Cultural aspects in Christian and Islamic religions - unesdoc - Unesco

88
Saint Maron’s Day on February 9
(February 14 in the Orthodox Church)
He was born in A.D. 340 in Qurush, north east of
Antioch. He was of Aramaic origin; his language
and liturgy were Syriac. He retired in Qurush, on
top of an arid mountain. He converted an atheist
temple and dedicated it to the worship of the One
God. He would spend the nights invocating God,
kneeling, prostrating to Him, and meditating.
He would preach and guide visitors and bring
comfort to the bereaved.
Maroun was an ascetic who exercised
mortifications, in open sky, with only a small
tent as shelter which he used but very little. He
secluded himself in tight spaces going out only to
send time working the land as a self mortification.
God gave him the gift of healing the sick. He
became famous and people flocked to him from
all regions. He sought not only to cure the physical
ailments from which people suffered, but also the
sickness of souls. He renounced worldly fame
yet he became famous for his pious acts and his
sainthood.
Many were the monks around him as his reputation
grew. He placed them first in individual cells and
hermitages. Then he established monasteries
and set out rules guiding the monks towards
perfection. Monasteries multiplied namely in the
north of Syria, so much that Theodoret rejoiced at
having them in his diocese.
Saint Maroun died c. 410. He was about seventy.
His students followed the teachings of the
Chalcedonian Ecumenical Council in 451 and
spread these teachings in their milieus. In this, they
were faithful to the teachings of their father and
guide, Saint Maroun. Many in the region became
monks and followed Saint Maroun; they set up the
‘Maronite Order’ in the green plains of Syria first
and then moved to Mount Lebanon in the Seventh
Century carrying with them the faith of their fathers
and preserving their rites, and kept on stressing
their strong attachment to a unified Church.