“Most Catholic Christians in Lebanon became Catholic because of French rule over Lebanon.”

During the several centuries of separation from the rest of the Christian world, they often claim to have been in full communion with the Catholic Church throughout. … Despite this, the majority of the accounts of those interacting with them at the time indicate that they were monothelites; notable figures from the era such as the medieval historian Jacques de Vitry and the chronicler of the Pope, William of Tyre affirming this, the latter of which (William Tyre) recorded both their kindness upon receiving him and the monothelitic views of which they recanted, stating; "The heresy of Maro and his followers is and was that in our Lord Jesus Christ, there exists and did exist from the beginning one will and one energy only, as may be learned from the sixth council, which as is well known, was assembled against them and in which they suffered sentence of condemnation. Now however...they repented all of these heresies and returned to the catholic church".

The history of Mount Lebanon's connection to France dates back to the days of the Crusades, when the Franks constituted the largest proportion of the Crusader armies, whom the Maronites joined. Thus, it can be said that those wars were the first starting point for France's penetration and the declaration of its protection over the Maronite sect in Mount Lebanon, aided by the religious closeness between the Catholic French and the Maronites.

Such an approach begins by acknowledging the particularity of the Levantine setting, wherein Catholic activity was well embedded into the locale.

Such an approach begins by acknowledging the particularity of the Levantine setting, wherein Catholic activity was well embedded into the locale.

Maronite Catholics are the largest Christian group (with 52.5 percent of the Christian population), followed by Greek Orthodox (25 percent of the Christian population).

Because of the Crusades, the Maronites came into contact with the Latin Church in the 12th century. In 1182 the entire Maronite nation formally confirmed its union with Rome. … In the 16th century, the Ottomans took over the Maronite homeland, but by the 19th century the Western powers, especially France, “began to offer protection to the Maronites within the Ottoman Empire,” Roberson wrote. “A massacre of thousands of Maronites in 1860 provoked the French to intervene with military forces. After World War I both Lebanon and Syria came under French control.”

The Melkite Catholics came to Lebanon and inhabited it to escape the persecution of the schismatic Greeks, who made them taste the bitterness of aggression and humiliation throughout the East after they sought the help of the Turks against them.

While they were Christians who retained liturgies and rituals rooted in eastern Christianity, including Orthodox beliefs and the Byzantine Rite, they descended from folks who entered full communion with Rome in the 1700s.

The Melkite Catholic sect of today arose as a result of a split within the Byzantine Orthodox Church in Damascus in 1724. The reason for the split was the election of a new patriarch for the Byzantine Orthodox Church, and the refusal of some bishops to elect the patriarch who preferred independence from Rome. Thus, some clergy and people chose to ally with the Roman Catholic Church, and so the Melkite Catholic sect was established, combining the Byzantine rite with loyalty to the Pope in Rome.

And with the spread of the Christian religion since the first century AD and beyond, along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Syria and Lebanon were among the first countries to embrace Christianity. / Referring to Maronitism, a sect of Eastern Catholic Christians who are in permanent disagreement with Orthodox Christians, and who turned to the Church in Rome and remained affiliated with it.

The Maronites came into contact with the Latin Church in the 12th century, when the Latin crusader principality of Antioch was founded. In 1182 the entire Maronite nation formally confirmed its union with Rome.

The Maronite Church originated in the late fourth century around St. Maron. By the eighth century, the Maronites had moved to the mountains of Lebanon, living in isolation. During the Crusades, they established connections with the Latin Church and in 1182 formally united with Rome.

And the majority of current Latin Catholics are either descendants of merchants arriving from the maritime republics of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Ancona, and Ragusa who lived in colonies established on the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean, or descendants of French and Italian Levantines who settled the Levant (in present-day Lebanon, Israel, and Syria) during the era of the Crusades, especially in coastal cities such as Beirut, Tripoli, Tyre, Byblos, Acre, Jaffa, Latakia, and others, or in major cities near the coast, such as Tarsus, Antioch, Jerusalem, and others, and some of them may be converts to Roman Catholicism, or immigrants from Anglo-French colonization, or Eastern Christians who resided there for several centuries.

Louis XIV, with the approval of the Ottoman Sultan in April of the year 1649, issued a decree placing the Maronite community under the protection of France. This protection guaranteed the Maronites the right to litigate before special courts that were faster than their Ottoman counterparts, benefit from education in European schools and consular missions, exemption from taxes, and ease of travel to Europe.

Like the other Catholic communities of the Turkish Empire, the Maronites are under the protection of France, but in their case the protectorate is combined with more cordial relations dating from the connection between this people and the French as early as the twelfth century.

The Mutasarrifate had been established in 1861 to protect the local Christian population by the European powers under the terms of the Règlement Organique.

The Maronite Eparchy of Baalbek is considered relatively modern, as the first known bishop is Gabriel I Moubarak, mentioned around 1671. Like all Maronite sees, its ecclesiastical establishment was confirmed in the Maronite Synod of Mount Lebanon in 1736.

The Maronites, strongly pro-French by tradition, welcomed this, and during the next 20 years, while France held the mandate, the Maronites were favored.

Yet, the historical ties between the French and the Maronites predate the Mandate. In 1249, King Louis IX of France vowed to protect Maronites through a letter addressed to Maronite patriarchs and bishops, particularly in light of the crusades (Gül 2015, 9). In 1649, the king of France appealed to that in his own letter to the Maronite Patriarch, ordering French ambassadors to assist them under the Ottoman Empire (Beggiani 2003, 36). In short, France was a main supporter for Maronites during Ottoman times.

The French also sought to subject Lebanon to Maronite control so that it would depend on France. Thus, the French controlled a wider area that included other sectarian groups.

The Maronites trace their lineage to "Maroun the Hermit," and the name Maronites is derived from the name of "Monastery of Mar Maroun," which was established in the middle of the fifth century AD, near the city of Apamea "Qal'at al-Madiq," the capital of what was known at that time as Second Syria. This monastery is considered the cradle of the Maronite Church, and their first patriarch in "685" was Saint John Maron.

In 1649, Patriarch Yuhanna al-Sufrari placed the Maronites under French protection, and the French opened a consulate in Beirut.

Christianity reached southern Lebanon during Jesus's lifetime, and Christ Himself reached the district of Tyre and Sidon (Mt 15.21). Returning from Greece c. a.d. 56, St. Paul landed at Tyre, where stood an established church that some consider to be the earliest church in Lebanon.

Cyril VI was expelled from Damascus and took refuge in Lebanon, which was semi-independent, and union with Rome spread easily in Lebanon and remained steadfast in Aleppo and Damascus despite sometimes violent persecutions.

Religions: Muslim 54% (27% Sunni, 27% Shia), Christian 40.5% (includes 21% Maronite Catholic, 8% Greek Orthodox, 5% Greek Catholic, 6.5% other Christian), Druze 5.6%, very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, and Mormons

The Maronites have communicated with the Holy See since the first Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Patriarch John Maron. ... Following the entry of the Crusaders into the East, relations with them were established on the basis of the unity of religion, and the Crusaders opened for the Maronites the road to Rome, the center of Catholicism in the world.

As for the churches of Lebanon, they are very numerous; hardly a village is without one or two churches, or perhaps more. They are not all of great grandeur, nor do they date back to ancient times, for most of those in Keserwan and south of the mountain are not more than two hundred years old, because the Maronites did not [inhabit] northern Lebanon before that.