Do you know? : " what is the difference between the Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic churches in Levant? " it's simple ...we are ONE people (Levantine Rûm) following two churches! Thread

Some background:

The Antiochian schism of 1724

By 1724, under the influence of the Uniatism ecclesial movement, the Antiochian-Greek community had divided into two distinct and conflicting parties.

One fraction of the faithful leaned towards Constantinople (the Aleppines), while the other fraction leaned towards Rome (the Damascians). During the election of Patriarch of Antioch in 1724, a controversy developed over the results.

Fearing for the preservation of Orthodoxy and their identity, Aleppine-parishioners and bishops appealed to the Phanar, which appointed a Romaic-conscious Patriarch, Sylvestros the Cypriot.

The defeat of the Damascian candidate Kyrillos VI Tanas by Sylvestros resulted in a double lineage of patriarchs, one Rûm-Orthodox and the other Rûm-Catholic Christians, of which the Rûm-Catholic Patriarchs were obliged to reside in Lebanon under the protection of local emirs.

Greek War of Independence in the Levant
Further Information: Greek War of Independence

As soon as the Greek revolution commenced, Rûm throughout the Empire were targeted for persecutions, and Syria did not escape Turkish wrath .

In all the major Levantine  cities, Rûm were seized, tortured, and killed. Even remote villages did not escape, as soldiers were constantly searching the countryside for any signs of sympathy with the revolutionaries in Greece.

Fearing that the Rûm of the levant might aid the Greek Revolution, the Porte issued an order that they should be disarmed .

In Jerusalem, the city’s Christian population, who were estimated to make up around 20% of the city’s total (with the majority being Rûm), were forced by the Ottoman authorities to relinquish their weapons, wear black, and help improve the city’s fortifications.

While in Latakia, Rûm attempted to hide their weapons. “The arms were deposited secretly at the house of a Christian, and were placed in a coffin.On the appointed day, a funeral procession started from the house to convey the coffin to the burial-vaults of the Christian cemetery.

The plot was betrayed.
 The Mohammedans stopped the procession in the street, opened the coffin, and found the arms concealed.

Then commenced one of the most fearful persecutions ever recorded. Those Christians who could elude the vigilance of the Mohammedan guards, escaped into the open country;

but large numbers fell into the hands of the Moslems, and were imprisoned, tortured, and slain, at the will of their fanatical captors”

Monument to Vasos Mavrovouniotis in Podgorica.

Greek Orthodox holy sites, such as the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, located just south of the city of Tripoli in Lebanon, were also subjected to vandalism and revenge attacks, which in fact forced the monks to abandon it until 1830 .

Not even the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch was safe, as orders were received just after the execution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople to kill the Antiochian Patriarch as well, however, local officials failed to execute the orders .

As the revolution raged on, an Antiochian-Greek priest traveled to Greece to plead for assistance from Ioannis Kolletis to help the Antiochians revolt. Although seen as an excellent idea, Kolletis was unable to directly aid the Antiochians.

Therefore, Kolletis told the priest to seek aid from Vasos Mavrovouniotis, who with the assistance of other Greek Revolutionaries such as Nikolaos Kriezotis, and Hatzimichalis Dalianis, took up the cause.

On March 18th, 1826 a flotilla of around fifteen Greek ships, led by Mavrovouniotis and Kriezotis attempted to spread the Greek Revolution to the Ottoman Levant.

According to then-British Consul John Barker stationed in Aleppo, in a memo to British Ambassador Stratford Canning, in Constantinople.

The Greek Revolutionaries landed in Beirut  but were thwarted by a local Mufti and a hastily arranged defense force. Although initially repelled, the Greeks did manage to hold on to a small portion of the city near the seashore in an area inhabited by local Rûm.

During which they appealed to the Rûm “to rise up and join them” , and even sent an invitation to the chief of the local Druzes to also join the Revolution.

A few days later, on March 23, 1826 the regional governor Abdullah Pasha sent his lieutenant and nearly 500 Albanian irregular forces to exacted revenge for the failed uprising.

The official division into Rûm-Orthodox and Melkite-Rûm Catholic

As panic set in across the Levantine Rûm community, for fear of persecution due to the Greek Revolution.

Aleppo’s Rûm Catholics saw an opportunity to protect themselves from attack, and petition the Porte for autonomy so that they could free themselves from the authority of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

On April 16, 1821 a delegation from the Rûm Catholic community from Aleppo went before the local chief judge to swear allegiance to the Sultan, so as to entice the Ottoman authorities into recognizing the Rûm Catholics as their own millet.

In order to convince the obviously skeptical judge, the delegations gained the support of local Muslim notables and openly embraced Arabism.

In 1822, the Porte recognized  the Rûm Catholic community of Aleppo, granting them autonomy and the right to collect taxes on all the Rûm of Aleppo ,

not out of any consideration for the Rûm Catholic as different from the Rûm Orthodox, but more so to punish the Ecumenical Patriarch for the Greek Revolution .

In 1848, the Porte officially recognized the Rûm Catholic community as its own millet.

The Aleppo Massacre of 1850

On October 17-18, 1850 Muslim rioters attacked the Christian neighborhoods of Aleppo. In the aftermath, Ottoman records show that 688 homes, 36 shops, and 6 churches were damaged, including the Rûm Catholic patriarchate and its library.

The events lead hundreds of Christians to emigrate mainly to Beirut and Smyrna.

Damascus Massacre of 1860
On July 10th, 1860 Saint Joseph of Damascus and 11,000 Rûm Orthodox and Catholic Christians were killed when Druze marauders destroyed part of the old city of Damascus.

The Antiochians had taken refuge in the churches and monasteries of Bab Tuma (“Saint Thomas’ Gate”). The Massacre was a part of the 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict, which began as a Maronite rebellion in Mount Lebanon, and culminated in the massacre in Damascus.

Arabization of the Antiochian-Greek Orthodox Patriarchate

Through their agents, consuls and schools, the Russians nurtured Arabism in the Levant .

They sought to distort the image of the Romaic-conscious clergy in the eyes of the common Arabized Rûm in preparation for expelling those few Rûm that maintained a Romaic identity from the Antiochian-Greek Patriarchate.

The book ‘Lamha tarikhia…’(Historic summary of the Greek Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher) asserted Russia’s hidden intentions to liquidate the Greek presence in Syria and to Arabize the Antiochian Church .

As relations deteriorated between those Romaic-conscious Rûm and Arabized Rûm. Russia started to replace Romaic-speaking clergy with Arabists who were loyal to it and the Tsar.

In the end, Russia scored an all-out victory in Arabizing the Antiochian-Greek Patriarchate and installing the first Arabist patriarch . On November 13th, 1899 in the presence of the Arabist bishops and the Russian Consul and his staff.

Meletius II (Doumani) of Antioch was appointed Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, becoming the first Arabist primate of the Church of Antioch In response, the Patriarchs of the Phanar, Jerusalem, and Alexandria did not recognize the Russian-puppet Meletius II as patriarch

And refused to exchange with him the messages of peace

For sources and more information head to the website of the Levantine Greek Association:
http://romioi.org/ 

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