Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East

Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Christian church.

In the 5th and 6th centuries a large body of Christians in Syria repudiated the patriarchs of Antioch who had supported the Council of Chalcedon (451) both in its affirmation of the dual nature (both human and divine) of Jesus Christ and in its denunciation of monophysitism, the doctrine that Christ has only a divine nature. Like many Coptic (Egyptian), Ethiopian, Armenian, and Indian Christians, this group of Syrian Christians held a Christological doctrine that later became known as miaphysitism, a term derived from the Greek words for “single” (mia) and “nature” (physis). Contrary to the allegations of their detractors, the Syrian and other miaphsyite Christians did not deny Christ’s human nature nor emphasize his divine nature. Following St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 375–444), they believed that, through the mystery of the Incarnation, Christ’s humanity and divinity were equally present in “one incarnate nature of the Word of God.” The Syrian Christians severed relations with the Western churches, which had branded them monophysites, and set up their own patriarchs of Antioch in opposition to the Chalcedonian patriarchs, whom the Syrians called Melchites (“Emperor’s Men”).

Because of the instrumental role of St. Jacob Baradaeus, bishop of Edessa (died 578), in organizing their community, they have historically been called Jacobites, though they reject this name because they trace their founding to the Apostle Peter rather than to Baradaeus. The Syrian Christians were also called Syriani, because their doctrine was associated with the Syriac language after it had died out among Greek-speaking people; the Greek Orthodox Syrians, on the other hand, were known as Rūmī (Arabic: “Roman”).

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After the Arab conquest of Syria (7th century), each church in the Caliphate and in Muslim states generally was treated as a millet, or religious community, governed by its own laws and courts under its own clergy. The Syriani were recognized as the West Syrian millet (the East Syrian millet being the Assyrians, or Nestorians). Since the 17th century, when a minority of the West Syrians were united with Rome and became the Syrian Catholic Church, the rest have been known as Syrian Orthodox, although they remained distinct from the Chalcedonian “Greek Orthodox” Christians of the area. In 2000 the Syrian Orthodox Church adopted its present name, which contains the word Syriac in order to distinguish itself from the Syrian Catholic Church. Their liturgical language is the literary Syriac of Edessa, which they preserve as a living tongue; it is a close relative of the Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

The Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch and All the East has very seldom lived in Antioch itself; his usual residence was the monastery of Dayr al-Zaʿfarān (Deyrulzafaran) near Mardin, near Diyarbakır in eastern Turkey. During World War I most Orthodox left Turkey, and their patriarch moved to Homs (1921) and then to Damascus (1957). They now live mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey, with smaller numbers in Jordan, Egypt, and the United States.

The Syriac Orthodox Church is in full communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches (the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Church) and is a member of the World Council of Churches. Like the other Oriental Orthodox churches, it has participated in dialogue with both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches, resolving many Christological disputes. In the first decade of the 21st century, the church claimed more than 1.4 million members.