The Melkite Greek Catholic Split

When the Patriarch of Antioch died in 1724, the Christians of Damascus elected Cyril VI Tanas, who favoured union with Rome. Constantinople refused to accept him and consecrated a rival, Sylvester, a Greek monk from Cyprus. The Antiochian patriarchate never reunited. What followed was the permanent division of one Arabic-speaking, Byzantine-rite community into two churches — one in communion with Rome, recognized by the pope in 1729, and one with Constantinople — sharing the same liturgy, the same language and frequently the same families. The Catholic side, based at Damascus, Aleppo and the monasteries of Mount Lebanon, was pressed hard by Ottoman authorities acting on Orthodox complaints, and was not granted a recognized civil standing of its own until well into the nineteenth century.