DISCIPLES
OF ST. MARON - 350 MARTYRS
After the Council of Chalcedon,
Syria was divided between those who upheld the Council and those who opposed
it. The monastery of Saint Maron and those who gathered around it supported
the declarations of the Council. Patriarch Severus, however, was the head
of those who rejected the teaching of the Council that in the person of
Christ there was both a human nature and a divine nature. Severus and his
followers held that in Christ, the incarnate Word of God, there was but
a single human-divine nature. In the year 517 a group of monks left the
monastery of Saint Maron and went to the monastery of Saint Simon the Stylite
near Alepo. The monks were arrested by a troop or partisons of the "one
nature" of Christ who killed three hundred and fifty of the monks. Many
of the monks who were wounded in the attack were able to escape. Alexander,
the superior of the monastery of Saint Maron, and the superiors of the
neighboring monasteries wrote to Pope Hormisdas in order to inform him
of the events that had taken place. The Pope responded on February 10,
518 and encouraged them to persevere in the Catholic faith and praised
the faith of the martyred monks.
May their prayers be with
us. Amen.