Khazen

FEAST OF SAINT MARON

FEAST OF SAINT MARON — الشهادة والشهداء
Minneapolis, February 12, 2017 – by Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun
Today falls the Sunday of the Righteous and Just or All Saints on our
liturgical calendar. And what better is than celebrating the Feast of
our own Saint Maron, the Father of the Maronite Church and the Patron of
our parish here in Minneapolis?
It was in the year 410AD that Saint Maron died, and it was 1903 that our parish of Saint Maron in Minneapolis was born.

We come from a Church, a branch of Christianity that has paid a big
price so that you and I can have this precious gift of faith.

The Maronite Synod of Bishops has designated this year starting February
9, the Feast of Saint Maron, as “The Year of Witness and Martyrsالشهادة
والشهداء ”
In the semetic languages the words witness and martyr come from the same root.
One of the definition of a witness is “one who has personal knowledge
of something.” When you have a personal knowledge of your faith you are a
witness sharing your belief with others.
A martyr on the other hand
is a witness who goes a step further that most often leads him or her
to the point of total self-sacrifice.

“Witness and Martyrs
الشهادة والشهداء” Two deep words that have a deep meaning in the
Maronite Church. The list of martyrs is very long, and there are
hundreds of thousands of martyrs that are not known to us. Starting with
the 350 Maronite monks who were martyred in the in the year 517. From
there the waves of persecution and the number of martyrs increased
dramatically. But they continued to witness and become martyrs شهدوا
واستشهدوا
Around 635AD, Damascus, Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and
many other cities fell to Arab invaders. The Maronite churches and
villages in northern Syria were destroyed and many Maronites were
massacred. Under the leadership of the first Patriarch John Maron, the
Maronites fled to Lebanon for protection to be with other Maronites who
were already established in the mountains and the Holy Valley. But they
continued to witness and become martyrs شهدوا واستشهدوا

In
1097 the Crusaders set off from Europe to deliver Jerusalem from the
hands of Islam. A large number of Maronites joined them on their journey
to liberate the Holy Land. It is estimated that during the Crusades
50,000 Maronites fell in battle under the standard of the Cross. But
they continued to witness and become martyrs شهدوا واستشهدوا

By 1291 the Crusaders were all but defeated and left the Middle East and
the Maronites were left behind to witness and become martyrs شهدوا
واستشهدوا
Starting in the late 13th century, the Mamluk Islamic
Dynasty ruled Lebanon. This was one of the harshest period of
persecution. General anti-Christian feeling was channeled against the
Maronites. They suffered every humiliation, their Churches were set on
fire, their villages plundered, and their vineyards destroyed. The
Mamluk army went deep into the Maronite heart land and demolished
Besharri, Ehden, Hadath El Jubbah. But they continued to witness and
become martyrs شهدوا واستشهدوا
The Maronite Patriarchs themselves
over the years also had their share of the general misfortune, suffering
as much as any. One was tortured, another harassed, another compelled
to flee, another put on trial, and one of them in 1367, patriarch
Gabriel Hjoula, was burnt alive in downtown Tripoli. His tomb still
stands in Bab el Ramel, at the gates of Tripoli. In 1402, there was
great hardship. Many of the dead remained without burial, many of which
died of hunger. It was a tragedy without parallel.” (DOUAIHY, The
Annals,338). But they continued to witness and become martyrs شهدوا
واستشهدوا

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Politics in Modern Lebanon, after french Independence.

Flag Lebanon Travel Insurance

Politics in Modern Lebanon, after french Independence.

Lebanon is a parliamentary democratic republic.The Lebanese constitution states: “Lebanon is a parliamentary democratic
republic based on respect for public liberties, especially the freedom
of opinion and belief, and respect for social justice and equality of
rights and duties among all citizens without discrimination.”

From Wikipedia: A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state where the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from the legislature (parliament) and is also held accountable to that legislature. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is normally a different person from the head of government. This is in contrast to a presidential system
in a democracy, where the head of state often is also the head of
government, and most importantly, the executive branch does not derive
its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.

In addition to the Lebanese Constitution, under the National Pact an unwritten agreement between Shi’ite, Sunni, and Maronite leadership in 1943, laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, having shaped the country to this day.

Lebanon is part of the Arab League but is NOT an Islamic state. When the Lebanese State’s
geographical boundaries were set by the French Mandate back in the
1920’s, the Maronite Christians (who follow the Catholic Church in Rome)
were meant to form the majority of the Lebanese Population (60%). Thus,
the President of the Republic, who is intended to be the representative
of the Maronites in the government, has been granted wide powers in
order to reflect the Maronites’ demographical dominance, this has been modified slightly after the ta’ef accord.

