TheSyriac Catholic Church^[a] is anEastern Catholicsui iuris (self-governing)particular church that is infull communion with theHoly See and with the entirety of theCatholic Church.^[5] Originating in theLevant, it uses theWest Syriac Rite liturgy and has many practices and rites in common with theSyriac Orthodox Church. TheSyriac language, a dialect ofAramaic, is the liturgical language used by the Church.^[6] There are about 140,000 Syriac Catholics, with the majority inSyria andIraq, along with a smaller community inLebanon and an overseas diaspora. It is one of the smaller Eastern Catholic churches based in theMiddle East.^[7]

Syriac Catholic Church
ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ
Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Saint Paul,Damascus,Syria
Classification	Eastern Catholic
Orientation	Syriac
Scripture	Peshitta[1]
Polity	Episcopal
Pope	Leo XIV
Patriarch	Ignatius Joseph III Yonan
Region	Near-East; Lebanon,Syria,Iraq,Turkey with communities inUnited States,Canada,France,Sweden,Venezuela,Brazil,Argentina andAustralia
Language	Syriac,Aramaic
Liturgy	West Syriac Rite
Headquarters	Beirut,Lebanon[2]
Founder	Traces ultimate origins toApostlesSt. Paul andSt. Peter Through PatriarchsIgnatius Andrew Akijan (1662) andIgnatius Michael III Jarweh (1782)
Branched from	Church of Antioch[3]
Members	153,415 (2018)[4]
Official website	syr-cath.org(in Arabic)

The Syriac Catholic Church traces its history and traditions to theChurch of Antioch established bySaint Peter. TheDiocese of the East under thePatriarch of Antioch included the western Middle East along the Mediterranean.^[6] The Church of Antioch was split following theCouncil of Chalcedon in 451 over disagreements onChristology, with the Syriac,Coptic, andArmenian churches becoming part ofOriental Orthodoxy after rejecting the outcome of the council.^[8] A decree of unity between the Syriac Orthodox Church and Rome was made at theCouncil of Florence in 1444 but it was quickly annulled by the Syriac hierarchy. After missionary work led to conversions to Catholicism among Syriac Christians in the 17th century, one of them,Andrew Akijan, was elected as the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch in 1662. After his death in 1677, rival Catholic and Orthodox Syriac patriarchs were elected between then and 1702. The current line ofSyriac Catholic patriarchs of Antioch began in 1782, whenMichael Jarweh declared himself in communion with thepope of Rome after being elected by the Syriac Orthodox Holy Synod.^[9]

The church is headed byMorIgnatius Joseph III Younan, who has been the patriarch since 2009. Its patriarch ofAntioch has the title ofPatriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syriacs and resides inBeirut, Lebanon.^[b] The seat of the Syriac Catholic patriarch was moved several times due to persecution of the Church. Michael Jarweh established the monastery of Our Lady in Sharfeh, Lebanon, which is also currently the site of the seminary and printing house of the Syriac Catholic Church.^[9]

The Syriac Catholic Church (Classical Syriac:ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ,romanized: ʿĪṯo Suryoyṯo Qaṯolīqayṯo) is sometimes also called the Syrian Catholic Church. Furthermore, it is sometimes referred by its patriarchate, theSyriac Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch. See also:Syriac Catholic Patriarchs of Antioch.

The Syriac Catholic Church claims its origin throughSaint Peter prior to his departure to Rome, and extends its roots back to the origins ofChristianity in theOrient; in theActs of the Apostles we are told that it is in Antioch where the followers ofJesus for the first time were called "Christians" (Acts 11:26).

In the time of the firstecumenical councils, thePatriarch of Antioch held theecclesiastical authority over theDiocese of the Orient, which was to be extended from theMediterranean Sea to thePersian Gulf. Its scholarly mission in both languages,Greek andSyriac, was to provide the world and the Universal Church with eminent saints, scholars, hermits, martyrs and pastors. Among these great people areSaint Ephrem (373), Doctor of the Church, andSaint Jacob of Sarug (521).

During theCrusades there were many examples of warm relations between Catholic andSyriac Orthodox bishops. Some of these bishops favored union with Rome, but there was no push to unify until a decree of union between the Syriac Orthodox and Rome was signed at theCouncil of Florence September 30, 1444 – but the effects of this decree were rapidly annulled by opponents of it in the Syriac Church's hierarchy.

