THE MARONITE CATHOLICS OF LEBANON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 192, 1 December 1876, Page 14

THE MARONITE CATHOLICS OF LEBANON.

♦+ "What has given us most pleasure is, that in the midst of the divisions produced in the East, the project you have formed of combating the errors and dispelling the darkness which have enveloped many minds, to expose the snares laid for the simple, to oppose with all your might the torrent of evil, and to labor for the re-establishment of unity. ..... Therefore, without permitting yourself to be alarmed at the difficulty of the enterprise, or discouraged by want of success, proceed and fulfil your mission." (Extract from a letter of" our Holy Father Pope Pius IX., of the 28th August, 1872, to his Grace th Most Rev. Joseph Debs, Maronite Archbishop of Beyrout.) Th© Maronites derive their origin from the Syrians, who became Christians through the preaching of our Saviour Himself or of His apostles. They are called Maronites from St. Maron, a holy Abbot who in the fifth century rose up to save them by his teaching from the errors which then divided the Eastern Church. Ever since, despite the most cruel persecutions, they have courageously struggled for their faith. Towards the end of the eleventh century they were distinguished as the advanced guard of the Crusaders, who had taken up arms for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre, and as their guida to the holy places. The Maronites sealed with their blood thi§ aliiance with the Christians of the West. On this account they have suffered for centuries from the Arabs, and at the present time from the anti-Christian sects of Syria, the most cruel persecutions. The massacres of 1840 and 1860 cannot be forgotten. They reduced to 300,000 souls a nation formerly populous and powerful. Nevertheless, despite the efforts of infidels, the Maronites have always remained faithful to the Catholic Church. Observers of her councils, they have repeatedly testified their unaltered submission to the sovereign authority of the Holy Father. It is in behalf of this nation, always persecuted for its holy faith, that Mon. Debs, Archbishop of Beyrout, encouraged by oar Holy Father decided to appeal to the Catholics of the West for their generous concurrence, praying their aid in the struggle against the propagandism of Disseaters^now carried on in the East. His Grace the Archbishop of Beyrout has engaged in thig struggle, even with the weak resources at his command. He has founded an important Catholic college at Beyrout, where the Maronite youth receive the blessings of a religiously orthodox education. This undertaking, which has cost many great sacrifices, still remains unfinished for the want of means. The offerings of the faithful and the curtailment of the revenue of the archbishopric, joined to the personal sacrifices of his Grace, hare not been sufficient to realize for the new college the resources necessary to contend with rich and powerful adversaries. His Grace has consequently, in the commencement of the year 1875, appealed to the generosity of Catholics in favor of this important undertaking. |His appeal has been published iv .Austria, Belgium, France, and most parts of Europe, and many Cardinals (including the Cardinal- Archbishop of Dublin), Archbishops, Bishops, priests and people have responded to it with sympathy and generosity. The work is to-day going on well, and his Grace of Beyrout hopes, with the blessing of God and the generous help of Catholics, to fulfil the mission upon which he has entered. — ' Cork Examiner.'