CATHOLIC GREEK-MELKITE CHURCH

Melkites – Origin of the word “melkite”

The Greek-Melkite Catholics originally belonged to the three great Eastern Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. The word “Melkite” comes from the Syriac “malko,” meaning “royal” or “imperial.” It was first used in 460 in Egypt by the Monophysites to describe the Orthodox Christians who supported the legitimate patriarch, Timothy II, backed by the Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Leo I. At that time, it was a synonym for political-religious loyalty. From Egypt, the nickname quickly spread to Syria. Today, the term is commonly reserved for Catholics of the Byzantine (Greek) rite who speak Arabic in the three aforementioned patriarchates and in diaspora. The non-Catholics of these patriarchates are called “Roum” in Arabic, meaning Eastern Greeks, while Melkite Catholics are also called “Roum Katholik.” Catholicism is so characteristic of Greek Melkite Catholics that, especially in Syria, the term “Katholik,” without further specification, almost always refers to Greek Melkite Catholics. Today, all Melkites speak Arabic. In the past, notably from the 5th to the 12th centuries, there were Melkites of Byzantine origin who spoke Greek, others of native descent who spoke Syriac, and others of Arab ethnicity who converted to Christianity from the 5th century, well before Islam, and spoke Arabic. This ethnic and linguistic diversity also existed among the Monophysites of the time, with a predominance of the Syriac language. Today’s Melkites, both Catholic and Orthodox, represent the main branches of the two large ecclesiastical districts recognized at the Council of Nicaea (325), centered respectively in Alexandria (covering the Roman civil “diocese” of Egypt) and Antioch (for the “diocese” of the East).