Named after the Syrian hermit-priest Saint Maron (+410 A.D.), the Maronite Church is one of the Eastern Catholic Churches who follows the Antiochian Tradition (one of the six major traditions of the Catholic Church) and has been in full communion with the Pope of Rome since its beginning and its development as a distinct Church back in 687. Thus, as Maronites, we profess the same Faith and celebrate the same Sacraments as the Roman Catholics, while embracing our own culture and tradition to express that faith. In fact, as aforementioned, the Maronite Church is part of the early Christians of Antioch where “they were called Christians for the first time” (Acts 11:26). She has her own hierarchy composed of a Patriarch who is her “father and head”, and over fifty Bishops who shepherd the many Eparchies (Dioceses) in Lebanon, the Middle East and throughout the world, and still uses as her liturgical language, Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic that Jesus Himself spoke.
The Mother Church of the Maronites is in Lebanon, and daughter communities exist throughout the world; the Maronites in the United States, belong to one of two eparchies, namely the “Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn” (which territory is comprised of 17 States) and the “Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles” (which territory is comprised of 33 States). The State of Wisconsin is part of the latter.