Eastern Christians: Faith, Hopes and Traditions

In Lebanon, the Church of Our Lady of the Winds was almost completely in ruins. Its foundations date back to the earliest days of Christianity. A team of archaeologists and craftsmen have restored it.

Around the Mediterranean basin, live many Christian communities since the first centuries of our era. If their vernacular and liturgical languages ​​were Aramaic, Syriac, Sureth, Greek or Coptic ... many have adopted the Arabic language over the centuries.

Chrétiens Orientaux looks back at recent events in the Eastern Churches.

Chrétiens Orientaux looks back on recent events in the Eastern Churches, by contemplating the new images (frescoes and icons) in France.

What is the role of angels, in heaven and on earth? What do the Bible and the Gospels say about their actions? Did Christ's coming to earth change their mission? Can the priest celebrate Mass or the Divine Liturgy without their presence? What message are they giving?

In 1915, at the initiative of the government of "young turks", the first genocide of the twentieth century unfolded. In the geographic territory of present-day Turkey, more than 2 million people have been murdered. 2/3 of the Armenian, Assyro-Chaldean, Syriac and Greek communities of Pontus have been dessimated.

From March 5 to 8, Pope Francis is going to Iraq for a visit to meet all the Iraqi people and in particular Christians who are particularly victims of the madness of Daesh. This is a Pope's first trip to Iraq, a historic event.

This religious magazine is devoted to the faith, traditions and particularities of the Eastern Churches in France and in the countries of the "mother" Church.

For 300 years, in the heart of the lagoon, Saint Lazarus Island has housed an Armenian monastery which is a true Armenian land in Italy.

This Christmas morning, Eastern Christians invites us to celebrate the birth of the Child Jesus, with the communities of the Eastern Churches which celebrate according to the Gregorian calendar.

"Oriental news: the future of the Armenian heritage of Artsakh, and of the Christian heritage of Iraq, Advent: the recipes of the Christmas fast. "

Ten months after the tragedy of October 31, 2010 in the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, where an attack by Islamists left 60 dead during the celebration of Mass, Eastern Christians wish to question the meaning of martyrdom in the Eastern Churches.

This Sunday, the show "Eastern Christians" offers an exceptional documentary in Beirut, meeting the Christians of the city.

Behind the walls of the BNF, rue de Richelieu in Paris, are preserved treasures of written memory of France and the world. In the large collection of secular manuscripts, oriental works are preserved: Bibles, Evangelicals, Missals, homilies, secular texts ...

On this feast of Assumption or Dormition, Orientals honor Theotokos, the Mother of God. The choirs of the Maronite, Armenian, Syriac Orthodox and Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Churches sing the Virgin Mary in the diversity of their religious and musical customs.

The four non-Chalcedonian churches have been present in Jerusalem since the early centuries of Christendom. Apostolic Armenians, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox are rooted in ancestral traditions and sacred rites. In Jerusalem, the monks and the faithful go to the holy places of the Holy Sepulcher, the Tomb of the Virgin or the Upper Room to pray day and night.

Since the 4th century Armenians have been present in the Holy Land. Succeeding the first hermits of the Judean desert, the monks settled by building a chapel, then monasteries near the Holy Places of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. For nearly 1,700 years, they have lived an intense life of prayer and welcome Armenian pilgrims. Today the Monastery of St. James, and the Armenian quarter that surrounds it, represents almost 20% of the territory of the old city.

On this Ascension Thursday (Gregorian calendar), the Eastern faithful, as they have been for two months, cannot participate in the parish Eucharistic celebration. During the confinement, the priests celebrated Masses and the faithful were able to follow the broadcasts over the Internet. But the life of the parishes has almost come to a standstill.

At a time when the world is confronted with the fight against the coronavirus, Eastern Christians ask the question of the presence or the feeling of absence of God at the time of the great tragedies which touched the Eastern world: of the Genocide of 1915 (in Turkey) , the Holodomor (1932/33 in Ukraine), the martyrs of the Soviet period, and the tragedies of our world, notably in the attacks of Daesh in the Middle East.

In France, for ten years the community of the Syriac Catholic Church has undergone profound changes. In Paris, the parish of Saint Ephrem was founded for the survivors of the Genocide of 1915, then welcomed the different waves of Syriacs coming mainly from Lebanon (especially during the 1970s / 1980s) and now from Syria.

After the birth of Jesus, fleeing the massacre of innocent children perpetrated by Herod, the Holy Family went to find refuge in Egypt. Today the memory of their passage is still alive. Many places of pilgrimage are very frequented by the faithful.