Christianity in Syria
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Christians in Syria make up about 10% of the population. The country's largest Christian denomination is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch (known as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East), closely followed by the Melkite Catholic Church, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which has a common root with the Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch, and then by an Oriental Orthodoxy churches like Syriac Orthodox Church and Armenian Apostolic Church. There are also a minority of Protestants and members of the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church. The city of Aleppo is believed to have the largest number of Christians in Syria.
In the late Ottoman rule, a large percentage of Syrian Christians emigrated from Syria, especially after the bloody chain of events that targeted Christians in particular in 1840, the 1860 massacre, and the Assyrian genocide. According to historian Philip Hitti, approximately 900,000 Syrians arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1919 (more than 90% of them were Christians). The Syrians referred include historical Syria or the Levant encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
Notable Christians
- Hammouda Sabbagh Speaker of the People's Council of Syria since 2017
- Ibrahim Haddad Minister of Oil and Mineral Reserves (2001-2006)
- Fares al-Khoury Prime Minister of Syria (1944-1945) and (1954-1955)
- Mikhail Wehbe Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations (1996-2003)
See also
- Religion in Syria
- List of monasteries in Syria
- Eastern Orthodoxy in Syria
- Roman Catholicism in Syria
- List of churches in Aleppo
- St Baradates
- Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War