BEIRUT. – The ancient Βερμώος or Berytus, Berito (v.). At present, it is the capital of the Republic of Lebanon. The territory, which had previously been a French mandate, together with Syria, achieved its independence after the Second World War (1946). Situated on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, in the Bay of St. George, it is the foremost city of Syria. The present-day city arose on the site of the Roman one; it consists of an old city at the center and a more recent section, and possesses the remains of a Roman temple, churches erected by the Crusaders, and mosques, which bear witness to its historical vicissitudes.
In the first Christian centuries it had a celebrated school of Law, at which s. Gregorio Taumaturgo studied, and later the jurist Tribonian. The birthplace of s. Panfilo, later bishop of Caesarea, B. had been at least since the beginning of the 4th century a bishopric. In 448, the preparatory conference for that of Tyre in the case of Bishop Iba was held at B. Theodosius II (449) declared B., until then a suffragan see of Tyre, a metropolitan see, a status that was not recognized by the Council of Chalcedon (451). In 555 B. was destroyed by an earthquake. The restored city was invaded by the Arabs in 635. King Baldwin I of Jerusalem conquered it in 1110, with the help of 40 Genoese ships, and made it a Frankish lordship, until it fell into the hands of the Mamluks in 1291.
According to the 1932 statistics, B. had a population of 160,947 inhabitants, of whom 92,722 were Christians.
B. is the see of several bishoprics, distinguished as follows:
I. B. of the ARMENIANS. – B. became an important Armenian center only after the First World War as a result of emigration from Turkey. The city has been the seat of the Catholic patriarch of Cilicia since 23 June 1928, and is also his particular diocese. There are approximately 7,000 faithful, 16 priests, 5 churches, and 5 schools. Catholic Action organizations are flourishing.
II. B. of the MARONITES. – A Maronite bishop of B. is already mentioned in 1577. There was probably one even earlier. The uninterrupted succession of bishops begins in 1691. There are approximately 15,000 faithful, 125 priests, 150 parishes, 12 convents, and 58 schools. Flourishing confraternities and Catholic Action organizations exist (v. MARONITI). Shortly before the Second World War, the central Maronite seminary was founded at Gazir, not far from B.
III. B. of the MELKITES. – A metropolitan of the Catholic Melkites has resided there since 1701. There are 20,000 faithful, 12 priests, 37 parishes, 5 of them in the city itself, 12 religious houses, 8 of them for men, and 20 schools. Catholic Action organizations are flourishing.
IV. B. of the SYRIANS. – Only in our own day has B. become the see of a Jacobite bishop. The Catholic Syrians, converted from the Monophysitism of the Jacobites, installed a bishop there for the first time in 1817. The succession was, however, interrupted at times. Since the time of the First World War, the residence of the Syriac Catholic patriarch of Antioch has been located in B. There are 2,600 faithful, 7 churches, 26 priests, and 13 schools. Flourishing confraternities exist.
Guglielmo de Vries
V. UNIVERSITÀ DI S. GIUSEPPE di B. – One of the principal cultural centers not only of Syria but of the entire Near East, founded and directed by the Jesuits. Its initial nucleus was an interritual seminary proposed by Fr. Ryllo after an understanding had been reached with the Armenian, Maronite, Greek, and Syriac patriarchs. The proposal was immediately approved by Gregory XVI, and, thanks to the diligence of Fr. Riccadonna, the seminary found its first premises at Gazir in 1843.
At first it was a school of Arabic and Italian; then it acquired such a good reputation that the idea arose of transferring it to Beirut, where, with the help of American Catholics, the present university building was erected at a stroke in 1875. In 1881 Leo XIII granted the Oriental seminary the faculty of conferring degrees in philosophy and theology, raising it to the rank of a pontifical university. According to the latest statistics (1948), the seminary, which currently has 71 students, has given the Church 4 patriarchs, 28 bishops, and 437 secular priests.
Alongside the seminary, faculties of medicine, law, Oriental literatures, and engineering were established, whose degrees are recognized by the French State, with a total (1948) of 1,853 students. Several university professors have distinguished themselves especially in the history, linguistics, and archaeology of Syria. We recall the names of Fr. Cheikho, author of Arabic anthologies; Fr. Belot, with his Arabic dictionary; Fr. Bruna, with his Syriac one; Fr. Lammens, famous for his studies on the Arabs before Islam; and Fr. de Jerphaniion (v.). An excellent printing press, with the fine Arabic type cast by Br. Antun, prints the university’s numerous journals, among which we note the Mélanges in French and al-Mašriq in Arabic. Until 1947 it also published the Arabic daily al-Bāšir.