with considerable powers over members of their communities. In the early 1820's, the American Presbyterian Mission became active in the Lebanon. An elder brother of Faris al-Shidyaq's, called As'ad, was attracted to its teachings, fell foul of the bishop in whose service he was, and as a result was incarcerated for some six years and died while in durance in 1830. In the meantime, Faris had been sent to Egypt to teach American missionaries, and while there he perfected his knowledge of Arabic and found employment on the staff of Egypt's official Gazette, the forerunner of Arab journalism. Still in the service of Protestant missionaries, he went to Malta in 1834 and eventually-much affected by what he called his brother's martyrdom-he himself became a Protestant. In Malta he was Director of the American Missionary Press and taught Arabic in some schools, but he seems to have been able to absent himself from his posts fairly frequently, and in 1848 he finally left for London, where he collaborated-none too happily-with Dr. Lee in the translation of the Bible into Arabic.