AJesuit andCapuchin missionaries evangelizing inAleppo caused some local Syriac Orthodox faithful to form a pro-catholic movement within the Syriac Orthodox Church. In 1667,Andrew Akijan, a supporter of union with theCatholic Church, was elected as patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[10] This provoked a split in the community, and after Akijan's death in 1677, two opposing patriarchs were elected, with the pro-Catholic one being the uncle of Andrew Akijan. However, when the Catholic patriarch died in 1702, theOttoman government supported the Syriac Orthodoxy's agitation against the Syriac Catholics, and throughout the 18th century the Syriac Catholics underwent suffering and much persecution. Due to this, there were long periods when no Syriac Catholic bishops were functioning, so a patriarch could not be elected, and the community was forced to go entirely underground. However, in 1782, the Syriac Orthodox Holy Synod elected MetropolitanMichael Jarweh ofAleppo as patriarch.[1] Shortly after he was enthroned, he declared himself Catholic and in unity with the pope of Rome. After this declaration, Jarweh took refuge in Lebanon and built the still-extantmonastery ofOur Lady atSharfeh, and by that act became the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church. Since Jarweh, there has been an unbroken succession ofSyriac Catholic patriarchs, which is known as theIgnatius Line.^[11]

In 1829 the Ottoman government granted legal recognition to theArmenian Catholic Church, and in 1845 the Syriac Catholic Church was also granted its own civil emancipation. Meanwhile, the residence of the patriarch was shifted to Aleppo in 1831. However, after theMassacre of Aleppo in 1850, the patriarchal see was shifted toMardin in 1854.

After becoming officially recognized by the Ottoman government in 1845, the Syriac Catholic Church expanded rapidly. However, the expansion was ended by the persecutions and massacres that took place during theSayfo ofWorld War I. After that, the Syriac Catholic patriarchal see was moved to Beirut away from Mardin, to which many Ottoman Christians had fled the genocide. In addition to its see in Beirut, the patriarchal seminary and printing house are located atSharfeh Monastery inSharfeh,Lebanon.

As of 2013^[update], thepatriarch of Antioch (an ancient major see, where several Catholic and Orthodox patriarchates nominally reside) was MoranMorIgnatius Joseph III Younan, resident inBeirut,Lebanon. The Syriac Catholic patriarch always takes the name "Ignatius" in addition to another name.

In modern history the leaders of the Syriac Catholic Church have been:Patriarch Michael III Jarweh,Archbishop Clemens Daoud,Patriarch Ephrem Rahmani,Vicomte de Tarrazi,Monsignor Ishac Armaleh,Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni,Chorbishop Gabriel Khoury-Sarkis,Ignatius Antony II Hayyek,Ignatius Moses I Daoud,Ignatius Peter VIII Abdalahad, and Ignatius Joseph III Yonan.Eminent Syriac saints, scholars, hermits, martyrs and pastors since 1100 also includeDionysius Bar Salibi (1171),Gregorius X Bar Hebraeus (1286) and more recently Bishop MorFlavianus Michael Malke.

The Syriac Church leadership has produced a variety of scholarly writings in a variety of topics. For example, Patriarch Ephrem Rahmani was widely praised for his work in Syriac and is responsible forPope Benedict XV recognisingSaint Ephrem as a Doctor of theCatholic Church.^[12] LikewisePatriarch Ignatius Behnam II Beni is known for imploring Eastern theology to defend the primacy ofRome.^[13]

Thepatriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syriacs presides upon the Patriarchal Eparchy of Beirut and leads spiritually all the Syriac Catholic community around the world.

The community includes twoarchdioceses inIraq, four inSyria, one inEgypt andSudan, apatriarchal vicariate in Palestine, a patriarchal vicariate inTurkey and the Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance in theUnited States andCanada.

The Syriac Catholic Church was formally united with the Holy See of Rome in 1781.

Middle East diocesan jurisdictions

• Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch
  • Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Eparchy of Beirut, Lebanon
• MetropolitanSyriac Catholic Archeparchy of Damascus, Syria (without suffragan)
• MetropolitanSyriac Catholic Archeparchy of Homs, Syria (without suffragan; titular sees of Hama and Nabk are united with it)
• Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo, Syria
• Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Hassaké-Nisibi, Syria
• Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Mossul, Iraq
• Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Baghdad, Iraq
• Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Hadiab-Erbil, Iraq
• Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Cairo, Egypt

Old World missionary jurisdictions

• Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Basra, Iraq and the Gulf
• Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Jerusalem (Palestine and Jordan)
• Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Turkey
• Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Dependency of Sudan and South Sudan (formerly 'of Sudan')

Overseas diaspora

• Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, New Jersey for the US, which has 11 parishes in the United States.
• Syriac Catholic Apostolic Exarchate for Canada (6 parishes)
• Syriac Catholic Apostolic Exarchate for Venezuela

• Metropolitan :Amida of the Syriacs,Apamea in Syria of the Syriacs,Edessa in Osrhoëne of the Syriacs,Tagritum of the Syriacs
• Archiepiscopal :Chalcedon of the Syriacs
• Episcopal :Anastasiopolis of the Syriacs,Arethusa of the Syriacs,Batnæ of the Syriacs,Dara Syrorum of the Syriacs,Hama of the Syriacs (united with Homs),Hierapolis in Syria of the Syriacs,Ioppe of the Syriacs,Mardin of the Syriacs,Martyropolis of the Syriacs,Nabk of the Syriacs (united with Homs),Phoba of the Syriacs,Tripolis in Libanum of the Syriacs

• Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Gazireh, Turkey
• Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Mardin and Amida, Turkey
• Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Lebanon

• Moran Mor Ignatius Joseph III Younan (Patriarch of Antioch)
• Jihad Mtanos Battah (Curial Bishop of Antioch and Titular Bishop of Phaena)
• Basile Georges Casmoussa (Archbishop {personal title} and Curial Bishop of Antioch)
• Flavien Joseph Melki (Curial Bishop of Antioch and Titular Archbishop of Dara dei Siri)
• Jules Mikhael Al-Jamil (Auxiliary Bishop of Antioch and Titular Archbishop of Tagritum)
• Gregorios Elias Tabé (Archbishop of Damascus)
• Théophile Georges Kassab (Archbishop of Homs; deceased)
• Denys Antoine Chahda (Archbishop of Aleppo)
• Jacques Behnan Hindo (Archbishop of Hassaké-Nisibi)
• Youhanna Boutros Moshe (Archbishop of Mossul)
• Ephrem Yousif Abba Mansoor (Archbishop of Baghdad)
• Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka (Archbishop Emeritus of Baghdad)
• Clément-Joseph Hannouche (Bishop of Cairo and Protosyncellus of Sudan and South Sudan)
• Yousif Benham Habash (Bishop of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark)
• Timoteo Hikmat Beylouni (Apostolic Exarch of Venezuela and Titular Bishop of Sabrata)
• Iwannis Louis Awad (Apostolic Exarch Emeritus of Venezuela and Titular Bishop of Zeugma in Syria; deceased)
• Michael Berbari (Patriarchal Vicar of Australia and New Zealand)

As of 2010^[update] the church was estimated to have 159,000 faithful, 10 bishoprics, 85 parishes, 106 secular priests, 12 religious-order priests, 102 men and women in religious orders, 11 permanent deacons and 31 seminarians.^[14]

TheWest Syriac Rite is rooted in the old tradition of both the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch and has ties with the ancient Jewish Berakah.^{[citation needed]}

The Syriac Catholic Church follows a similar tradition to otherEastern Catholic Churches who use theWest Syriac Rite, such as theMaronites andSyro-Malankara Christians. This rite is clearly distinct from the Greek Byzantine rite of Antioch of theMelkite Catholics and theirOrthodox counterparts. Syriac Catholic priests were traditionally bound tocelibacy by the Syriac Catholic local Synod of Sharfeh in 1888, but there are now a number of married priests.

The liturgy of the Syriac Catholic Church is very similar to that of theSyriac Orthodox Church.

The Syriac Catholic Church usesfans with bells on them and engraved with seraphim during the Qurbono. Usually someone in the minor orders would shake these fans behind a bishop to symbolise theseraphim. They are also used during the consecration where two men would shake them over the altar during moments in the epliclesis and words of institution when the priest says "he took and broke" and "this is my body/blood".

Thethurible of the Syriac Catholic Church consists of nine bells, representing the nine choirs of angels.

TheLiturgy of the Hours is exactly the same as in theSyriac Orthodox. There are two versions of this: the Phenqitho and the Shhimo. The former is the more complicated seven-volume version. While the latter is the simple version.

