Қасиетті Марон: Маронит Шіркеуінің негізін қалаушысы

Monk and namesake of the Maronite Church

Maron, also called Maroun or Maro (, ; مَارُون; Maron; ), was a 4th century Syrian Syriac Christian hermit monk in the Taurus Mountains whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Christian movement that became known as the Maronite Church, in full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church. The religious community which grew from this movement are the modern Maronites. Maron, revered as a highly spiritual ascetic monk with a connection to God through his communion with the natural environment, garnered widespread respect within Christian circles. In addition to his emphasis on ascetic spirituality, he played an important role in advancing Christian missions in the region. One of his disciplines, Abraham of Cyrrhus, emerged as a missionary, successfully disseminating the Maronite variant of Christianity in Lebanon, which took root in the region and persisted ever since. Saint Maron is often portrayed in a black monastic habit with a hanging stole, accompanied by a long crosier staffed by a globe surmounted with a cross. His feast day in the Maronite Church is February 9. He was known for his simplicity and his extraordinary desire to discover God's presence in all things. This marked the beginning of the conversion to Christianity in the region, which would eventually influence and spread to the ancient region of Mount Lebanon. After his death in the year 410 in Kalota, his spirit and teachings continued to thrive through his disciples. The exact location of his burial is a topic of debate. Some Lebanese sources, such as Giuseppe Simone Assemani and Maronite bishop Yusef al Dibs, believed he was buried in Arethusa or modern day al Rastan along the Orontes River in the region, while others, like Jesuit priest Henri Lammens, have claimed he is buried in Brad village to the north of Aleppo. The Maronite movement reached Mount Lebanon when Saint Maron’s first disciple, Abraham of Cyrrhus, who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realized that there were many non Christians in the ancient region of Mount Lebanon, and he set out to convert them to Christianity by introducing them to the teachings of Saint Maron. William of Tyre, chronicling his arrival in the region of Lebanon during the crusades, writes of the Maronites that they took their name from a certain Maro, whose heresies (described as monothelitism) they followed for “almost five hundred years,” but which they recanted at the time of William’s report. Though William of Tyre’s indictment of “Maro and his followers” as monothelite heretics has resulted in controversy among scholars, in all probability, he was mistakenly referring to a Maro from Edessa instead of the fourth century St. Maro. Maronite historians argue that they have always remained in full communion with Rome. Saint Maron’s feast day is celebrated on February 9.

Saint Maron was known for his gift for healing.

On 23 February 2011, Pope Benedict XVI unveiled a statue of Saint Maron on the outer wall of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and imparted his Apostolic Blessing. The 15 feet tall statue was commissioned by the Maronite Church to the Spanish sculptor Marco Augusto Dueñas. The saint appears in the sculpture holding a miniature, Maronite style church; the sculpture also features an inscription in Syriac reading: The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon. The statue occupied the last available niche in the outer perimeter of Saint Peter's Basilica. In June 2012, an impressionist painting of Saint Maron, as well as several icons based on images from the 5th century Syriac Rabboula manuscript including the Crucifixion, the Marian icon of the "Mother of Light" and the Evangelists, was donated, installed and was solemnly attended by Cardinal Donald Wuerl at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D. C., and was formally dedicated on September 23, 2012.