Population
- Catholics (as of 2010)
30,000 Rite Byzantine Rite Area 56,000 km² Bishop Jean-Abdo Arbach | Parishes 21 Established 1849 Country Syria | |
Denomination Melkite Greek Catholic Church Cathedral Our Lady of Peace Cathedral | ||
Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Homs (in Latin: Archeparchy Hemesena Graecorum Melkitarum-Epiphaniensis-Iabrudensis) is a nominally Metropolitan Archeparchy (Eastern Catholic archdiocese) of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Byzantine Rite, Arabic) in central Syria. It was established on March 4, 1849 and has no suffragan, but two merged-in eparchial titles.
Contents
Territory and statistics
The archeparchy extends in the central part of Syria, corresponding roughly to the Hama Governorate and Homs Governorate.
Its archeparchial see is the city of Homs, where is located the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. In Yabrud is located the co-cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen.
It is currently governed by Archeparch Jean-Abdo Arbach, B.C.
The territory is divided into 21 parishes and there were 30,000 Melkite Catholics in 2010.
History
The archeparchy consists of territories that were once three separate ecclesiastical entities: Homs, Hama and Yabrud.
When in 1724 the Melkite Greek Catholic Church was established, the three eparchies started gradually merged.
The union ultimately came during the patriarchate of Maximos III Mazloum and was contextually erected from eparchy of Homs to Metropolitan Archeparchy on March 4, 1849, as the titles of the Melkite Catholic Archeparchy of Hama and Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Jabrud were formally united with the new Metropolitanate.