RITES
85
RITES
are the Emirs Al-Kazen, Al-Khouri, Abi-Saab, and
others. There is also the well-known Arabic novelist
of the present day, Madame Karam Hanna (Afifa
Karam) of Shreveport, Louisiana, formerly of
Amshid, Mount Lebanon, who not only writes enter-
taining fiction, but touches on educational topics
and even women's rights. Nahum Mokarzel, a grad-
uate of the Jesuit College of Beirut, is a clever writer
both in Arabic and English. The Maronites are
established in New York, the New England States,
Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Alabama. The first
Maronite priest to visit the United States was Rev.
Joseph Mokarzel, who arrived in 1879 but did not
remain. Very Rev. Louis Kazen of Port Said,
Egypt, came later, but, as there were very few of his
countrymen, he likewise returned. On 6 August,
1S90, ihe Rev. Butrosv Korkemius came to establish
a permanent mission, and after considerable difficulty
rented a tiny chapel in a store on \\'a.shington Street,
New York City. He was accompanied by his nephew,
Rev. Joseph Yasbek, then in deacon's orders, who
was later ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop
Corrigan, and founded the Maronite mission in
Boston; he is now Chor-Bishop of the Maronites
and practically the head of that rite in America.
A church was later established in Philadelphia, then one in Troy and one in Brooklyn, after which the Maronites branched out to other cities. At present (1911) there are fifteen Maronite churches in the United States: in New York, Brooklyn, Troy, Buffalo, Boston, Lawrence, Springfield, Pliiladelphi'a, Scranton, St. Paul, St. Louis, Birmingham, Chicago, Wheeling, and Cleveland. Meanwliile new con- gregations are being formed in smaller cities, and are regularly visited by missionary priests. The Maro- nite clergy is composed of two chor-bishops (deans vested with certain episcopal powers) and twenty- three other priests, of whom five are Antonine monks. In Mexico there are three Maronite chapels and four priests. In Canada there is a Maronite chapel at New Glasgow and one resident priest. There are only two Arabic-English schools, in New York and St. Louis, since many of the Maronite children go to the ordinary Catholic or to the public schools. There are no general societies or clubs with religious objects, although there is a Syrian branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. About fifteen years ago Nahum A. Mokarzel founded and now publishes in New York City the daily newspaper, "Al Hoda" (The Guidance), which is now the best known Arabic newspaper in the world and the only illus- trated one. His brother also publi-shes an Arabic monthly magazine, "Al Alam ul Jadid" (The New World), which contains modern Arabic literature and translations of American and English writers. There are also two Maronite papers published in Me.\ico. The Maronites also have in New York a publishing house on a small scale, in which novels, pamphlets, and scientific and religious works are printed in Arabic, and the usual Arabic literature sold.
Dandini, Reisebemerkungen tiber die Maroniten (Jena, 1903); Istafan-ai^Dawaihi, a History of the Maronites (Beirut, 1890) ; Nau, Opuscules Maronites (Paris, 1899-1900); Kohler, Die kathol. Kirchen des Morgenlandes (Darmstadt, 1896); Prince Maximiuan, Missa Maronitica (Ratisbon and New York, 1907); AzAR, Les Maronites (Cambrai, 1852); Etheridqe, The S;/ri(in Churches (London, 1879) ; Silbernagl, Verfassung u. gegen- waniger Bestand samllicher Kirchen des Orients (Ratisbon, 1904).
IV. Other Oriextal Rites. — The rites already described are the principal rites to be met with in the United States; but there are besides them a few representatives of the remaining Eastern rites, al- though these are perhaps not sufficiently numerous to maintain their own churches or to constitute separate ecclesiastical entities. Among these smaller bodies are: (1) the Chaldean Catholics and the schismatic Christians of the same rite, known as Nestorians; (2) the Syrian Catholics or Syro-Catholics and their correlative dissenters, the Jacobites, and
(3) finally the Copts, Catholic or Orthodox. All of
these have a handful of representatives in America,
and, as immigration increa.ses, it is a question how
great their numbers will become.
(1) Chaldean or Syro-Chaldean Catholic Rite.— Those who profess this rite are Eastern Syrians, coming from what was anciently Mesopotamia, but is now the borderland of Persia. They ascribe the origin of the rite to two of the early' disciples, Addeus and Maris, who first preached the Gospel in their lands. It is really a remnant of the early Persian Church, and it has always used the Syriac language in its hturgy. The principal features of the rite and the celebration of the jVIass have already been described (see Addeus .a.nd Maris, Liturgy of). The peculiar Syriac which it uses is known as the eastern dialect, as distinguished from that used in the Maronite and Syro-Catholic rites, which is the western dialect. The method of writing this church Syriac among the Chaldeans is somewhat different frorn that used in writing it among the western Syrians. The Chaldeans and Nestorians use in their church books the antique letters of the older versions of the Syriac Scriptures which are called "astran- gelo", and their pronunciation is somewhat different. The Chaldean Church in ancient times was most flourishing, and its history under Persian rule was a bright one. Unfortunately in the sixth century it embraced the Nestorian heresy, for Nestorius on being removed from the See of Constantinople went to Persia and taught his views (see Ne.storius and Nestoria.vism; Persia). The Chaldean Church took up his heresy and became Nestorian (see Chaldean Christians). This Nestorian Church not only extended throughout Mesopotamia and Persia, but penetrated also into India (Malabar) and even into China. The inroads of Mohammedanism and its isolation from the centre of unity and from intercommunication with other Catholic bodies caused it to diminish through the centuries. In the sixteenth century the Church in Malabar, India, came into union with the Holy See, and this induced the Nestorians to do likewise. The conversion of part of the Nestorians and the reunion of their an- cient Church with the Holy See began in the seven- teenth century, and has continued to the present day. The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon (who really haa liis see at Mossul) is the chief prelate of the Chaldean Catholics, and has under him two archbishops (of Diarbekir and Kerkuk) and nine bishops (of Amadia, Gezireh, Mardin, Mossul, Sakou, Salmas, Seert, Sena, and Urmiah). The Malabar Christiana have no regular Chaldean hierarchy, but are governed by vicars Apostolic. The number of Chaldean Catho- lics is estimated at about 70,000, while the cor- responding schismatic Nestorian Church has about 140,000 (see Asia; Chaldean Christians).
There are about 100 to 150 Chaldean Catholics in the United States; about fifty live in Yonkers, New York, while the remainder are scattered in New York City and vicinity. The community in Yonkers is cared for by Rev. Abdul Masih (a married priest from the Diocese of Diarbekir), who came to this country from Damascus some six years ago. He says Mass in a chapel attached to St. Mary's Catholic Church, and some Nestorians also attend. At present (1911) there are two other Chaldean priests in this country: Rev. Joseph Ghariba, from the Diocese of Aleppo, who is a travelling missionary for his people, and Rev. Gabriel Oussani, who is professor of church history, patrology, and Oriental languages in St. Joseph's Seminary at Dunwoodie near Yonkers, and from whom some of these particulars have been obtained. There are also said to be about 150 Nestorians in the United States; the majority of these hve and work in Yonkers, New York. They have no priest of their own, and, where they do not attend the Cathohc
