ALEPPO. - City of northern Syria, not far from Antioch, formerly called Hallob, in Greek Χαλυβών, and by Seleucus Nicator (312-281 B.C.) named Βέροια or Βερόη. The Gospel, given the proximity of Antioch, must have been preached there quite early. The seat of a bishopric, Berea was held by illustrious men such as Eustathius, later bishop of Antioch (cf. Sozomen, Hist. eccl., I, 2), and by the venerable Acacius who governed that diocese from 378 to 432. According to the Notitia of Anastasius I, restored by S. Vailhé and belonging to the 6th century, Berea, at first a simple bishopric, was later distinguished with the title of archbishopric, that is, governed by an archbishop with the title of "Syncellos," immediately subject to the see of Antioch, of which Berea has always been a suffragan. The city today has 132,000 inhabitants, of whom 40,000 are Christians.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina
1. A. of the ARMENIANS
The origins of the Armenian colony in A. go back to the 11th century: history, however, has not preserved the complete series of bishops. In 1439 the bishop Hovakim was sent by the patriarch Constantine V of Armenia to the Council of Ferrara-Florence, together with Sarkis Vartabed and Markos Vartabed. In
1585, the bishop Azaria, later elected patriarch of Sis in Cilicia, submitted to Gregory XIII the profession of the Catholic faith.
Beginning in the middle of the 17th century the Armenian Catholic community in A. developed noticeably, through the work of Armenian missionaries who were students of Propaganda, as well as through the missions of the Western Orders.
In 1710 the said Catholic community obtained its own bishop, emancipating itself from the jurisdiction of the schismatic bishop, and the see was elevated to an archbishopric in 1899. The Armenian diocese of A., after its emancipation, suffered very grave persecutions on the part of the Turkish government, at the instigation of the schismatic Armenian patriarchs. The persecution intensified when the prohibition was issued, for that community, not to communicate in divinis and not to frequent, even for formalities, the churches of the schismatic Armenians.
In its present state the archdiocese of A. has about 18,000 souls and some twenty priests. It has a cathedral church, "St. Mary Help of Christians," and 6 other churches and chapels. Internally it is well organized, with schools and institutes, Catholic circles, confraternities and pious unions. The Armenian Church, currently separated, greatly outnumbers the Catholic one, and counts about 70,000 souls, with 35 churches and 53 priests.
Bibliography3 works
Serafino Akelian
2. A. of the MARONITES
Archdiocese, residential see. The Maronites in A. are very ancient. Dionysius of Tell Mahré (d. 845) in Chronique de Michel le Syrien, ed. J. B. Chabot, II, pp. 492-96, speaks of the struggle between Maronites and Melkites for possession of the church of A. But the uninterrupted series of Maronite archbishops for that city goes back only to 1638. There are today 3,800 faithful, 6 priests and 4 churches.
Bibliography2 works
Pietro Sfair
3. A. of the MELKITES
Considered a metropolitan see since 1790, it has, besides the archbishop, 14 secular priests, 2 Aleppine Basilian religious and 15,000 faithful. There are 8 parishes and 5 schools. The cathedral is dedicated to "Mary Most Holy Assumed." The dissidents number 5,000 with a bishop and 10 priests
Bibliography
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina
4. A. of the SYRIANS
Residential see. It is an ancient Jacobite see. The series of Catholic bishops begins in 1659 with Andrew Aḥīgān, who in 1661 was elected as the first patriarch of the Catholic Syrians. The series of bishops suffered from grave persecutions and the situation stabilized only toward the end of the 18th century. In 1948 the faithful numbered 6,500 and the priests 12.
Pietro Sfair
5. APOSTOLIC VICARIATE
In 1644 the Latin bishopric of A. was erected, where the Jesuits had settled
(1625) and the Carmelites (1626). The see remained vacant from 1650 to 1762, the year in which a vicar apostolic was chosen. There is then another vacancy between 1774 and 1817, when Fr. Luigi Gandolfi was elected, followed by other Italians. The residence of the vicar apostolic is Beirut in winter and Harišš in summer. The Latin Catholics, almost all Europeans, number about 10,000, to whom the Franciscans, Jesuits, Lazarists, Capuchins and Carmelites minister.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina