Melkite Greek Catholic Church

History of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is part of the oldest continuous Christian community in the world, Antioch, recognised as an early apostolic centre of the Christian faith founded by Peter and Paul. The setting up of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem – the first two at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) and the third at Chalcedon (451 A.D.) – gave it form and made it a territorial and juridical entity.  In the 5^th century the Emperor of Constantinople, Marcian (450-457), enforced the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon as imperial law. Those who followed the lead of the Byzantine emperor, accepting the decrees of the Council, were called ‘Melkites’ or ‘King’s Men’.

Following the conquest of the Middle East by the Muslims in the 7^th century, and through to the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, during which period a greatly diminished Byzantine Empire continued to govern from Constantinople, the Melkite Church maintained close ties with both the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome. This identity gave them a particular spirituality, thought and tradition, Byzantine in essence, but distinct because of their Arabic links, in particular their connections with early Islam; they were effectively a community alive and active within a ‘post’ Christian culture.

Some of the Melkite hierarchs were more disposed to Constantinople, others favoured the authority of Rome, an identity we can call ‘the church in the middle’.

Roman-Melkite union in 1724                                                              

In 1724 the Catholics elected Seraphim Tanas, (Cyril VI Tanas) to head the Antiochian Church. The Orthodox appointed a Cypriot monk from Mount Athos, Sylvester, as patriarch. This marks the beginning of the two Greek patriarchates of Antioch – the Catholic and the Orthodox – which still exists. This division has continuous effects: the existence of two distinct ecclesial communities sharing the traditions, spiritual, liturgical and theological of Antioch.

Later history

Since 1724, Melkite Catholics have worked steadily to be a ‘voice for the East within the Western Church’.

Gregorios II, worked for union of the Churches, striving to maintain Eastern traditions. His was a significant voice during Vatican I, and an important influence on Pope Leo XIII’s Orientalium Dignitatis.

Maximos IV, spoke on behalf of the ‘absent brother’, the great Orthodox Church during Vatican II, making a significant contribution to the role and renewal of the Catholic Eastern Churches and helping certain liturgical shifts in the Latin Rite.

Greek-Catholic Melkites are a small but vibrant voice within the Catholic Church, calling upon the dignity of the Orthodox faith and praying for the unity of the Church of Christ.

They share much in common with Syrian Catholics, Maronites and Orthodox, but with their sister church, the Antiochian Orthodox, they identify more with the Byzantine spiritual tradition of Antioch. Their recovery of Eastern identity is a process particularly on the level of the structure and ecumenism, so as to fulfil their witness to the possibility of an authentic Eastern Church living in communion with the Church of Rome.