[13] Antoine Khoury Harb wrote in his book The Maronites History and Constants (p. 56,58,60):
“In 451 A. D., the Fourth Ecumenical Council was convened at Chalcedon and confirmed the teaching of the Synod of Antioch
affirming the two natures in Christ: Christ is perfect God and perfect Man. He is one person in two perfect natures, divine and
human. He is particularly human since nobody has denied Christ His divine nature, but rather His perfect human nature…
The Council of Chalcedon led to a split into the Church. On the one hand, the Chalcedonians who distinguish a dual nature in Jesus
Christ, viz. The Western Church, the Byzantines, the Melkites (name now applied to Greek Catholics) and the Maronites. On the
other hand, there were the Non-Chalcedonians, so-called Monophysites who recognize in Christ one single and unique nature,
viz. The Copts, the Abyssinians, the Syrian-Orthodox and the Armenian-Orthodox. This schism was not only ideological but also
political. Behind it was the struggle for power between Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire, and Alexandria,
which was considered as the second see of Christianity after Rome. In 452, at the request of Pope Leo and Bishop Theodoretus,
the Emperor Marcianus ordered a great monastery to be built near the Orontes River north of Hama in order to strengthen and
spread the Chalcedonian dogma… The monastery, the largest among some thirty Chalcedonian centers, was named after St.
Maron, “probably because the monks got St. Maron’s relics or the whole body”, or because they were St. Maron’s followers long
before the monastery was built. St. Maron’s monastery, the “cradle of the Maronite Church”, was the most important of the
Chalcedonian monasteries… The followers of “Bet Moroon” (the Maronites) were strong defenders of the Chalcedonian dogma in
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, “even when the Byzantine emperors and Patriarchs, and the Patriarchs of Antioch were against
it.”… The struggle to establish the Chalcedonian dogma led to conflicts between the Maronites and the Monophysites, who
solicited the aid of the Byzantine Court, “the most inconstant in the religious history of the oriental Church”. Supported by the
Byzantine Emperor Anastasius [Monophysite himself], Bishop Severus became Patriarch of Antioch in 512. He persecuted the
Chalcedonians, in particular the monks of St. Maron’s Monastery. In 517, the Monophysites ambushed some of the monks and
their followers in the pass of Kalaat Semaan while they were on their way to St. Simon’s Monastery near Aleppo. Some 350
monks were killed; their martyrdom is celebrated annually on July 31st by the Maronite and Latin Churches worldwide. The
massacre led the friends of the victims to send letters to the Church authorities complaining of the atrocities committed by the
Monophysites. In a letter addressed to Pope Hormizdes dated February 517, the Maronites confirmed their belief in the
Chalcedonian dogma, their loyalty to the Pope and his authority over the entire Church. On February 10th, 518, Pope Hormizdes
answered in a long letter offering his condolences for those he describes as “soldiers of Christ and members of His living body”,
and encouraging them to be steadfast in their true faith, and in their loyalty to the Papacy. He also condemned the heretics, and
proclaimed that he would make every effort to defend and support the Maronites, priests and monks.”
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