Maronites

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a body of Eastern Christians of Mount Lebanon, probably deriving their name from one Maro, a Syrian monk contemporary with Chrysostom. They adopted Monothelite errors, but were united to the Roman Church in 1182, though they soon fell away through Greek influence. In 1216 they again submitted, and the connection has subsisted ever since. They have excited more attention in Europe than other Oriental Christians, on account of the persecutions they have suffered at the hands of the Druses. In 1860, 1,300 Maronites were killed, and 100,000 0,000 driven from their homes. In 1920 the Maronites numbered about 300,000. Arabic is the vulgar, and Syriac the liturgical language. MAROS-VASARHELY (mor'ōsh-vä'shär-hely), the former capital of the Szekler districts in Transylvania, now a province of Rumania, on the Maros 20 miles S. E. of Klausenburg; contains a fortified castle, an old Gothic church (Reformed), a library of 70,000 volumes, and a collection of minerals and antiquities, and has a trade in timber, tobacco, wine, corn, and fruits (particularly melons). Pop. about 25,000. MARQUESAS (mär-kā'säs) ISLANDS, a group in Polynesia, N. of Tuamotu or Low Archipelago; area, about 500 square miles. The name strictly applies to four or five islands discovered by Mendaña in 1595, but usually includes now the Washington group of seven islands to the N. W., which were discovered by the American Ingraham in 1791. The whole archipelago is volcanic. Hiva-oa and Nuka-hiva are the largest islands. Nearly all are shaped into several narrow valleys, in which the bulk of the population live. In Cook's time there were 100,000 inhabitants, but these had dwindled in 1920 to less than 3,000. They were perhaps the finest race of the brown Polynesian stock, and, though courteous, were cruel and revengeful. Since 1842 the islands have been a French protectorate.