OREEE
751
GREEK
the Pacific. The chief places where the Rumanian
Greek Cathohcs are settled are Cleveland, Youngs-
town, Columbus, Newark, and Cincinnati, Ohio;
Sharon, Erie, Pittsburg, Windber, and Scalp Level,
Pennsylvania; Aurora, Indianapolis, Indiana Harbor,
and Terre Haute, Indiana; Trenton, New Jersey; St.
Louis, Missouri; and New York City. They are all
quite poor and are generally found, like all recent immi-
grants, in the humblest and poorest walks of life. They
lack sufficient missionary priests of their own rite, and
at present many additional priests would be welcome.
The Rev. Dr. Epaminondas Lucaciu wa.s the first Greek
Catholic Rmnanian priest to come to this country.
He was sent here in 1904 by the Cireek Catholic Bishop
of Lugos, at the request of the late Bishop Horstmann
of Cleveland, who was asked for a priest of their own
rite by the Rumanians settled in Cleveland. When he
came, he set about forming a congregation and build-
ing a church for his people of the (ireek Rite. His
energy and ability among his countrymen led to the
erection and dedication, on 21 October, 1906, of the
church of iSt. Helena in Cleveland — the first Ruman-
ian Greek Catholic church in America. His zeal also
led to the formation of congregations in other locahties
which he visited regularly. In 1908 the second Ru-
manian church was built and dedicated at Scalp Level,
Pennsjdvania, which serves as the central point for
missionary work among the Rumanians of Pennsyl-
vania. In 1909 the third Rumanian church was
completed and dedicated at Aurora, Illinois, and it
serves in its turn as the centre of Greek Catholic work
among the Rumanians of the Western vStates. A
fourth has just been constructed at Youngstown,
Ohio. There are now (1909) four Rumanian Greek
Catholic priests in the United States, and more are
shortly expected to arrive. Greek Catholic congrega-
tions have been formed in many localities, and they
are regularly visited by the Greek Catholic priests
who are here, and regular parishes will be formed and
churches erected as soon as possible. A Rumanian
Greek chapel is now in course of formation in New
York City and awaits a priest from Transylvania.
While they have a small Catholic church paper, " Cato-
Ucul American ' ', they also pubUsh a fine eight-page
weekly, "Romanul", at Cleveland and New York,
which gives a great deal of church news, and they also
publish a little monthly magazine and an illustrated
year-book in wjiich many details of their churches,
societies, and progress are given. The weekly paper
was originally founded by Father Lucaciu to provide
reading-matter and general news for his people, but it
has since passed into other hands. Their societies
are not strictly speaking church organizations, but are
rather mutual benefit societies for Rumanians, and
some even have a limited membership of the Ortho-
dox, for the Rumanians of Hungary, whether Greek
Catholic or Greek Orthodox, are ver\' closely united
upon racial and national feelings, and do not exhibit
the hostility sometimes shown between the two
Churches elsewhere. The principal societies are
"Dacia Romana", "Ardealana", Unirea Romana",
and "Societatea Traian", numbering altogether
aijout 3000 members, and generally identified with
the church congregations.
III. Syri.\n (Melchite) Greek Catholics. — About 1886 the first immigration from the Mediter- ranean coasts of Asia began to reach the shores of the United States, when the Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians began to swell the numbers of our immigrants. Among them came the Syrian Greeks, or those Syrians who were of the Byzantine Rite, whether Catholic or Orthodox. The name Melchite (see under Greek Church, Vol. VI, p. 7.5.5), is occasionally used to designate a Syrian of the Greek Orthodox Faith, but now it rarely has that meaning, since the schismatics prefer to be known as Syro-Arabians, at lea." i in the United States, where they are largely
under Russian influence, for it is nearly always applied
to the Catholics. After the Council of Chalcedon the
Melchites followed the fortunes of the Greek Church
of Constantinople. When it separated from Rome
they also gradually became separated, merely through
inertia. Occasionally a bishop became Catholic, and
there were sporadic attempts to reunite them with
the Holy See. Cyril V, who was elected Patriarch of
Antioch about the year 1700, decided to come back to
unity and made his submission and profession of the
Catholic Faith to Pope Clement XI, and his example
was followed by the Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon,
the Bishop of Beirut, and other prelates. From
that time on the Syrian Greek Catholics have had a
restored Catholic line of Patriarchs of Antioch.
Strangely enough, the word Melchite, which had
been used to designate those who adhered to the
doctrines of the Church of Constantinople when it
was Catholic and in unity, and who even followed it
when it left the unity of the Churcn, came eventually
to mean, after the union of Cyril V and his fellow-
bishops, almost exclusively those Syrians of the
Greek Rite who were Catholics and united with the
Holy See. Their rite, of course, is the same as that of
the other Greek Catholics, but the language used in
the Mass and the administration of the sacraments and
in the church offices is the Arabic, with the exception
of certain prayer-endings and versicles of the Mass,
which are still intoned in the original Greek. Still a
Melchite priest ma}' celebrate entirely in Cireek if he
so desires, and the Catholic Missal is printed in parallel
columns in each language as to the parts which are to
be intoned or said aloud.
At first these Syrians were in small numbers and were not distinguishable from the Arabic-speaking Maronites or from the Syro-Arabian Orthodox Greeks, all of whom began to come to this country about the same date. This Syrian immigration, as compared with that from other lands, has never been very large. The Greek Catholics came at first from the same locali- ties as the Maronites — Beirut and Mount Lebanon; but now they come from Damascus and other parts of Syria as well. In 1891 Rev. Abraham Bechewate, a Basilian monk of the Congregation of the Holy Saviour, from Saida in the Diocese of Zahleh and Far- zul, Mount Lebanon, was sent to this countr}' by the Patriarch of Antioch to take up missionary work among his countrymen. So far he has been instru- mental in establishing missions and congregations in varioas cities and in having other priests sent to assist him. His first efforts were confined to New York City, and at present the Melchites in New York City use the basement of St. Peter's church on Barclay Street, but they have bought ground in Brooklyn with a view to erecting a Syrian Greek Catholic church there. After Father Bechewate other priests were sent to take up the work at various places throughout the United States. At the present time (1909) there are altogether fourteen Melchite churches or congrega- tions in the United States and just across the border in Canada. Besides these there are manj' mission sta- tions which the Melchite Greek priests \dsit periodi- cally. These churches are situated at the following places: New York City; Boston and Lawrence, Mas- sachusetts; Omaha, Nebraska; Cleveland, Ohio; Du- bois and Scranton, Pennsylvania; Chicago and Joliet, Illinois; Rockley, South Dakota; La Crosse, Wiscon- sin; Pawiucket, Rhode Island; and Montreal and Toronto, Canada. So far they have erected four fair- sized churches in Lawrence, Cleveland, Dubois, and La Crosse. The cost of land in the large cities has prevented them from building, so that their congrega- tions in the other places are assembled either in the Latin churches or in rented premises. The number of the S\Tian Greek Catholics in the United States (1909) is between 8000 and 10,000, and they are to be found chiefly in the New England States, Pennsylvania,
