The list of the bishops of Antioch down to Cyril is given by Eusebius, the 4th century historian of the Church [The History of the Church, Penguin, 1965]. The rest of the list is from different websites. As with the Patriarchs of
Jerusalem, the main list is commonly identified as "Greek Orthodox," but I take this to mean the Melkite, i.e. Imperial, Church, which was constituted in opposition to the Monophysite Patriarchs who rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451. One website refers to the "Separation of the Melkites" in 1724, without explaining what this means, though evidently it means a line of Greek Patriarchs. The "Restoration of the Arab Patriarchs" in 1899 seems to mean that, perhaps again, we get Arab, i.e. Syrian, instead of Greek Patriarchs. This certainly bespeaks the obscure politics of the Ottoman Empire in Syria, but it would be nice to know the details.My understanding is that there are at least five different lineages claiming to be the Patriarchs of Antioch, as follows. Two of these are Catholic Counter-Churches, created by the Vatican to duplicate the native "Schismatic" Churches in outward form, but agreeing with Rome in doctrine and in acknowledging the authority of the Pope.
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The language of Roman Syria and Palestine was a
descendant of Aramaic. This is usually still called "Aramaic" by
linguists and anthropologists
but "Syriac" by
historians. After the Schism over Chalcedon, Syriac replaced Greek as the
liturgical language of the local Church. This grew into something of
larger historical importance, as various books of Greek philosophy, as
well as religious works, were translated into the language. Syriac
translation of Greek philosophers then became models and stepping stones
to the Arabic
translations of the 9th century. The dialect of Syria proper, Western
Syriac, only barely survives in three villages near Damascus.
Antioch is named after the second monarch of the
Hellenistic Seleucid Dynasty,
Antiochus I Soter.
It is now a little hard to recapture the sense that it used to be the
principal city of Syria (the third largest city of the Roman Empire,
after Rome and Alexandria) right down to when it was taken by the
Mamlûks in 1268.
After that, Damascus quickly grew to dominance, and the Patriarchate
reflects this when its seat was transferred there in 1342.
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The Schism between the Imperial and
Monophysite Churches
is delayed a few years after Chalcedon. The Patriarch Severus was deposed
in 518 and exiled to Egypt, but he retained the loyalty of most of the
local Church, which elected a new Patriarch, Sergius of Tella, to succeed
him. The area soon becomes troubled with war. In 540, Shah Khusro I of
Persia sacked
Antioch, while the Roman army was away fighting in Italy. This victory
was commemorated with the construction of the Arch of Ctesiphon, the
greatest surviving monument of Sassanid Persia. The Persians were back in
611, and by 613 had conquered all of Syria. The Emperor Heraclius
defeated them with an invasion of Persia itself, and all the Persian
conquests were restored in 628. The respite was brief. The Arabs secured
all of Syria by 640. This abruptly introduced religious and cultural
changes unlike any seen in Antioch since the city was founded by the
Seleucids.
Indeed, although Antioch remained the principal city of the area for a
while, it was never the home of an Islamic state, like
Damascus or
nearby Aleppo.
Unlike the other cities of Syria, however, Antioch returned more than
once to Christian control. In 969, the Emperor
Nicephorus II
Phocus, riding on the reviving fortunes of Romania, recovered the
city. It remained Roman for a good century, but then fell to the
Seljuk Turks in the
aftermath of the disastrous defeat at
Manzikert in 1071.
This catastrophe, however, set off a response -- the Crusades.
Antioch was the scene of one of the most formative events of the First Crusade. It was the greatest obstacle on the way to Jerusalem. Arriving in October 1097, the Crusaders did not get into the city until 3 June 1098. They were immediately besieged in turn by Kerbuqua, Atabeg of Mosul. This looked like the end of the Crusade. However, the Franks were heartened by a vision that led to the discovery of the Holy Lance, the weapon that had pierced the side of Christ. They were thus inspired to sortee against the Atabeg's army, on 28 June 1098, and won a complete victory. In January 1099 Bohemond of Apulia was left as Prince of Antioch, and the rest of the Crusaders left for Jerusalem. Antioch remained a Crusader State until 1268. When the Mamlûks took Antioch in that year, they largely destroyed the city, so that it could not again become a Christian foothold. They need not have worried, since no Christian power would come close again for centuries. Antioch became a minor city, eclipsed by Aleppo and Damascus. A Christian power, however, did eventually determine its modern fate. When France occupied Syria as a League of Nations Mandate in 1920, they did so against active opposition, and during their tenure had to deal with violent resistance. It may have simply been a kind of anti-nationalist revenge that in 1939 France ceded Antioch and Alexandretta to Turkey. The cities continue under Turkish sovereignty, as Antakya and Iskenderun. When I visited Antioch in 1970, I walked out of town to the cave Church traditionally associated with St. Peter. The people working on the farms along the way seemed to be speaking Arabic, even though everyone in the city itself appeared to be Turkish. I have not seen any information about the ethnic composition of the city in 1939, but the process of Turkification seems far advanced. Meanwhile, I am unaware of which, if any, of the Christian Patriarchates of Antioch are actually resident in the city, or what kind of Christian population survives at all. The large Syrian Orthodox population of Turkey had mainly been centered to the east, around Edessa (Urfa) and Diyarbakir; but beginning in World War I, with attacks on them as well as on Armenians and Assyrians, most such Christians have fled the area. Some new developments in Syrian Orthodox doctrine are addressed under the treatment of the Coptic Church.
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Copyright (c) 2004, 2005
Kelley L. Ross,
Ph.D. All
Rights Reserved