Medieval Christianity: History of The Melkite Patriarchates

"This first volume then is quite unique. Although never published by its author in the original French, we have published it for the first time in English translation more than ninety years after it was written. It remains in the unedited manner in which we found it in "Echos d'Orient". The mind and genius of Father Cyril could not remain unpublished. To my knowledge this is the first history of the Melkite Church written in the French language. Father Constantine Bacha, BSO wrote a history in the Arabic language. Initially when I began this work and discussed it with several clergy of our Church, I thought to add footnotes and editing to bring it up to date. However, this would not do justice to the author,and would practically require writing a new book. The reader must read this book attempting to understand the mind frame at the turn of the century. We must understand that our author author is by origin a Roman Catholic who was led to the Eastern Church by its beauty and great spiritual wealth. We must understand that latinization was already a part of the Melkite Catholic Church, although not severe and never as severe as in other Eastern Catholic Churches. We must understand the narrative style of history which was very popular in Europe and the Middle East at that time. The statistics of 1907-1909 are very helpful in order to make comparisons to the present day. We must also understand how the Melkites themselves could be upset with Charon. "Truth hurts", so the expresion says. In his truthfulness, Father Charon was being true to history as he saw it, yet some of the people he wrote about were not too keen about hearing his thoughts. Let us leave future historians to judge this paradox. I do implore you, reader, keep an open mind as you read this work." -Foreword