In 1858, a Firman of the Sultan was issued announcing equality among all citizens and annulling the privileges of the feudal lords. As a result of this Firman, Maronites peasants in Kesrouan revolted against their Khazen lords and demanded social equality. Their leader Tanios Chahine was the first to issue proclamations on behalf of the " Lebanese Republic". The Maronite clergy, themselves poor, enlightened the peasants and crystallized their popular movement. The Patriarch and the European Consuls intervened to restore order and to return the lords to their homes after they had lost their feudal privileges(47).

The Turks and foreign powers conspired to rekindle the strife. Religious warfare flared up again in 1860 and caused great damage throughout Mount Lebanon.

Patriarch Boulos Massaad exerted tremendous efforts to stop the fighting, which had claimed the lives of thousands of Christians, especially Maronites. French troops entered Lebanon to restore peace and order; but what was done was done. Other European countries intervened as well and forced the Ottoman Empire to acknowledge the internal administrative autonomy of Mount Lebanon. To this end a Protocol was signed in 1861 by the representatives of the Ottoman Empire, England, France , Russia, Austria and Prussia. The Protocol, promulgated in 1864 and known as the Mutasarrifiat System, was a kind of federation between the Maronites and the other Lebanese sects.

In order to prevent any form of independence, the Ottomans requested to have Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon and the boroughs of Rashaya, Hasbaya and Bekaa under their direct control. Thus, the old Maanite and Chehabi Emirate was transformed into a small semi-autonomous district governed by a christian but non-native governor. It was only natural for the Maronites to oppose this hegemony.

Patriarch Boulos Massad demanded the appointment of a Lebanese ruler and objected to the partition of Lebanese regions. But his objections were unheeded. Up north, Youssef Bey Karam, the great Lebanese leader , waged a war against the new regime and fought 12 battles with the Ottomans hoping to achieve the independence of his country. The Maronites of the North bore a grudge against the Mutasarrifiat System and considered it an odious compromise falling short of the desired independence(48).

The peace which prevailed during this time led to a great renaissance in sciences, printing , journalism and letters. Once again, the Lebanese spearheaded a rich cultural movement that was in harmony with their long history of learning. The Maronite clergy, graduates of the Maronite school of Rome, had already paved the way for this intellectual renaissance. " By the end of the 19th century , Lebanon became the most advanced area in the whole Ottoman Empire in the fields of learning"(49).

We recall that in 1624, Patriarch Youhanna Makhlouf founded the first two schools of higher education in Haouqa and Bkarkash. The Synod, convened in Louaiizeh in 1736 to reorganize the Maronite Church, strongly recommended the building of schools to spread learning.

In 1789, Patriarch Youssef Estephan founded Ain Warka Maronite School to be the local counterpart of the Maronite School of Rome. Some of the graduates of this institute led the cultural renaissance in the 19th century.

Moreover, Patriarch Youhanna Al-Helou transformed the monasteries of Kfarhai (1812) and Roumieh (1817) into schools. Patriarch Youssef Hobeiche followed suit and transformed the monasteries of Mar Abda Herharya (1830) and Rayfoun (1832) into clerical institutes.

Despite the material prosperity, Mount Lebanon witnessed an active emigration especially among the Maronites, to Egypt, the Americas, West Africa and Australia. This emigration is a manifestation

of a fundamental reality in the history of the Lebanese people i.e. the vital dimension of the Lebanese is the world at large, not only to seek means of livelihood, but more importantly, to develop the humanitarian, intellectual and cultural aspects of life. The Lebanese soil molded the Lebanese personality and encouraged the Lebanese to be the heralds of peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the earth. The Lebanese emigrants succeeded in all the domains. They represent a strong and effective foundation for the continuity and progress of their homeland. This foundation would be stronger if Lebanese emigrants and Lebanese a home strengthened their ties , on a solid and practical basis. Such a relation would accelerate the organic affiliation utilized for the welfare of the Lebanese and humanity at large. The intellectual framework of this affiliation is rooted in the Lebanese cultural heritage which the Maronites embodied throughout their history. As the unrest of 1860 put an end to the Caimacamiat System, World War I, in which the Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Austria against the Allies, caused the collapse of the Mutasarrifiat System in Lebanon. This system was guaranteed by the major European powers combined.

