Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of an Eastern Catholic church, chiefly of Lebanon, the liturgy of which is written in Syriac.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a body of Syriac Christians dwelling chiefly in the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Eccl. Hist.) One of a body of nominal Christians, who speak the Arabic language, and reside on Mount Lebanon and in different parts of Syria. They take their name from one Maron of the 6th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One of a Pre-Arab Semitic Christian ethnoreligious group in the Levant.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin marōnīta, after Maro, fourth-century AD Syrian religious leader.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Maron +‎ -ite, after the Syriac saint Mar Maron, whose followers moved to Mount Lebanon from northern Syria, establishing the Maronite Church.

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Examples

  • Why the monks of Beit-Marun, hitherto so faithful to the Byzantine emperors, should have deserted them when they returned to orthodoxy, we do not know; but it is certain that in this defection the Maronite Church and nation had its origin, and that the name Maronite thenceforward becomes a synonym for Monothelite, as well with Byzantine as with Nestorian or

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • Their proselyte, the emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of Emesa, he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren; and their theological lessons were repaid with the gift a spacious and wealthy domain.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • The Maronite is a Syrian Rite, Syriac being the liturgical language, though the Gospel is read in Arabic for the benefit of the people.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • The Maronites in Lebanon are their followers, that is to say the Maronite Syrians.

    American Chronicle 2008

  • Lahhud will only stay in power due to the sectarian nature of the political system and the Maronite patriarch and other sectarian Maronite leaders would not support the principle of the resignation or the ouster of a "Maronite" president.

    Sunday, July 31, 2005 As'ad 2005

  • Thank you for all your contributions to EWTN and the Maronite Catholic Church.

    Happy 60th, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.! 2009

  • Suleiman, a Maronite Catholic, and thus unveiled, is to Farahi's right, elegantly bejeweled in gold, her face framed with finely shaped eyebrows.

    Shirin Sadeghi: Women and Style in Iran Shirin Sadeghi 2010

  • Spike, last I checked Argentina and Lebanon constitutions both required that the president be a Catholic (Latin or Maronite rites respectively).

    Matthew Yglesias » Israel Bans Arab Parties 2009

  • Last month reporter Joyce Akiki and her crew were assaulted and their camera smashed in a village that is home to a large Shiite population while covering news of illegal construction on land purportedly owned by the Christian Maronite patriarchate.

    Magda Abu-Fadil: Lebanon's MTV News Defies Critics, Rolls With the Punches Magda Abu-Fadil 2011

  • I use my talents in the Maronite Mass, where the default language is Aramaic, which I studied in grad school.

    Islam 2009

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