Likewise the ranking of clerics in the Syriac Catholic Church is extremely similar to that of theSyriac Orthodox Church. The most notable differences are:

• Not all celibate priests take on monastic vows. In theSyriac Orthodox Church all celibate priests aremonks.
• There is a solid distinction between the major orders and minor orders in the Syriac Catholic Church:
• A man is tonsured as soon as he receives his first minor order ofMzamrono (Cantor).

• Bishop
• Kahno (Priest)
• Mshamshono (Deacon)

• Afudyaqno (Sub-deacon)
• Quroyo (Lector)
• Mzamrono (Cantor)

The liturgical language of the Syriac Catholic Church,Syriac, is a dialect ofAramaic. TheQurbono Qadisho (literally: Holy Mass or Holy Offering/Sacrifice) of the Syriac Church uses a variety ofAnaphoras, with theAnaphora of the 12 Apostles being the one mostly in use with the Liturgy of StJames the Just.

Their ancientsemitic language is known asAramaic (or "Syriac" after the time of Christ since the majority of people who spoke this language belonged to the province of "Syria"). It is the language spoken by Jesus, Mary and the Apostles. Many of the ancient hymns of the church are still maintained in this native tongue although several have been translated intoArabic,English,French and other languages.

Syriac is still spoken in some few communities in easternSyria and northernIraq, but for most Arabic is the vernacular language.

Throughout the history of the Syriac Church there have been many martyrs. A recent example isFlavianus Michael Malke during the 1915Sayfo.

On 31 October 2010, 58 Iraqi Syriac Catholics were killed by Muslim extremists while attending Sunday Divine Liturgy; 78 others were wounded. The attack byIraqi ISIS on the congregation ofOur Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church was the bloodiest single attack on an Iraqi Christian church in recent history.^[15]

Two priests, Fathers Saad Abdallah Tha'ir and Waseem Tabeeh, were killed.^[16] Another, Father Qatin, was seriously wounded but recovered.^[17][18]

• Dioceses of the Syriac Catholic Church
• List of Syriac Catholic Patriarchs of Antioch

• Claude Sélis,Les Syriens orthodoxes et catholiques, Brepols (col. Fils d'Abraham),Bruxelles, 1988,OCLC 20711473
• Jean-Pierre Valognes,Vie et mort des Chrétiens d'Orient, Fayard,Paris, 1994,ISBN 2-213-03064-2
• R Janin, "Le rite syrien et les Églises syriennes" inRevue des études byzantines (1919), pp. 321–341
• Afram Yakoub:The Path to Assyria – A Call For National Renewal. Tigris Press, Södertälje 2020,ISBN 978-91-981541-6-0

• Website of the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate(in Arabic)
• YouTube video: Associate professor Svante Lundgren explains the history & origin of the term "Suraye"
• GCatholic linking overview of jurisdictions
• Article on the Syriac Catholic Church by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA web site
• GCatholic.org page on the Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch
• Opus Libani site: Syriac Catholic Church in Lebanon(in French)
• Encyclopaedia of the Orient – Syriac Catholic ChurchArchived 20 February 2013 at theWayback Machine
• Catholic Churches(in German)

• Pope Benedict XIV,Allatae Sunt (On the observance of Oriental Rites), Encyclical, 1755
• Addresses of Pope Paul VI and His Holiness Mar Ignatius Jacob III, 1971
• Common Declaration of Pope John Paul II and His Holiness Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, 1984
• Address of John Paul II on Occasion of the Visit to the Catholicos of the Malankarese Syrian Orthodox Church, 1986

• Mass times and information of Syriac Catholic churches
• Archdioceses of Syriac Catholics, Iraq
  • Mar Yousif Syriac Catholic Diocese (Al Mansour, Baghdad, Iraq)^[usurped]
• Eparchy Our Lady of Deliverance North America
  • St. Ephrem Syriac Catholic Church (Jacksonville, Florida)
  • St. Joseph Syriac Catholic Church (Toronto, Canada)Archived 25 March 2009 at theWayback Machine
  • Mar Touma Syriac Catholic Church, MichiganArchived 5 January 2009 at theWayback Machine
• Syriac Catholic Archbishopric (Aleppo, Syria)
• Syriac Catholic Monastery of Mar Musa, Syria
• St. Jan Apostel van Syrische Katholieken, Netherlands