The Lebanese suffered from Turkish atrocities and tyranny. The Maronites were persecuted. Jamal Pacha, commander of the fourth brigade in the Turkish army, tried to exterminate them either by genocide as in the case for the Armenians, or by famine. when locusts invaded Lebanon and all vegetable produce was destroyed, Jamal Pacha blocked the land and sea routes of aid sent to the Lebanese.

In order to alleviate this disaster the Lebanese maronite Order, headed by Abbe Ignatius Dagher, following the approval of Apostolic Consulate and the Maronite Patriarchate, pawned, all its properties in lieu of 1,000,000 gold francs paid by the French Government. The French governor of Arwad Island arranged the mortgage. This sum of money was sent to Lebanon in installments via special routes and distributed over the poor to protect them against famine. When the war was over, the French Government declined to claim the loan or even to confiscate the property of the Lebanese Maronite Order because, as declared by President Clemenceau: " The French Government did not want to be less generous than a Community of 600 members"(51). (meaning the Maronite Order).

Jamal Pacha tried to kill the Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoayek, who struggled to save his people from the tyrant. Jamal Pacha, hoping to separate the Head (the Patriarch) from the Body (the people), summoned the Patriarch to Aley in order to humiliate him, exile him to Syria, and ultimately to liquidate him. The news caused great commotion in Lebanon and abroad.

Sensing the danger threatening the Maronite Patriarch, Pope Benedictus XV asked the Austrian Emperor to intervene with his ally the Ottoman Sultan on behalf of the Patriarch. The Ottoman Sultan obliged his ally and Jamal Pacha stopped harassing the Maronite Patriarch.

Following the triumph of the allies in 1918, Lebanon was liberated from four centuries of Ottoman hegemony. The four years of war had claimed the lives of one third of the Lebanese. The Peace Conference held in Paris on January 18, 1919, was supposed to adopt president Wilson's principle of the right of nations in autodetermination. The Lebanese who lost important parts of their country, felt that it was time for them to materialize their grand dream of establishing Great Lebanon.

The Administrative Council of Mount Lebanon, which represented all Lebanese sects during the Mutasarrifiat System, met on December 1,1918 and decided to send a delegation to the Peace Conference. The delegation was "to request the restoration of Lebanon as it was known historically and geographically, taking into consideration the economic welfare of the nation". The delegation was formed of seven members and headed by Daoud Ammoun, the chairman of the Administrative Council. Ammoun presented the requests of the Administrative Council before the conference on February 13, 1919. When Ammoun did not receive a final promise to enact these demands, he returned to Lebanon , summoned the Administrative Council on May 20, 1919 and issued a proclamation affirming " the political and administrative independence of Lebanon in its historical and geographical boundaries including the previously usurped parts.

On June 4, 1919 the Lebanese demonstrated by demanding the dispatch of another delegation to the Peace Conference in Paris, this time to be headed by the Maronite Patriarch. On June 16, 1919 the Administrative Council delegated the Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoayek to head the second Lebanese delegation to the Peace Conference. The decision was seconded by requests sent to the patriarchal seat in Bkerki, calling on the Patriarch to represent all the Lebanese in the Peace Conference.

Heading a large delegation , the Patriarch left for Italy from the Port of Jounieh aboard a French naval vessel. On October 25, 1919 (the Mandate had already been decided ) he arrived in Paris and submitted to the Conference a memorandum requesting " the recognition of Lebanon's independence ..., the restoration of Lebanon in its full natural and historical borders including the regions usurped by Turkey ... andfor a French Mandate in Lebanon granting the inalienable rights of the Lebanese to ultimate sovereignty"(53). On November 10, 1919, the French Prime Minister Clemenceau wrote to Patriarch Hoayek confirming France's approval of the demands submitted by the Maronite Patriarch. Upon his return to Lebanon, Patriarch Hoayek, the Administrative Council agreed to send a third delegation headed by the Patriarchal Vicar, Bishop Abdullah El-Khoury , "to continue the efforts at the Peace Conference to get the previous demands enacted". These demands contradicted the Arab Prince Faysal's demands to get the French government to recognize him as King over Great Syria. Bishop El-Khoury succeeded in his mission.

On August 31, 1920 a decree proclaimed the "restoration of Lebanon in its historical and geographical boundaries". On September 1, 1920, General Gouraud, surrounded by Patriarch Elias Hoayek on his right and Mufti Mustafa Naja on his left, announced to the multitude of political and religious leaders the creation of the "State of Great Lebanon".

On September 1, 1920 Lebanon was restored to its historical and geographical boundaries The Maronites, and all the Lebanese who cherished similar aspirations, achieved their great and long fought-for objective. This objective has governed their relations with the rest of the world in as it has directed their historical march.

What was achieved on September 1, was not only a physical entity but a cultural and spiritual dimension nourished by the Lebanese soil and values. The "Maronite Nations's" existential commitment to the values of the land has rendered it a "Geographical Nation" synonymous with the cultural precepts of the "Lebanese Nation".

The Maronite Patriarchate, confirming the relationships between the physical, temporal, moral and cultural existence of the Maronites and the Lebanese terrain, adopted the motto: " The Glory of Lebanon is given unto Him". This motto is the testimony of faith in Lebanon as a whole , for Lebanon cannot be but a whole. Moreover, the motto is a firm testimony of an everlasting Maronite Faith in Lebanon as the land of freedom, of values, the Land of Man. At the conclusion of this study I should summarize the main points which determined some of the features of the intellectual and spiritual Maronite culture which guided the historical Maronite march:

1- Commitment of the Maronites to a Christian message deriving its content from the teachings of the Universal Church which were set by the first Church councils and well comprehended by the Maronite Church of Antioch, particularly the teachings of the Chalcedonian Council which stressed the double nature of Christ.

2- Complete loyalty of the Maronites to the successors of St. Peter in the Apostolic See holding to characteristics of their cultural entity and personality. They are committed to a unifying open role embracing all Christians especially those of the Orient .

3-Open-mindedness to others and accepting these others even though they may have different opinions, cultures or ideologies. This tolerance emanates from the principle of respecting other people's opinions and from a historical awareness of the meaning of freedom.

4- Commitment of the Maronites to a historical role in fulfilling the message of their ancestors in the operation of getting the East closer to the West and to real open-mindedness to all sources of mind and spirit.

5- The Maronite link to the soil because the soil is the basis of existence and essence. In its distinct features, the soil molded their instinct, polished their personality and determined the features of their identity.

6-Commitment of the Maronites to a historical trend which derives from continuity and constancy and is at the same time marked be steadfastness, elasticity and open-mindedness.

7- Throughout their long history , the Maronites have heroically defended a free existence, in a land which protected their freedom and ideology in a message of love and coherence among peoples. To end this recital of fifteen centuries of Maronite history, during which general truths have been effectively revealed, attested and confirmed by a struggle between men, between ideologies and between religions, each claiming a monopoly of truth, we wish to remark that there is also much substance in the observation of Lecomte de Nouy:

"Truth is on the summit of a mountain and all religions are roads that wind to attain it. All of them will reach the summit, provided they ascend." To reach it, a Saint of th Lebanese Mountain, Sharbel Makhlouf, has borne witness to this centuries-old Maronite faith by climbing along the most direct road, the shortest but also the most arduous.

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