The president of the country must be a Maronite, the Prime Minister must be a Sunnite, and the Speaker of Parliament must be a Shiite.  Then most recent amendment of the Constitution was  the Charter of Lebanese National Reconciliation (Ta’if Accord), in October, 1989.within the overall framework of confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which some of the powers were amended inn the constitution.

The constitution
grants the people the right to change their government. However, from
the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, civil war
precluded the exercise of political rights. According to the
constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every 4
years. The last parliamentary election was in 2009.[1] The Parliament, in turn, elects a President
every 6 years to a single term. The President is not eligible for
re-election. The last presidential election was in 2008. The president
and parliament choose the Prime Minister. Political parties may be formed; most are based on sectarian interests. 2008 saw a new twist to Lebanese politics when the Doha Agreement
set a new trend where the opposition is allowed a veto power in the
Lebanese Council of Ministers and confirmed religious Confessionalism in
the distribution of political power.

The Lebanese legal system is based on and inspired by the French legal system. Just like France, which occupied Lebanon until 1943, Lebanon is considered to be a civil law country and possesses its own set of codes. The most notable code is the “Code of Obligations and Contracts” promulgated in 1932 during the French Mandate. The COC, as it is known among law students, is the equivalent of the French Civil Code except for matters related to personal status (heritage, marriage, divorce, etc.), which are governed by a separate set of laws designed for the different sectarian communities. For instance, the Islamic personal status laws are inspired by the Islamic Sharia’a, some of which were promulgated during the Ottoman rule (ending in 1918)

Lebanese individuals are also known to be natural-born entrepreneurs. The Lebanese community living abroad consists of approximately 15 million people, almost four times the Lebanese population living in the homeland, and is considered in its respective host countries as an economic force to be reckoned with.

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Milestones In The History Of The Lebanese Maronite Order (Part 2 of 3)

     In this second part of the historical study done by Father Karam Rizk on Maronites in Lebanon, we will explore the organizational period of the Maronite Church,  the period of difficulties between 1742 and 1770 and the period of development and prosperity between 1770 and 1832.   If you wish to read the original […]

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Milestones In The History Of The Lebanese Maronite Order (Part 3 of 3)

  In this third and last part of the historical study done by Father Karam Rizk on Maronites in Lebanon, we will explore the period of transformation between 1832 ad 1913,  the period of openness and expansion throughout the world and the author’s conclusion.   If you wish to read the original article, click [Here].   […]

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Milestones In The History Of The Lebanese Maronite Order (Part 1 of 3)

    The Maronite Church witnessed 8 important milestones throughout its history. Father Karam Rizk, Director of the Institute of History at the University of the Holy Spirit, Kaslik, Lebanon and Co-Founder of the Maronite Research Institute wrote a lengthy study on the Maronites (translated from Arabic by Kozhaya S. Akiki). The Khazen family has proudly […]

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Lebanon: peasants and the emergence of communal politics

The Ottoman central government did not concern itself with the internal social structure and local customs of Mount Lebanon. It regarded Mount Lebanon as state-administered land and the local notables as tax farmers. The northern part of the mountain was subject to the pasha of Tripoli; the southern part to the pasha of Sidon (whose actual seat was Acre after 1750). Christian historians have usually argued that Mount Lebanon was a single unit with a self-conscious identity and an autonomous and locally legitimized political regime and that the land was private property (Holt & Lewis 1962; Salibi 1988: 108

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Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century

SOURCE: Notables and Clergy in Mount Lebanon by Richard Van Leewen,




 

Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century




 

It seems that the Khazin family succeeded in preserving their unity during the whole of the 17th century, under the guidance of the head of the family, who combined his administrative responsibilities with the function of French consul. After the dispersion of the various branches over Kisrawan at the turn of the 18th century, however, political inte­rests began to diverge, and the first signs of discord appeared. The terri­torial distribution of the family meant that individual branches acquired the supervision over separate monasteries and established relations with their own prot

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The clergy and the Khazin sheiks in the 17th century

SOURCE: Notables and Clergy in Mount Lebanon by Richard Van Leewen, Chapter 4: Section II

4.2.1 The clergy and the Khazin sheiks in the 17th centuryAlthough information is scarce, some historians have described the relations between the Maronite clergy and laymen before the 18th century as a rather harmonious symbiosis. This, perhaps too idealized, picture suggests that the patriarch’s authority was required to legitimize secular leadership, while the latter fulfilled the role of patrons of the church and the clergy, who provided the financial support of the church and, according to customary practice, participated in the election of patriarchs and the nomination of mutrans.

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The Maronite clergy

SOURCE: Notables and Clergy in Mount Lebanon by Richard Van Leewen, Chapter 4: Section I The Maronite clergy The Maronites originally had few contacts with the Ottoman authorities, or, if such contacts did exist, little evidence of them has survived. In a document from 1609, the governor of Tripoli formally endorsed the judicial authority of […]

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