Arab, Lebanese Christian

The Christian Lebanese are the Arabic-speaking Christians of Lebanon, the largest native Christian community in proportion to its country anywhere in the Middle East. Most are Maronites, a Syriac-rite church that grew around the monks of Saint Maron in northern Syria from the 5th century and took refuge in the Mount Lebanon range from the 7th century, in full communion with Rome since the Crusades. Others are Greek (Antiochian) Orthodox, heirs of the Byzantine Christians of the coastal towns and Koura, and Melkite Greek Catholics, who split from the Orthodox in 1724 and are strongest in Zahle. The Maronite mountain, autonomous under the Ottomans and France's ally, became the core of Lebanon in 1920, and the 1943 National Pact reserves the presidency for a Maronite. Identity is debated: the Orthodox and Melkites generally call themselves Arab Christians, while many Maronites prefer a Lebanese, Phoenician or Aramean identity and reject the Arab label. They share the Levantine Arabic of their Muslim neighbours, with French and English widely spoken, and keep Syriac and Greek in the liturgy.

Christian village life in Mount Lebanon centres on the parish church, the family and the village of origin, to which emigrant families return for summer festivals and burials. Feasts mark the year: Saint Barbara (Eid el-Burbara, 4 December) with masks and boiled wheat, Christmas, Palm Sunday processions with children carrying decorated candles, Easter, the Assumption (15 August) and the Holy Cross (14 September), when bonfires are lit on the mountains. Families are close-knit and educated in Catholic and Orthodox schools and universities (Saint Joseph, Balamand, Holy Spirit of Kaslik); trilingual Arabic-French-English speech is common. Zajal poetry, dabke, mezze and arak, and wine from the Bekaa are part of celebrations. Emigration is a lifelong reality: most families have close relatives in the Americas, Europe, Australia or the Gulf.

Maronites celebrate the Qurbono (liturgy) in Arabic with Syriac prayers and chant; Saint Charbel Makhlouf (1828-1898), the hermit of Annaya, draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims of all faiths who seek healing, and his monthly vigil on the 22nd is packed. The Qadisha valley's cave hermitages, Our Lady of Lebanon at Harissa and Saint Rafqa's shrine are major pilgrim sites. Orthodox and Melkites keep the Byzantine liturgy, icons and fasts. Practice ranges from devout to nominal: church weddings, baptisms and funerals are near universal, but weekly attendance is lower among the young in Beirut. Marian devotion, vows to saints and the use of blessed oil are widespread. Renewal movements (Catholic charismatic groups, Bible study circles, the Orthodox Youth Movement) and small evangelical churches emphasise personal faith.

Lebanon is the hub of Arabic Christian publishing and media: the Bible Society, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (Mansourieh), Near East School of Theology, SAT-7 and many publishers work from Beirut. The full Bible has existed in Arabic since the Van Dyck translation was completed in Beirut in 1865; the JESUS Film, audio Scripture and the Bible app are in Lebanese Arabic. The churches are old and well-rooted, but many members are nominal, and evangelical Protestants are about 1%. Renewal inside the historic churches and evangelical outreach both stress Bible reading and personal faith.