Eastern Catholic archeparchy in Syria
Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo[2] of the Maronites (in Latin: Archeparchy Aleppensis Maronitarum) is a seat of the Maronite Church. In 2012 there were 4,000[citation needed] members. It is currently governed by Maronite archeparch Joseph Tobji.
Territory and statistics
The archeparchy includes the city and the region of Aleppo, where is located the Saint Elias Cathedral.
The territory is divided into five parishes and in 2012 there were 4,000[3] Maronite Catholics.
History
The first mention of the presence of Maronites in the city of Aleppo is contained in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, which relates events of the first half of the eighth century, after which the Maronites were expelled from the city. The Maronite presence was reduced to so few units. Only in the seventeenth century, thanks to immigration, the Aleppinian Maronite community grew and was equipped with a bishopric, although they are unsure whether the names of the first prelates in the history.
In 1675 surveyed about 1,500 Maronites, while ten years later their number is about 4,000. The Maronite clergy was mostly ignorant and without any training. Capuchins, Carmelites and Jesuits preached in Maronite churches as missionaries due to the lack of priests.
Among the former bishops is certainly the best known Gabriel of Blaouza, who was elected patriarch of the Maronite Church in 1704 succeeding Estephan El Douaihy; he is linked to the foundation of Antonin Maronite Order. Germanos Farhat, a man of culture and scholar of Arabic, was the first bishop born in Aleppo and probably the first to reside permanently in the city.
During the episcopate of Paul Aroutin, the Maronite Church obtained the civil recognition by Ottoman Empire (1831), which allowed the bishop to restore the ancient cathedral of Saint Elias, already attested in the seventeenth century. It must to his successor Youssef Matar construction of today's cathedral: the bishop himself took part in the First Vatican Council and established in 1857 the Imprimerie de la nation Maronite, the first authentic typography in the city of Aleppo.
From 1954 to 1977 the bishops of Aleppo were also directors of Patriarchal administration of Laodicea (today Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Laodicea).
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