The
Maronite Church owes its name to an important monastery, Saint Maroun, who
received the name in homage to the anchorite Maroun.
The
monk Maroun was born in the forth century. After renouncing the world, he led
one of the most austere ascetic lives, in his hermitage and very often in the
open air.
Monastic life existed from the beginning of the Church. It is called the “way of
Christian perfection”.
The
monk Maroun was an ardent follower of Christ, and consumed with enthusiasm for
Christian perfection. He renounced the world and its attractions, and hid on one
of the mountains in the diocese of Cyr, where he lived in the ruins or an
ancient pagan temple, transforming it into a place of prayer and meditation. His
reputation soon attracted all those who, equally enthused by Christian
perfection, sought a model and an experimented spiritual guide. His disciples
were very numerous and his ascetic school was one of the most prosperous. Many
people visited him in his hermitage asking help both for corporal as well as
spiritual diseases and they were taken care of.
Saint
Maroun died in the beginning of the fifth century, and as far as we know, in the
year 410. After he died, his body was the object of dispute among the
inhabitants of the various cities of the region because of the miracles he had
performed. The inhabitants of the most populous and strongest place took the
body for themselves. They deposited it in a temple built especially for it and
dedicated to his memory.
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The
sanctuary did not take long to become a place of pilgrimage for the faithful
coming from every region. In the year 452, the Emperor Marciano commanded that a
large monastery be constructed for the Saint’s disciples, the Maronite monks.
This monastery of Saint Maroun was the birthplace of the Maronite Church. |
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After
the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedony which was convoked in 451 and declared that
Our Lord Jesus Christ is “Truly God and Truly Man”, the Maronite monks proved to
be the strongest defenders of this true doctrine of the Church. At this time,
the importance of the Monastery of Saint Maroun became ever greater, so that its
superior became in a short time both spiritual and temporal leader of the
region. The influence of the monks over the faithful applied themselves to
imitating the monks in the manner of praying eating, fasting and sleeping.
From the Lebanese Maronite Saints.
Lebanese Maronite Order.1999.
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