Lebanese Maronite Order

Ruins of a Lebanese Maronite Christian building.

The Lebanese Maronite Order (known also as Baladites or Valadites), is a monastic order among the Levantine Catholic Maronite Church, which from the beginning has been specifically a monastic Church. The order was founded in 1694 in the Monastery of Mart Moura, Ehden, Lebanon, by three Maronite young men from Aleppo, Syria, under the patronage of Patriarch Estephan El Douaihy (1670–1704).

Its name Baladites comes from the Arabic baladiyah (Arabic: الرهبنة البلدية), country monks. It is one of the three Lebanese congregations founded by Saint Anthony the Great.

The second order is the Aleppians (or halabiyyah), monks of Aleppo, a city in present Syria, the antonym of baladiyah. This order resulted from a split with the Baladites. Pope Clement XIV sanctioned this separation in 1770.

The third Lebanese monastic order is that of Saint Isaiah, known as the Lebanese Antonin Order founded on August 15, 1700, by the Patriarch Gabriel Al Blouzani from Blaouza (1704–1705).

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