Beirut

BEIRUT. - The ancient Βερμώος or Berytus, Berito (v.). It is currently the capital of the Republic of Lebanon. The territory, which was previously 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 place of Syria. The present-day city arose on the site of the Roman one; it consists of an old city, in the center, and a more recent part, and it possesses the remains of a Roman temple, churches erected by the Crusaders and mosques, which bear witness to its historical vicissitudes.

In the early Christian centuries it had a famous school of Law, in which St. Gregory Thaumaturgus studied and later the jurist Tribonian. The native city of St. Pamphilus, later bishop of Caesarea, B. was a bishopric at least from the beginning of the 4th century. In 448 the preparatory conference to that of Tyre was held at B. in the case of bishop Ibas. Theodosius II (449) declared B., until that time a suffragan of Tyre, a metropolis, which was not admitted by the Council of Chalcedon (451). In 555 B. was destroyed by an earthquake. The restored city was invaded by the Arabs in 635. The king of Jerusalem, Baldwin I, conquered it in 1110, with the help of 40 Genoese ships, and made it a Frankish lordship, until in 1291 it fell into the hands of the Mamluks.

According to the statistics of 1932 B. has a population of 160,947 inhabitants, of whom 92,722 are Christians.

B. It is the seat of several bishoprics, thus distinguished:

I. B. of the ARMENIANS

B. became an important Armenian center only after the First World War because 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 about 7,000 faithful, 16 priests, 5 churches, 5 schools. The works of Catholic Action flourish.

II. B. of the MARONITES

A Maronite bishop of B. is already mentioned in 1577. Probably there was one even earlier. From 1691 begins the uninterrupted series of bishops. There are about 15,000 faithful, 125 priests, 150 parishes, 12 convents, 58 schools. There are flourishing confraternities and works of Catholic Action (v. MARONITES). 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, of which 5 are in the city itself, 12 religious houses, of which 8 are male, 20 schools. The works of Catholic Action flourish.

IV. B. of the SYRIANS

Only in our own days has B. become the seat 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 series was, however, sometimes interrupted. Since the time of the First World War the residence of the Syro-Catholic patriarch of Antioch has been located at B. There are 2,600 faithful, 7 churches, 26 priests, 13 schools. Flourishing confraternities exist.

Guglielmo de Vries

V. UNIVERSITY OF ST. JOSEPH of B

One of the principal cultural centers not only of Syria, but of the entire Near East, founded and directed by the Jesuits. The initial nucleus was an interritual seminary proposed by Fr. Ryllo after an understanding with the Armenian, Maronite, Greek and Syrian patriarchs. The proposal was immediately approved by Gregory XVI, and, thanks to the diligence of Fr. Riccadonna, the seminary found a first lodging at Gazir in 1843.

It was at first a school of Arabic and Italian; then it acquired such a good name that it was thought to transfer it to Beirut, where, with the help of American Catholics, the present building of the university arose at a stroke in 1875. Leo XIII granted in 1881 to the oriental seminary the faculty of conferring degrees in philosophy and theology, elevating it to the rank of 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 the faculties of medicine, law, oriental literatures and engineering have been gradually erected, whose degrees are recognized by the French State, with a total (1948) of 1,853 students. Several professors of the university have especially distinguished themselves in the history, linguistics and archaeology of Syria. Let us recall the names of Fr. Cheikho, author of Arabic anthologies, of Fr. Belot with his Arabic vocabulary, of Fr. Bruna with his Syriac one, of Fr. Lammens, famous for his studies on the Arabs before Islam, of Fr. de Jerphanion (v.). An excellent printing house with the fine Arabic typefaces cast at the expense of Fr. Antun prints the numerous journals of the university, among which we note the Mélanges in French and al-Mašriq in Arabic. Until the year 1947 it also published the Arabic daily al-Bāšir.

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina