Maron (4th cent.)

A hermit who lived in the region of the Orontes River valley toward the end of the 4th cent. and is venerated as the Father of the Syr. Maron. Church of Antioch.

St. Maron, a charismatic hermit who lived in the region of the Orontes River valley toward the end of the 4th cent., is venerated as the Father of the Syr. Maron. Church of Antioch . Few historical details of his life can be ascertained. According to Theodoret , bp. of Cyrrhus, St. Maron distinguished himself by a life lived in the open air without shelter. He survived on a frugal diet of wild plants and herbs. It is generally accepted that he is the addressee of a letter of John Chrysostom written to ‘Maron, monk and hermit’. Maron’s sanctity and spiritual gifts attracted other ascetics as well as simple believers. Together they formed what was known in antiquity as Bayt Maroon ‘The House of Maron’. The monastery of St. Maron became identified with its defense of the Christological formulation of the Council of Chalcedon (451) which defined two natures in Christ, divine and human. Following the Arab expansion and the relocation of the Chalcedonian patr. from Antioch to Constantinople, the Maronites withdrew to the mountainous region of northern Lebanon where, around 685, they elected a patr., Yuḥanon Maron , and constituted themselves as an indigenous Syriac-speaking Chalcedonian community. The Maronite Church celebrates the feast of its namesake and spiritual Father on 9 Feb.