West Syrian liturgical rites

West Syrian liturgical rites, also known as Jacobite, or Antiochene liturgical rites, are the liturgical rites practiced by churches following the West Syrian tradition of Syriac Christianity. These rites developed out of the ancient Antiochene Rite of the Patriarchate of Antioch, adapting the old Greek liturgy into Syriac, the language of the Syrian countryside.

West Syrian liturgies represent one of the major strains in Syriac Christianity, the other being the East Syrian Rite, the liturgy of the Church of the East and its descendants. Distinct West Syrian liturgies developed following the Council of Chalcedon, which largely divided the Christian community in Antioch into Melkites, who supported the Emperor and the Council and adopted the Byzantine Rite, and the non-Chalcedonians, who rejected the council and developed an independent liturgy – the West Syrian Rite. An independent West Syrian community that grew around the monastery of Saint Maron eventually developed into the Maronite Church, which uses its own Maronite Rite. A variant of the West Syrian Rite, the Malankara Rite, developed in the Malankara Church of India and is still used in its descendant churches.