History

Early years

The early history of the Church of Antioch is detailed in the Acts of the Apostles, where in Acts 11:23 the Apostle Luke records that it was in that city that the disciples of Christ were first called Christians. Due to the importance of Antioch as a major center in the ancient Roman Empire, many of the missionary efforts of the apostles were launched from that city. In the early centuries of the Church's history, it was natural that the Church sojourning in Antioch would come to be traditionally regarded as one of the centers of world Christianity. The territory that came to be associated with the bishop of Antioch was that of the Roman Diocese of the East (a diocese was originally an Imperial governmental division before it became an ecclesiastical one).

The Antiochian school

During the pre-Nicene period and that of the Ecumenical Councils, Christian theology centered in Antioch tended to emphasize the literal, historical facts of the life of Jesus Christ over philosophical or allegorical interpretations of Holy Scripture, contrasted with the more mystical and figurative theology coming from Alexandria. Antiochian theology, though stressing the "earthier" side of interpretation, nevertheless did not neglect the importance of insight into the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. These two viewpoints came to be known respectively as the Antiochian school and the Alexandrian school, represented by major catechetical institutions at both places.

Major figures associated with the origin of the Antiochian school include Lucian of Antioch and Paul of Samosata, but its real formation was found with writers such as Diodore of Tarsus, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Nestorius, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. At times, this difference in emphasis caused conflicts within the Church as the tension between the two approaches came to a head, especially regarding the doctrinal disputes over Arianism and Nestorianism. Saints such as John Chrysostom are somewhat regarded as synthesizers of the Antiochian and Alexandrian approaches to theology, and the Antiochian school of theology, whose more deviant proponents produced Arianism and Nestorianism, also enabled the Orthodox fight against the Alexandrian school's deviances, namely Apollinarianism and Eutychianism.

Schism over Chalcedon

The Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon elevated the Church of Antioch to the status of a patriarchate. But disputes over the nature of Christ at that Council — the Monophysite controversy —  led to a schism in 451 within the Church of Antioch. The larger group at the time repudiated the council and became what is now the Syrian Orthodox Church, also called the "Jacobites" (named for Jacob Baradeus, an early bishop of theirs who did extensive missionary work in the region). They currently comprise part of the Oriental Orthodox communion and hold to a Christology different in wording, but possibly the same in meaning, as that promulgated by Chalcedon.

The remainder of the Church of Antioch, primarily local Greeks or Hellenized sections of the indigenous population, remained in communion with Rome and Constantinople. This is the current Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, which is considered by the other bishops of the Orthodox Church, to be the sole legimate heir to the see of Antioch.

The schism greatly weakened the Antiochian church, and in 637 when Antioch fell to the Muslim Arabs, the "Greek" church was perceived by the invaders as allied to the Romano-Byzantine enemies of the Arabs. During the subsequent period, Antiochian Orthodox Christians underwent a lengthy period of persecution, and there were multiple periods of either vacancy or non-residence on the Antiochian patriarchal throne during the 7th and 8th centuries. In 969, the Roman Empire regained control of Antioch, and the church there prospered again until 1085, when the Seljuk Turks took the city. During this period of more than a hundred years, the traditional West Syrian liturgy of the church was gradually replaced by that of the tradition of the Great Church, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. This process was completed sometime in the 12th century.

Crusader and Muslim conquests

In 1098, Crusaders took the city and set up a Latin Patriarchate of Antioch to adorn its Latin Kingdom of Syria, while a Greek patriarchate continued in exile in Constantinople. This made manifest the schism with the West. After nearly two centuries of Crusader rule, the Egyptian Mamelukes seized Antioch in 1268, and the Orthodox patriarch, Theodosius IV, was able to return to the region. By this point, Antioch itself had been reduced to a smaller town, and so in the 14th century Ignatius II transferred the seat of the patriarchate to Damascus, where it remains to this day, though the patriarch retains the Antiochian title.

The Ottoman Turks conquered the city in 1517, under whose control it remained until the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. During this period, in 1724, the Church of Antioch was again weakened by schism, as a major portion of its faithful came into submission to the Roman Catholic Church. The creation by the West of a Patriarch of the Melkite Church cemented the great divide between Eastern and Western Christianity. The resultant Uniate body is known as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which in the current day maintains close ties with the Orthodox and is currently holding ongoing talks about healing the schism and returning the Melkites to Orthodoxy.

By the 18th century the great majority of the communicants of the Antiochian church were Arabs. In 1898 the last Greek patriarch was deposed, and an Arab successor was elected in 1899. Thus the patriarchate became fully Arab in character. A strong renewal movement, involving Orthodox youth in particular, has been under way since the 1940s.

The Antiochian Church Today

The Holy Synod of Antioch is comprised of the patriarch and all the active metropolitans, who meet at least annually and function to elect the patriarch and other bishops and to govern the Church of Antioch to preserve the faith and maintain ecclesiastical order. In addition to the Synod itself, a general conciliar body meets twice a year to see to the financial, educational, judicial and administrative matters of the patriarchate. It is composed of the members of the Synod and of lay representatives. When a new patriarch is to be elected, this body selects three candidates from whom the Holy Synod chooses to the new patriarch.

The current patriarch is His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of Antioch and all the East, elected in 1979. Patriarch Ignatius has been particularly active in strengthening ties with other Christian communions, but particularly with those whose roots are in Antiochian Orthodoxy. To this end, on July 22, 1991, he met with the Syrian ("Jacobite") Antiochian Patriarch, Ignatius Zakka I (Iwas), and the two patriarchs signed a document which called for "complete and mutual respect between the two churches." It also forbade the passing of faithful from one church to the other, envisaged joint meetings of the two Holy Synods when appropriate, and provided (as yet unrealized) guidelines for intercommunion of the faithful and even Eucharistic concelebration by the clergy of the two churches.

Patriarch Ignatius has also overseen participation in a bilateral commission with the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which is exploring ways of healing the 18th century schism and returning the Melkites to Orthodoxy. In an unprecedented event, the Meklite Patriarch Maximos V addressed a meeting of the Orthodox Holy Synod of Antioch in October of 1996. In May of 1997, the Holy Synod met and declared that the whole Paschaltide period is to be observed festally, thus balancing the lengthy fasting of Great Lent with an equal non-fasting period in celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This decision, the diplomatic activities, and other moves by Patriarch Ignatius and the Holy Synod have drawn criticism from some elements within the mainstream Orthodox Church and particularly from "resistance" groups who have walled themselves off from communion with most of world Orthodoxy. Of the churches receiving criticism for alleged "ecumenism", Antioch has received probably the greatest amount.

Expansion abroad

Antiochian Saints

Over the centuries, the Church of Antioch has been associated with many saints on the Church's calendar. These include the following: