Portal:Origin

From Maronite History

The term "Maronite" is given today to a large Christian denomination in Lebanon and the world, yet at the same time it has always posed a problem of identity. Scholars continue to dispute the precise roots of the word, but several historical sources combine to give clues concerning the origin.

Eleventh-century Maronite bishop of Kfartab and writer Tuma (Thomas) indicates in his Ten Treatises that the term Maronite is derived from Maran, which is a Syriac term that means "Our Lord Jesus Christ." According to Tuma, Maran was also the name of the monastery after which the Maronites were named. Tuma's first suggestion is supported by 16th century bishop of Nicosia Jabra'il Ibn al-Qila'i, who believed that the term Maronite was derived from the Syriac Morio, meaning Lord (Christ). Also as Tuma has written, 18th century Maronite writer Murhij Nirun al-Bani believed that the term Maronite (which in Syriac is Moronoye) came from the Monastery of Marun (named after a fifth century ascetic) and applied to those who followed the faith of the monastery's monks.

The issue is most extensively visited by 18th century Patriarch Istefan al-Duwayhi who wrote about it in Tarikh al-Ta'ifa al-Maruniyya. Al-Duwayhi discredited suggestions that the term Maronite came from a fifth century monk named Marun or from another monk by the same name who lived a century later. He also rejected the possibility that the term came from a town called Marun in Antioch, and the suggestion that the term derived from Morio, meaning "The Lord." Instead, Al-Duwayhi asserts that the term came from the name of the Syrian monastery, which itself was named after Christ. But Al-Duwayhi also favors another opinion by Al-Qila'i which he claims is approved by the Vatican, which is that the Maronites were named after the pious Marun, "Patriarch of Great Antioch." Some confusion, however, remains concerning the accuracy of this claim and the identity of the "Marun" in question.

Sources

• Matti Moosa - The Maronites in History (Syracuse University Press, 1986).